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The Taste, or Rasa, of Food Can Be Enjoyed by the Yogic Practitioner If Desire is Removed From the Experience · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  There is a factor of enjoyment of taste of various foods which
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  is called rasa in Sanskrit. We experience this when we eat
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  something that excites our taste buds and send signals of
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  pleasure to the brain. For many people, the sweet
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  taste, and more particularly the taste of rich chocolate seems to
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  occupy such a position. Others, however, may find
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  enjoyment in any of the other primary tastes identified by
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  ayurved salty, sour, sharp or spicy, astringent or bitter.
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  Some of these tastes are considered to impact the doshas,
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  or predominant elements active in the being, wata, Pitta,
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  cuppa. To the extent that they both
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  satisfy the taste buds and positively impact the doshas,
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  they lead to a positive response and acceptance in the being.
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  Many times spiritual seekers who take up the practice of yoga in
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  their attempt to bring the vital nature under control will
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  attempt to suppress enjoyment of any kind as being somehow
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  unspiritual. They adopt A serious, oftentimes
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  rigid demeanour and refrain from anything that can bring
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  enjoyment. This, however, whether related
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  to the enjoyment of taste or other forms of enjoyment, is an
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  extreme reaction that suppresses the natural state of enjoyment
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  native to every human being. Those who have come into contact
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  with the 14th Dalai Lama often remark on his almost childlike
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  enjoyment that spills out naturally when he experiences or
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  sees something that sparks that type of reaction.
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  We also see young children experiencing enjoyment from not
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  only tasty foods, but from their games of play and their
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  experience of animals, their experience of the scent of
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  flowers, and through many other reactions that express the real
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  Ananda that underlies all life and which expresses itself,
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  albeit imperfectly and incompletely, in the mental,
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  vital, physical realm, as enjoyment.
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  The Titiria Upanishad emphasizes the role of Ananda.
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  Quote Lo, this that is well and beautifully made.
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  Verily, it is no other than the delight behind existence.
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  When he hath gotten him this delight, then it is that this
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  creature becometh a thing of bliss.
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  For who could labor to draw in the breath, or who could have
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  strength to breathe it out, if there were not that bliss in the
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  heaven of his heart, the ether within his being?
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  End Quote. Translated by Sri Aurobindo, the
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  Upanishads, Brahmawanda Valley, Chapter 7.
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  The Upanishad goes on to define the level and intensity of
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  bliss, starting with that of a blessed and successful human
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  individual, and then magnified many times over as the
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  comparison is made to higher manifestations of being.
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  It concludes, however, that quote, this is the bliss of the
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  Veda wise, whose soul the blight of desire not toucheth.
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  End Quote. This leads us to conclude then
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  that it is not the enjoyment of taste or other forms that Ananda
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  may take in the human being, but the attachment and the grasping
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  that comes with desire and the vital nature that needs to be
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  eliminated. Shrioro Vindo writes quote.
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  It is no part of this yoga to suppress taste rasa altogether.
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  What is to be got rid of is vital desire and attachment, the
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  greed of food, being overjoyed at getting the food you'd like,
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  sorry and discontented when you do not have it, giving an undue
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  importance to it. Equality is here the test, as in
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  so many other matters. End Quote reference.
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  Shrioro Bindo. Faces of Yoga, Chapter 4.
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  Desire Food Sex page 66.