In the last post, I wrote that even though I'm a huge fan of garlic as a healing plant and I grow it myself in the garden. However, since Jamie has discovered he can't digest garlic and onion and has to follow a FODMAP diet, garlic is no longer our ally.
Jamie isn't the only person to omit garlic and onions from his diet, and in sitting over the remains of a garlic-less nasi goreng in Bali, we did a little research into why Hare Krishnas don't eat it. I'd reminded Jamie of that as years ago my Mum and Dad were obsessed by a cooking show on our TV station, SBS, hosted by a guy called Kurma, who was a Hare Krishnan. As my folks were vegetarian, Dad pretty much wanted Mum to cook everything on the show.
http://www.gopalspurevegetarian.com.au/
Gopals in Melbourne
Hare Krishna Valley, Bambra, Victoria
The Hare Krishnas have been at pretty much every festival I have been to in Australia and I love their mixed plates, particularly their vegetarian kofta balls with tomato sauce - I've included the recipe below for you because it's just delicious. They include asoefoetida, or hing, which is onion-like in taste, although you wouldn't use it in, say, an Italian style pasta sauce as it's just not the same thing.
Hare Krishnans aren't the only ones that don't eat garlic and onions - many Buddhists and Hindus also refrain because it's meant to be agitating and adversely affects conciousness.
Vedic literature says that onions and garlic are in the lower realms of nature - passion and ignorance, two things that we should avoid if we're going to have a good spiritual practice. Aspiring devotees of Krishna will only eat what they offer him, and his devotees say that he doesn't eat onions and garlic. Maybe he was on a FODMAP diet too?
Clearly, garlic breathe isn't something you'd expect to smell on the breath of a God, so perhaps it's undestandable that it's impure or ungodly in this way. We used to do a lot of Bikram yoga and you'd smell pretty garlicky if you'd ingested a lot the day before - and garlic sweat just ain't pretty either.
'Garlic Gum is NOT funny' - Bart Simpson
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna actually says that foods that are 'too bitter, too sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry and burning are dear to those who are in the modes of passion. Such foods causes distress, misery and disease'. Now this is absolutely the case for my darling, who is absolutely miserable and in pain if he eats garlic or onion, but damn I love as much chilli as you can give me, so I could never follow this advice! Perhaps moderation is the key - the point is, if you've eaten foods that are likely to disturb and agitate you, like a killer curry (try sleeping after that - never!) then your sense are going to be distrubed and that's going to make it hard to live equanimously and virtously. Makes sense.
Offering food to Krishna - just not garlic
There are many myths and stories about garlic in Indian traditions:
When Lord Vishnu in His Mohini form was distributing nectar to demigods two demons named Rahu and Ketu sat down along with the line of Demigods. By mistake the Lord served them nectar into their mouths. Immediately the lord was informed by the Sun and Moon that those two were demons. As soon as the Lord came to know of this He cut off the heads of both demons. By that time nectar had not passed through their throats. It was still in their mouths. When the Lord cut of their heads , the heads were separated from their bodies. Thus nectar did not pass to the stomach but fell on the ground . (That is the reason why Rahu and Ketu’s head are still alive but their bodies were finished.) When their heads were cut off garlic and Onions manifested from this nectar which fell on the ground from the mouth of the two demons. Thus Garlic and Onions are regarded as nectar but not used for the Lord because these are remnants of demons having touched their mouths. Even the nectar touched the mouths of these two demons still garlic and onions act like nectar in curing the diseases. But they are not meant for Vishnu or Vaishnavas. The doctor told me that whoever will eat garlic and Onion, their body will Be very strong like demons body and at the same time their intelligence also will be contaminated like the intelligence of demons.
And even other traditions too - in Turkey, the story goes that when Satan got booted out of heaven, garlic arose where he stepped with his left foot, and garlic with his right. Now usually I'd be behind Satan picking up the free onion and garlic, but Jamie would be reminding me that he can't eat it anyway.
Onions and garlic have historically been given aphrodesiac qualities, mentioned in Hindu texts but also in ancient Greece and other cultures. If one is trying to stick to a spiritual path, it's obvious that foods with aprhodesiac qualities shouldn't be ingested. In fact, it's probably a good idea to decrease the production of sperm and calm down the libido rather than stimulate - have you ever tried to meditate when you're really horny?
IN some Buddhist writings, particularly the Tao, the alliums have a detrimental effect on the organs. The zen masters, Chinese and Japanese Buddhists eschew garlic for it's tendency to disturb the body, mind and spirit.
In Ayurveda, onions are tamastic and rajastic - in yogic philosophy one shoud eat sattvic or pure foods only rather than heavy or stimulating foods.
Garlic is both a tamastic and tamastic food and shouldn't be consumed by yogis
There is also quite a bit of debate about whether garlic is harmful (and they do know it can cause botulism - I read a great story about Italians coating their bullets with it as they were notoroius bad shots, but figured the botulism from the garlic would finish them off anyway) but I haven't read any conclusion science on it's effect on the brain, which some claim, and would need to read more into this.
Before doing this small amount of research, I had no idea that garlic and onion were so controversial. There's a whole lot more historical information on garlic and onions and how it was seen as a food for the poor, the ignorance or the undesirable. I'm not sure any of these reasons are reason enough for me to abandon garlic altogether, and there's much research for me to do before I give up my beautiful garlic crop! I'm still on the side of it's good for me - don't get me wrong. It's antibacterial, antifungal, good for blood pressure, impotence (there's the aphrosdesiac stuff again), diabetes and all sorts of things. And I'm not a Hare Krishnan, nor a Hindu, and I'm not entirely willing to change my diet for these spiritual reasons, though they are great to give us a further excuse to ban garlic from the table.
However, I certainly won't be consuming it when I am doing a lot of meditation or when I need to concentrate, or at least I'll be monitoring how it makes me feel now. Like with everything we put into our bodies, a little caution goes a long way.
I guess with Jamie being so badly affected by them, maybe that's reason enough we say goodbye to the alliums as allies.
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