Balance and Harmony in Relation to Food and the Nourishment of the Body

It is a human trait. We tend to oscillate between extremes. Too much, or too little, seems to be our method of living. Wise men, sages and Rishis throughout the ages have counseled ‘moderation in all things’, the ‘middle way’, the way of ‘balance’. These tenets for living are also helpful in our understanding of our physical body and its proper maintenance.

Too much eating frequently occurs nowadays through inattention, social pressure, or through habit. We see people who eat while watching television, watching a movie in a theater, attending a sporting event or who are scrolling on their mobile phones, without monitoring or controlling portion size. They are not paying attention to what they are eating, nor how much they are eating. It is a mechanical reflex that occurs while the mind is occupied elsewhere. In many cases, there is a subtle pressure to join with family and friends in a social eating event, such as a holiday meal or some form of celebration. Many times guests are plied with food beyond reasonable limits to show some form of welcoming goodwill. In some cases, food becomes a substitute for other forms of desire that are being suppressed, such as when sexual energy is repressed and the social environment provides no outlet for that force, and it has not been transformed or transmuted. In such cases, we see the vital pressure channeled into eating food. In some cultures, the social status of a heavy weight represents financial success, and thus, is seen as positive. In other cultures, particularly those that consumer large amounts of highly processed foods that are inexpensive, overweight is a sign of lack of wealth rather than prosperity.

There is often a greed for food that is either based in former experience, social pressure, or in becoming accustomed to food that builds some form of ‘addictive’ response within the being. A major snack food brand in the USA even uses the tag line “can’t eat just one” to signify and reinforce its addictive characteristics. Young children are trained to crave certain tastes as part of a ‘reward’ cycle their familes utilize. This habit continues through a lifetime in many cases.

Those who lead a more sedentary life, either through career pressures, or, for spiritual seekers, a focus on long times of meditation, there can be a tendency to take in more calories than are being burned, and thus, they may tend to put on weight. Similarly, as people age, they may experience a change in their metabolic rate, and thus, utilize less calories than they are habitually used to consuming. Thus, they may put on weight as they age if they are not able to adjust the caloric intake suitably to the change in metabolic function.

On the other side of this, there is a strong social pressure, particularly through the mass media and film industries, for people to appear thin. When this pressure comes up against the opposing tendency for weight gain, there can be events of extreme dieting, anorexia and bulimia, which weaken the frame. Some spiritual traditions include fasting and strict dietary restrictions as part of their framework of discipline, in an attempt to school the vital and physical being to temper their demands and expectations, and this can lead to a framework that is unduly weakened.

With all the pressures on both sides, and the amount of unconscious eating that takes place, it is difficult for most people to find a suitable balance, a ‘middle way’. By understanding these various pressures, and through observation as a separate witness consciousness, the seeker can gain mastery over these impulses and instead, utilize a more balanced approach both as to caloric intake, and quality of the food being eaten to ensure the body gets what it needs, in the right amounts, and in the right way. A major factor will be to eat with attention and avoid the unconscious intake of food that occurs through a focus that is directed elsewhere at the time of eating.

Sri Aurobindo notes: “Too much eating makes the body material and heavy, eating too little makes it weak and nervous — one has to find the true harmony and balance between the body’s need and the food taken.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 5, Attitudes on the Path, pg. 167