Conscious Living
Jogyata Dallas first came into contact with his spiritual Master, Sri Chinmoy, in 1980 after attending a free meditation workshop in South Australia. In 1983 he moved back to his native New Zealand and, with his Irish born wife Subarata, is a founding member of the The New Zealand Sri Chinmoy Centre.
He has been a vegetarian since the late 1970s, has taught meditation all over the world, leads an active life with a deep fondness for running. Jogyata is also a talented writer and his homepage offers some wonderful articles on a variety of inspiring topics which include personal experiences and observations, anecdotes and poetry. One article, Conscious Living, offers thoughtful insights into the spiritual value of a vegetarian diet. This is the opening paragraph:
While many people choosing a vegetarian diet do so primarily for reasons of health or animal ethics, another viewpoint favouring both vegan and vegetarian nutrition is demonstrated in the lifestyle of many practitioners of meditation and supported by a persuasive body of spiritual teachings.
Jogyata goes on to write about how many of humanities spiritual teachers have taught that our diet has an impact on the development of our consciousness. And not just food, but many of the things that we surround ourselves with – colour, music, personal habits and so forth. On the spiritual value of vegetarianism, he offers this excerpt from Sri Chinmoy’s writings:
Comments spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy, whose 7,000 meditation students worldwide are all vegetarian and often vegan;
“The vegetarian diet plays a most important role in the spiritual life. Purity is of paramount importance for an aspirant. This purity we must establish in the physical, the vital and the mental. When we eat meat and fish, the animal consciousness enters into us – our nerves become more agitated and restless, and this can interfere with our meditation. But the mild qualities of fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, help us to establish in our inner life as well as in our outer life, the qualities of sweetness, softness, simplicity and purity. So, if we are vegetarians, it helps our inner being to strengthen its own existence. Inwardly, we are praying and meditating; outwardly, the food we are taking from Mother Earth is helping us too, giving us not only energy but also aspiration.”
One argument that is often heard against a vegetarian diet is that we loose strength if we don’t eat meat. Perhaps it would be fairer to say that we lose aggression, but is what we eat the only thing that adds to or takes away our strength? Jogyata offers a broader view:
Many people feel that eating meat gives them strength and nutrients unavailable to people on a vegetarian diet. But nutritional research does not support this view – indeed, a growing body of credible research supports the opposite point of view. Often, too, even one’s ideas about meat – the power of the mind! – confer strength. But as Sri Chinmoy comments,
“It is not meat but the spiritual energy pervading one’s body that gives one strength. That energy comes from meditation as well as from proper nourishment. The strength that one can get from aspiration and meditation is infinitely more powerful than the strength one can get from meat.”
Read the full article: Conscious Living – by Jogyata Dallas.
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