"RAW FOOD" The Sole Of Good Health

1. More Energy

One of the biggest raw food benefits is having more energy and feeling younger. Raw food contains simple sugars, enzymes, nutrients, and minerals that our bodies need in an easily digestible form.

2. Easier & Faster Digestion

Raw foods contain living enzymes that help your body digest food quickly and easily. These enzymes are destroyed when food is cooked above 118 degrees Fahrenheit. When you eat a big cooked meal, a large amount of energy is required to digest the meal. With raw food, digestion & elimination are quick and easy.

3. Lots of Fiber and Naturally Detoxes Your Body

Raw food assists in naturally detoxing your body. When you eat plenty of raw foods, you're getting lots of fiber, allowing your body to release mucus, toxins, and accumulated waste. When you eat clean food (fresh fruits and veggies), your body can focus on detoxing, instead of having to focus on digesting unhealthy, artificially processed, dead, and packaged foods. Good health requires good elimination?and fiber assists in that process.

4. More Nutritional Value than Cooked Foods

Foods cooked above 118F will lose enzymes, nutrients, minerals and vitamins. You can compare the energy that surrounds living food to the energy that surrounds cooked/dead food using Kirlian photography. Living foods have more energy, which can be seen with Kirlian photography.

Mudras for Pranayama

1. Chin Mudra

This mudra helps gain control of the lower parts of the lungs in Adham pranayama. Join the tips of the thumb and index finger in as perfect circle as possible. The other three fingers should be kept parallel to one another. Place the Mudra on the thighs and breathe deeply.

2. Chinmaya Mudra

This mudra helps us to breathe better into the middle sections of the lungs in Madhyam pranayama. Join the tips of the index finger and thumb as in Chin Mudra and then curl the other three fingers into the palm. Place the Mudra on the thighs and breathe deeply.

3. Nasarga Mudra

This mudra manipulates the nostrils to control the breath through a single nostril at a time. Turn the index and middle fingers down in against the bridge of the nose with the thumb against the right nostril. The ring and little finger are placed against the left nostril. This is also known as the Nasika Mudra and is used in the alternate nostril breathings practices.

4. Brahma Mudra

This mudra is used in the performance of complete yogic breathing in which we consciously breathe in different lung sections. Make both hands into a fist with the thumb inside the fist. Now hold both hands with the opposing knuckles touching each other in front of the navel and breathe deeply.

5. Adhi Mudra

The upper regions of the lungs are especially utilized when we breathe in the Adhyam pranayama with the Adhi Mudra. Close all the four fingers in a fist over the thumb. Place the mudra on the thigh and breath deeply.

6. Vishnu Mudra

Vishnu Mudra is a hand position with the tip of the middle finger on the point between the eyebrows at the root of the nose. This point is known as the Bhrumadhya Bindu and is related to the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus of the neuro-endocrine system. The index finger closes the right nostril while the ring finger closes the left nostril. The thumb and little finger are spread into a wide "V" shape. This is an excellent mudra for the practice of the alternate nostril and single nostril pranayamas as it has added advantage of focusing the mind on the Bhrumadhya.

7. Jihva Mudra

Relax the lower jaw, and slightly open the mouth, so that the tongue may be rolled into a trough-like "V". This is called the Jihva Mudra or Tongue Gesture. Fold the tongue backwards and press the tip of the tongue by the hard palate, leaving narrow openings on either side of the tongue. This is used by in Sitkari pranayama.

Why it is Difficult to change our Food Habits?

The food we eat is the result of habitual conditioning. It is not just the issue of individual food preference. It is something that is handed down for generations in a family, caste or community. That is why you cannot change the food habits of people, just by asking them to do so. To be able to shift your choice of food, it requires an enormous shift in  other  areas  of  your  life  also. 

Every person eats because of the level of consciousness he is in - he eats a certain kind of food, in a certain kind of way, and he likes it to  be  the  same. If you give me what I ate as a child, I simply cannot eat it now, because there is a shift in consciousness. And whatever was sweet at that time. 

How does one bring a change in food habits? -  Why are people  able to  shift  their  food  habits in  SSY? It all depends on your state of consciousness. To be able to shift your food habits requires a shift in your consciousness. I have seen many naturopathy practitioners advise their clients to change the kind of food they eat. But the same people eat wholly cooked food at home. What sense does it make to tell others to make a shift, when you  are  incapable of doing the same? Most naturopathy doctors believe that - raw food diet and fasting is a therapy - it need not be a consistent practice. But, we know now, that daily consumption of raw food is essential for good health.  It is something that we must eat and enjoy eating. 

However, people go to naturopathy hospital with no such orientation. And out there, nobody is allowed to bring in any food. They are not allowed to get out  and under very strict conditions and great pressure, they succeed temporarily to  change  the  diet  of  this person. No wonder then, that as soon as this person leaves the hospital, he heads for junk food with a vengeance. This is not natural living - natural living cannot happen through a ten-day stay in a naturopathy hospital. The key is - ‘You must have the freedom to eat, and yet you should not eat unhealthy food. 

The freedom to eat what you want to eat, and what you want itself must change, rather than restricting  the  food.’ Everybody is trying to restrict themselves - they crave for certain foods, but consume something else, and call it a diet. “I am dieting” which means that, “I have changed my food with great difficulty - I am eating something, which I don't want to eat.” When you eat what you don't want to eat, it is called dieting; but, if you  eat what you want to eat, you are eating the food your choice. This is when it is the food that you naturally choose, and, life is set in a new and healthy pattern. It becomes a part of your life and there is no need  to diet. 

So, what you want, and how to shift what you want is important. In the Siddha Samadhi Yoga Program - SSY, a clear understanding takes place about what are the advantages of these natural foods. In addition a change takes place on the Panch Koshas (Our five subtle  bodies) all five levels of our being are cleansed and a shift in our consciousness takes place. Here, one begins to see life in a new light. Thus, it becomes easy to imbibe this new shift in eating healthy foods and it stays with you as  a part of your lifestyle. 

- By Guruji Shri Rishi Prabhakar