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Eating right extends far beyond what’s on the menu (See May & June Archives for Parts 1 & 2, entitled 'Eating right extends far beyond what's on the menu') Earlier, as a commentary on the delicious menu at Maharishi University of Management, a three-part article on eating and food appeared in Excellence in Action. This article probed into the deeper values related to eating. Part one, drawing on points from Maharishi’s book, The Science of Being and Art of Living, brought out to students that the quality of one’s mind at the time of eating directly affects the influencew the food produces. Maharishi’s Commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita provides additional depth of knowledge. It describes the importance of the purpose of cooking and eating, and how this affects one’s mind. Maharishi: ‘ The quality of food directly affects the quality of the mind. It depends on many factors, such as the materials themselves and the manner in which they were earned, whether this was legal or illegal, and also the manner of cooking and its purpose.’ Commenting on Chapter 3, verse 13, Maharishi elaborates on Lord Krishna’s description that the purpose of cooking food and eating should be an offering to God. Maharishi: ‘He says that if the food is cooked to be offered to God and eaten by a man after the offering has been performed, then the man enjoys the blessings of God by means of that food; and thus the mind produced by such food will be pious, progressive and graceful. Such a mind will certainly be quite naturally outside the sphere of sin.’ The act of offering occurs naturally in Cosmic Consciousness Maharishi emphasizes that the act of offering is not on the level of making a mood of offering, but actually occurs naturally through the practice of Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation Technique. Through the process of transcending and knowing one’s Self—the comic level of bliss consciousness—one realizes one’s activity as separate from one’s Self. When one knows one’s Self as separate from activity, then one does not take action as one’s own doing. Instead, every action is spontaneously an offering to the impulses of creative intelligence, total Natural Law, which is silently carrying out all action. Maharishi explains that this is the state of continual offering. Activity continues in the sphere of relative life, while the Self remains separate in freedom of the Absolute. This is the state of absolute freedom and fulfilment in Cosmic Consciousness, which evolves naturally through the practice of Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme. In this state, every action is connected to cosmic purpose and, therefore, only produces life-supporting effects. Every action is has the support of total Natural Law, which administers the universe. The purpose of action should be cosmic—connection with total Natural Law Maharishi explains that as one connects oneself with the unbounded status of the Absolute and establishs one's self in bliss consciousness, one naturally rises above all sin. Maharishi defines sin as ‘that which causes suffering’. One can get out of ‘sin’ and suffering, only when one has become permanently established in the eternal freedom of absolute Being. Through the practice of Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation Technique, the mind naturally comes in contact with its infinite status of unbounded bliss consciousness. When a person has established this eternal connection with the Self in Cosmic Consciousness, then one enjoys the cosmic purpose of cooking, eating, and of all one's actions. Maharishi: ‘Through all his activity he produces life-supporting influences in nature because, having gained freedom from activity, his actions belong to the dignity of cosmic life. They fulfil the cosmic purpose of evolution….’ On a practical level, this attunement with the Absolute level of life enlivens the unlimited ability to fulfil one’s desires. Maharishi: ‘By attuning the mind with it, one finds great intelligence, energy, happiness, and harmony and, possessed of these, no limit to the fulfilment of desires’. In the Science of Being and Art of Living, Maharishi suggests that a prayer of offering be said before one eats. This offering reminds one of the purpose of eating. It has a good effect, creating ‘a frame of mind inspired by the thought of God and his service and a feeling of gratitude’. ‘In Thy fullness my Lord Through their regular practice of Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme, students of Consciousness-Based Education naturally become established in the comic purpose of all action. These students elevate their life far beyond the small boundaries of daily life and enjoy a level of fulfilment attuned with total Natural Law. They live their cosmic reality—‘I am the Totality.’ Copyright © 2007 Global Good News(sm) Service
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