Eating Junk food and Spiritual Kamai

Sadh Sangat Jee,

I wish to ask the question if one were to regularely eat junk food and while at the same time do their Nitnem, Simran etc, would this Sikh lose his or her spritual kamai? I know that indulging in physcial lust will lose one's spiritual wealth, but what about lust of the tongue. Do the 5 theives steal rob such a person who eats tasty junk food?

My second question is, what is the remedy to cure lust of the tongue?

Thanks for your help.

Every worldly Rass and entertainment is "Dooja Bhaao" (Love other than Vaheguru). This does not mean that a Gursikh has to deliberately eat bad tasting food but what it means is that whatever food comes in naturally, through Gurmat means of cooking, should be acceptable to a Gursikh. Another side effect of constantly indulging yourself in tasty foods is that diseases come to you:

ਬਹੁ ਸਾਦਹੁ ਦੂਖੁ ਪਰਾਪਤਿ ਹੋਵੈ ॥ ਭੋਗਹੁ ਰੋਗ ਸੁ ਅੰਤਿ ਵਿਗੋਵੈ ॥
(From too many tastes, sorrow is gained. From worldly pleasures, diseases come and such person regrets in the end).

Quote

My second question is, what is the remedy to cure lust of the tongue?

The cure is twofold. Firstly, using the Gurmat Gyaan from Gurbani, the mind should be taught not to indulge in the tastes of the body. At this point, a manual effort has to be made to not indulge in worldly pleasures. Keeping Bibek and not eating from outside in restuarants and abstaining from eating Manmukhi foods like meat, eggs etc., for the most part, takes care worldy pleasures related to tongue. Occasionally eating good food, within the constraints of Gurmat, is not a sinful activity, nor it reduces Kamaaee. What can be more tasty than Degh? Guru Sahib has allowed Degh, which proves that Gursikhs are not prohibited to eat good food, as long as it is within the constraints of Gurmat. In Siri Guru Angad Dev jee's Langar, Mata Kheevi jee used to serve the most tasty Kheer with Gheo in it. But this food was also full of spiritual food of Naam and Gurbani. Such food can't be wrong and taking lead from this, if a Gursikh cooks tasty food, within the constraints of Gurmat, it's not a sin or one does not lose Kamaaee this way.

Many people want Sarblohi Bibeki Gursikhs to just eat tasteless and poor food. Most of the people who say so have no experience of keeping Sarbloh Bibek or they are single or their children are not Sarblohi Bibeki. When you practically keep Sarbloh Bibek along with your whole family, then one ought to keep in mind that children are children and to force them to eat food without salt, sugar or otherwise tasteless food, is very counterproductive. Many times such children who are deprived of good food, eat non-Bibeki food secretly. We have seen that a lot of Sarblohi Gursikhs don't make their children Sarblohi Bibeki and when their children grow up, they end up not keeping this Rehit. Sure, simple food is good to eat but this should not be forced upon others. There is nothing wrong in eating a little bit of rich food, as long as one stays within the constraints of Gurmat. So Sarblohi Laddoos or Ghulaab-Jamuns are okay to eat, on Gurpurab days.

Simultaneously, one should devour the spiritual foods - Naam, Gurbani Paath and Gurbani Kirtan; which bring one to such state that the worldly tastes and pleasures feel tasteless.

Guru Sahib knows better.

Kulbir Singh

Nothing wrong in eating tasty foods as long as we can control the quantities being consumed, this is the tricky part. Paracelsus summed it up wonderfully 'substances considered toxic are harmless in small doses, and conversely an ordinarily harmless substance can be deadly if over-consumed'. This analogy can be applied to the foods we eat as well. Drinking too much water for example can also lead to death.

Doing Julam daily on our stomachs through over eating and no exercise is where us Sikhs are failing.

Not easy:

ਜਿਤਨੀ ਭੂਖ ਅਨ ਰਸ ਸਾਦ ਹੈ ਤਿਤਨੀ ਭੂਖ ਫਿਰਿ ਲਾਗੈ ॥: The more one feels hunger for other tastes and pleasures, the more this hunger persists (sggs 167).


solution :

ਨਾਨਕ ਭੁਖਾ ਤਾ ਰਜੈ ਜਾ ਗੁਣ ਕਹਿ ਗੁਣੀ ਸਮਾਇ ॥O Nanak, hunger is relieved only when one utters the Divine Praises and become one with that Divinity (sggs 147).

