Hare krishna dear devotees,
Onion, garlic, masoor dal etc are avoided by vaishnavas as they are tamasic, Why isn't brinjal avoided while it is also tamasic according to ayurveda. How exactly do we say some food is tamasic, we cannot use ancient texts as they don't have information about new age vegetables like tomato, chilli etc.
Replies
Hare Krsna
Onion, garlic, masoor dal etc are avoided by vaishnavas as they are tamasic
These 3 are a lot worse than tamasic. They are not creations of Brahma like other eatables like Rice, wheat, etc. These three have their origin in death/flesh/ blood of cow, which is highly divine. Onion - flesh of cow, Garlic - bones of cow, Masoor dal - Blood of cow.
Why isn't brinjal avoided while it is also tamasic according to ayurveda ?
Feel free to avoid it.
How exactly do we say some food is tamasic ?
Based on scriptures like Bhagavad Gita and other puranas.
we cannot use ancient texts as they don't have information about new age vegetables like tomato, chilli etc.
Tomato, chillies, ladies finger, etc have non-vedic or non-indian origin. They are certainly not in mode of goodness. Based on the effect and flavour, they may be categorized as mode of passion or ignorance. Nobody should have a problem if somebody wants to avoid these.
Hare Krsna
Hare Krsna prabhuji,
PAMHO.
Onion garlic are specifically prohibited. The pastime of Samudra Manthan is mentioned and every one is aware of it.
Regarding brinjal and masoor dal, we follow what our founder acharya has guided - we have purple brinjal and avoid masoor dal.
How we say some food is tamasic - Bhagavad Gita gives pointers - it is smelly, bad to taste, putrid from the beginning... some pointers are there.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Radha Rasamayi DD
How can we consume brinjal but avoid masoor dal, How do we answer someone who doesn't believe in prabupada
We simply say that we follow our founder acharya. We may not understand everything that he has directed us to do, but because we have faith in him, we follow the path shown by him.
So many things he has said that makes sense to us, so we follow everything.
That is our parampara.
Gunas are defined by portfolios of chacteristics so even non-Indian foods can be classified this way.
Hari Hari
ys J.
ok, so how is brinjal classified
An article at thewellnesscorner classifies brinjal as rajasic. So there seems to be no conclusion on this.
from stackexchange: The Ahara Niyaman explicitly prohibits white Brinjal (some interpret this to include green Brinjal as well) with the implication that the common purple one is allowed. In Srivaishnava practice, Brinjal is not offered to the pitrus, hence not cooked on amavasya, yugaadi, shraadhas etc.
(A.N. is authored by Vedanta Desika of Sri sampradaya.)
Hari Hari
ys J.
so then why do iskcon allow it?