221 - Don’t Abuse Your Material Body - Moderation In Yoga (“Path of Perfection” Chapter 4)

Although we are suggesting that this body is useless and is a form of contamination, we are not recommending that it be abused. We may use a car to carry us to work, but this does not mean that we should not take care of the car. We should take care of the car for it to carry us to and fro, but we should not become so attached to it that we are polishing it every day. We must utilize this material body in order to execute Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and to this end we should keep it fit and healthy, but we should not become too attached to it. That is called yukta-vairāgya. The body should not be neglected. We should bathe regularly, eat regularly, sleep regularly in order to keep mind and body healthy. Some people say that the body should be renounced and that we should take some drugs and abandon ourselves to intoxication, but this is not a yoga process. Kṛṣṇa has given us nice food – fruits, grains, vegetables, and milk – and we can prepare hundreds and thousands of nice preparations and offer them to the Lord. Our process is to eat kṛṣṇa-prasāda and to satisfy the tongue in that way. But we should not be greedy and eat dozens of samosās, sweetballs, and rasagullās. No. We should eat and sleep just enough to keep the body fit, and no more. It is stated, yuktāhāra-vihārasya yukta-ceṣṭasya karmasu yukta-svapnāvabodhasya yogo bhavati duḥkha-hā “He who is regulated in his habits of eating, sleeping, recreation, and work can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.” (Bhagavad-gītā 6.17) Although we should minimize our eating and sleeping, we should not attempt this too rapidly, at the risk of becoming sick. Because people are accustomed to eating voraciously, there are prescriptions for fasting. We can reduce our sleeping and eating, but we should remain in good health for spiritual purposes ••• read with us: biglink.to/pathofperfection & check out our website for the catalogue of all the books we’ve read so far and some other interesting things www.sravanamdiaries.com