HATHA YOGA/PART 8
CHAPTER 8.
NOURISHMENT
The human body is constantly undergoing change. Atoms of
bone, tissue, flesh, muscle, fat and fluids are constantly being worn-out and
removed from the system, and new atoms are constantly being manufactured in the
wonderful laboratory of the body, and then sent to take the place of the
worn-out and discarded material.
Let us consider the physical body of man and its
mechanism, as a plant— and, indeed, it is akin to the life of the plant in its
nature. What does the plant require to bring it up from seed to sprout, from
sprout to plant, with flower, seed and fruit? The answer is simple—fresh air,
sunlight, water, and nourishing soil—these things, and all of them, must it
have in order to grow to healthy maturity. And Man's physical body requires
just the same things—all of them—in order to be healthy, strong and normal.
Remember the requisites—fresh air, sunlight, water and food. We will consider
the matter of air, sunlight and water in other chapters, and will consider the
matter of nourishing food first.
Just as the plant grows slowly, but steadily, so does
this great work of discarding worn-out material and the substitution of new
material go on constantly, day and night. We are not conscious of this mighty
work, as it belongs to that great subconscious part of Man's nature—it is a
part of the work of the Instinctive Mind.
The whole of the body, and all its parts, depend for
health, strength and vigor upon this constant renewal of material. If this
renewal were stopped disintegration and death would ensue. The replacing of the
worn-out and discarded material is an imperative necessity of our organism,
and, therefore, is the first thing to be considered when we think of the
Healthy Man.
The keynote of this subject of food in the Hatha Yoga
Philosophy is the Sanscrit word, the English equivalent of which is "NOURISHMENT.”
We print the word in capital letters that it may make an impression upon your
minds.
We wish our students to associate the thought of Food
with the thought of Nourishment.
To the Yogi, food does not mean something to
tickle the abnormal palate, but instead it means, first, Nourishment, second, NOURISHMENT, and
third, NOURISHMENT. Nourishment first, last and always.
To many of the Western people, the ideal Yogi is a lean,
lank, scrawny, half-starved, emaciated being, who thinks so little of food that
he goes for days without eating—one who considers food to be too
"material” for his "spiritual nature.” Nothing can be farther from
the truth. The Yogis, at least those who are well-grounded in Hatha Yoga,
regard Nourishment as his first duty towards his body, and he is always careful
to keep that body properly nourished, and to see that the supply of new, fresh
material is always at least equal to the worn-out and discarded matter.
It is quite true that the Yogi is not a gross eater, nor
is he inclined to rich and fancy dishes. On the contrary, he smiles at the
folly of such things, and goes to his plain and nourishing meal, knowing that
he will obtain there full nourishment without the waste and harmful matter
contained in the more elaborate dishes of his brother who is ignorant of the
real meaning of food.
A maxim of Hatha Yoga is: "It is not what a man eats, but the amount that he assimilates, that nourishes him."
There is a world of wisdom in this old maxim, and it contains that which
writers upon health subjects have taken volumes to express.
We will show you, later
on, the Yogi method of extracting the maximum amount of nourishment from the
minimum amount of food. The Yogi method lies in the middle of the road, the two
opposite sides of which road are traveled, respectively, by the two differing Western
schools, namely the "food-stuffers" and "starvationists,"
each of whom loudly proclaim the merits of their own cult and decry the claims
of the opposing sect. The simple Yogi may be pardoned for smiling good
naturedly at the disputes raging between those who, preaching the necessity of
sufficient nutrition, teach that "stuffing" is necessary to obtain
it, on the one hand; and at those of the opposing school, who, recognizing the
folly of "stuffing" and overeating, have no remedy to offer but a
semi-starvation, accompanied with long continued fasts, which, of course, has brought
many of its followers down to weakened bodies, impaired vitality, and even
death.
To the Yogi, the evils of mal-nutrition, on the one hand,
and over-eating on the other, do not exist—these questions have been settled
for him centuries ago by the old Yogi fathers, whose very names have been
almost forgotten by their followers of to-day.
Remember, now, please, once and for all, that Hatha Yoga
does not advocate the plan of starving oneself, but, on the contrary, knows and
teaches that no human body can be strong and healthy unless it is properly
nourished by sufficient food eaten and assimilated. Many delicate, weak and
nervous people owe their impaired vitality and diseased condition to the fact
that they do not obtain sufficient nourishment.
Remember, also, that Hatha Yoga rejects as ridiculous the
theory that Nourishment is obtained from "stuffing,” gorging, or
over-eating, and views with wonder and pity these attributes of the glutton,
and sees nothing in these practices but the manifestation of the attributes of
the unclean swine, utterly unworthy of the developed man.
To the Yogi understanding Man should eat to live—not live
to eat.
The Yogi is an epicure, rather than a gourmand, for while
eating the plainest food he has cultivated and encouraged his natural and
normal taste so that his hunger imparts to these simple viands a relish sought
after, but not obtained, by those who hunt after rich and expensive triumphs of
the chef. While eating for
Nourishment as his main object, he manages to make his food yield him a
pleasure unknown to his brother who scorns the simple fare.
In our next chapter we will take up the subject of Hunger
and Appetite— two entirely different attributes of the physical body, although
to most persons the two appear to mean almost the same thing.
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