What’s Food Got to Do
with Spirituality?

In the 1920s Paramhansa Yogananda sailed the sea from India to America to bring the much-needed teachings of Self-Realisation to his Western brothers. Although the core of his mission was to initiate thirsty souls into the ancient practice of kriya yoga, his teachings reach far beyond the confines of meditation and spiritual practices to embrace every aspect of our life. The reason for this is simple and practical: Yogananda says that, although we are in essence souls, man is a triune being, and all three aspects of our nature — physical, psychological and spiritual — need to be developed harmoniously together in order to reach our goal of Self-realisation. Even if we meditate and practice other spiritual disciplines for several hours a day, our spiritual progress will be slow if the physical and psychological aspects of our nature are neglected.

For our physical development Yogananda emphasised a well-balanced and healthy vegetarian diet, along with plenty of exercise, fresh air and sunshine. The actual extent to which Yogananda underlined the importance of proper diet is still, as yet, widely unknown, even to devotees who have followed his teachings for many years. Just to give an idea, each one of Yogananda’s Praecepta lessons (weekly lessons written for his students containing the teachings of Self-Realisation) contains a whole section on health and diet, along with several delicious recipes of his own creation (Yes, Yogananda was also a great cook and enjoyed cooking for his family and disciples!). In these lessons subjects were addressed such as, the importance of alkalinising the body, the effect of too many carbohydrates, how to fast and get rid of toxins, the importance of colon cleansing and the nutritional benefits of specific foods.

According to Yogananda, a well-balanced diet consists of plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as a variety of whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes and other nutritious foods from Mother Nature’s garden. Healthy vegetarian food needn’t be tasteless or dull: The Ananda kitchen is living proof of this! Every year thousands of satisfied guests and residents enjoy the delicious food that is created in our kitchen. Cooking with Ananda, a collection of over 200 Ananda recipes (soon to be published together with an equally-as-large theoretical section on proper diet), is one of the ways in which we try to support those who would like to be able to cook well-balanced and nutritious meals in the same creative way at home. For those who of you who like to learn by watching others, however, we have also created vegetarian weekend cooking courses.

Although Yogananda gives a great emphasis to the importance of proper diet for physical health, yogic philosophy also teaches that the food we eat has a direct influence on our thoughts and, consequentially, on our actions and behaviour. There are foods that generate pure, positive and balanced thoughts and feelings, foods that favour restlessness, hyperactivity and attachment, and foods that induce one towards laziness, narrow-mindedness, unwillingness and the inability to reflect. Choosing foods that calm the mind and help us to reflect the inherent soul qualities within us can be an effective tool for spiritual growth. This subject is addressed in the weekend cooking course, Food for Yogis and Meditators, as well as the theoretical section of the soon-to-be-published extended version of Cooking with Ananda.

The good news is that, in general, foods that promote health and well-being for your body also have a calming and beneficial effect on your mind, meaning that there are not two new ways of eating to learn, but only one! The diet that Yogananda proposes is, in fact, a very happy marriage between Spirit and Matter!