When your hungry really really hungry - try 5 paaths of Japji and then see how hungry you feel after that

ns44 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not easy:
>
> ਜਿਤਨੀ ਭੂਖ ਅਨ ਰਸ ਸਾਦ
> ਹੈ ਤਿਤਨੀ ਭੂਖ ਫਿਰਿ
> ਲਾਗੈ ॥: The more one feels hunger for
> other tastes and pleasures, the more this hunger
> persists (sggs 167).
>
>
> solution :
>
> ਨਾਨਕ ਭੁਖਾ ਤਾ ਰਜੈ ਜਾ
> ਗੁਣ ਕਹਿ ਗੁਣੀ ਸਮਾਇ ॥O
> Nanak, hunger is relieved only when one utters the
> Divine Praises and become one with that Divinity
> (sggs 147).
>
> When your hungry really really hungry - try 5
> paaths of Japji and then see how hungry you feel
> after that


Or we can just eat, and then Do those 5 Jap Ji Sahibs using full Dyaan

"When your hungry really really hungry -
try 5 paaths of Japji and then see how
hungry you feel after that"

why is there a tendency to starve yourself? what good does that even do?

I have seen when one eats little and sleeps little, doing Bhagti in such a state is much better. When you eat too much it's hard to do simran in a full stomach or when you eat too many tasty foods, then you repeatedly thinking of tasty foods when doing Paath or Simran. Plus, I have heard that certain ingredients that make food tasty(like Mirch, lassan) should be avoided in your food because they might enhance or encourage negative emotions like Kaam and Krodh.

JaspreetSingh Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "When your hungry really really hungry -
> try 5 paaths of Japji and then see how
> hungry you feel after that"
>
> why is there a tendency to starve yourself?
> what good does that even do?


Veer jeeo my comments were merely to highlight that if one does Gurbani when reall hungry - hunger pangs DIMINISH - it's a known fact my suggestion was to just try it as a practical. This is due to the hsc13 asking the second question above "My second question is, what is the remedy to cure lust of the tongue?"

As usual everytime I comment on this forum - my comments go out of context and all sorts of shaningans appear starve or not starve - eat swaad or eat gheeo no matter what you do - we all know that as Khalsa we have to do Sanjam in everthing whether it's food -talk or whatever. Easy said than done I'll be the first to admit.

However one thing is of extreme importance if one does exercise on a continous basis the mind becomes mindful and the desire for junk food will natuarlly go down due too being aware of a gut wrenching 1 hour sweaty workout the indviudual been through. However our Gurdwaras will not take note of this and help anyone in this area - there is more focus on consumption of food rather than saving it or giving it to charity or even eating the right foods. Another example is the alumnium utensil we use - it's sceintific fact that it cause long term illness cooking in aluminum yet we still don't use sarbloh iron utensils. The goras of the western world have actually started cooking in iron utensils - just last week i was chatting to a gora couple who were in full of awe of a top restraunt they had been to in london and it was due to the way they kicked their food - in iron!

ns44 jee - good points. The over consumption of food at Gurdwarai and the reluctance to "share" with those who are actually starving...etc is very much a serious problem in the UK. Haha, eating healthy foods and aluminium use - are yet more issues that Gurdwarai do not seem to want to address

rsingh jee - I remember a good discussion started by Veer Jaspreet Singh jee with regards to Tarrqaa and Mirchaan which unfortunately did not get fully discussed. Veer jee mentioned how there is over use of it in many punjabee cooking to which i totally agree. One can find that discussion >> HERE

Getting back to the point though - With "junk" food i am assuming things along the lines of crisps, chocolate...etc (please correct if i have misunderstood) - who knows what has gone in to it to produce it. It is much easier to stay away from it then be informed that some of these foods have non gurmat ingredients in them and then have to present yourself in front of the Punj pyarai for pesh and to explain to them that you could not control the lustful tongue.

All i know is that presenting yourself in front of the Punj Pyarai was the most terrifying experience i have ever had, that in itself should be enough not to make a mistake.

End point - make food yourself, it is not that hard and pretty simple (rice, dhaal, subjee, roteea and dhaleeiaa are all pretty much straightforward). If you are so adament that you need this form of junk food (crisps, chips and chocolate) then make it yourself with raw ingredients.

Wahegurrooo

What about machine made food like some beverages.