Editor's note: On March 25, 2024, Beijing time, there will be a lunar eclipse from 12:50 to 17:34 (taking the Beijing area as an example, not visible in China), please keep an empty stomach during the lunar eclipse, that is, you should eat the main meal 4 hours before the lunar eclipse, eat snacks or fruits 2.5 hours before the lunar eclipse, and drink drinks or juices 1.5 hours before the lunar eclipse.
Questioner: Sadhguru, you may not know that in the past few days, there have been many people on social media platforms who have mentioned that you said that it was not suitable to eat during a solar and lunar eclipse, but they ate it and they did not die.
Sadhguru: Are they disappointed? (laughs)
Questioner: So they say you're superstitious and unscientific (Sadhguru laughs). Just want to hear what you think.
Sadhguru: Let's understand, what is superstition? Superstition is when you don't have any perception or knowledge about a topic and you come to the conclusion that it's superstition. Well, the essence of life is this: how sensitive you are, how deep your perception and experience of life is. This doesn't come through intellectual accumulation, and what can I say to people who have read a high school textbook if they consider themselves scientists? Because a real scientist, a scientist who has a deep understanding of any aspect of life, a scientist who has a certain profundity into any aspect of life, would not say that.
And I, as a yogi, would never eat food that had been cooked for more than an hour and a half, as long as I could. The reason why we prepare food for you like this at Isha Ashram is because we want all of you to upgrade from yoga practitioners to yogis. Rather than just bending and twisting, you begin to feel oneness with being. If you want to achieve this, the body must become sensitive, and the inertia of the body must be at its lowest. Now, if you eat food that has spoiled in some way, it may not spoil and it won't kill you, and you can eat it (laughs). It's just that it lowers your perception. In my life experience, for me, a decrease in perception is equivalent to death – at least as a yogi and a person may still be alive (laughs). The yogi died because he lost his senses, lost his sensitivity.
So if you don't mind losing your sensitivity, that's fine, you can eat whatever you want, and you can survive eating garbage. A lot of what people eat is made a week ago, 10 days ago, and 3 months ago. They put the food in the fridge and eat it. They don't know what the difference is after eating it, what can you say to such a person (laughs). But what is certain is that they can't have what I call sensitivity. I'm also sure they sleep 8-10 hours a day, which is death for me (laughs).
If you sleep 10 hours a day, that's almost 40 percent dead, isn't it? So, if you want to live like that, you can eat whatever you want, what's the problem? You can eat whatever you want. I'm not a scientist and I don't want to be one. I don't have a book to read, I'm not doing any research, I'm not looking through a microscope, and I don't have a lab in my backyard (some people laugh). I'm just going to focus on this human mechanism, which is myself. I keep it in good shape, it takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of work to keep it good, it's hard-won. So, I keep my body in a certain state. And, when anything happens in nature, I look at my inner reactions, and I look at the life around me to get confirmation.
Every insect, worm, bird, animal, tree is saying the same thing. If you want to find out after spending billions of dollars in research years later, that's up to you. What I'm trying to tell you is that, until recently, these so-called scientists – real scientists are a different story – a scientist with deep research and exploration would not have said that. You're probably talking about a cyberscientist (laughs), you know. These people know every science, not just one, but all sciences because they've been online. So, these scientists say — and I'm talking about this one so simple — they advocate that alcohol, tobacco, red meat are the best things in your life. Until recently, all of a sudden, all of a sudden, they were all naysayers, because somebody did billions of dollars in research and said so. And we've always said that.
What is new to you is the wisdom of eternal antiquity for us. I'll tell you one thing. One time I was talking to an American doctor of Indian origin, and he told me that he was the first person in Western medicine to confirm that the heart not only pumps blood, but also sucks it back — the ventricles pump blood, the atria return blood. For this point, he was the first to write a thesis. He sent me a video of his TED Talk, his scientific papers, and I read them and couldn't believe it, until a few years ago the medical community knew that the heart sucked back venous blood.
In the yoga system, we are concerned with the atrium that sucks back the blood, and Ayurveda also talks about it, and Shalka Samshita – the Ayurveda Sutra also talks about it. In yoga, our concern is not to pump blood, but to suck it back because we want the blood to remain as pure as possible. Because impurities in the blood mean that we lose our senses. We are not interested in nutrition, oxygen content, longevity, etc., these are not the point. How I will live and what the quality of my life will be is what I care about. What I care about is always how deep my perception is. That's what this culture is concerned about, and this science that we call yoga.
So, if you think that what is written in a book is true, then you are very superstitious and religious, and you don't have any scientific aspect at all. Do you think that night simply means that the light is gone, or is there a drastic change in the way life happens from day to night? If you ask an insect, a bird, an animal, a tree, or even a stone, it will know that night is different. If you sit here with a little openness, you will know that the key is not in the light. If you close your eyes, there's no light during the day and there's no light at night, but isn't there a difference between the two? Every meditator knows what the difference is, doesn't it?
So, some people will say, (I said) this is all nonsense (laughs), (the eclipse) is just the sun is gone. For solar eclipses, that's what they can say. It doesn't matter, I'm going to tell you, during a solar and lunar eclipse, don't cook, don't eat, or eat when you're ready, don't do that. Eat before or after a solar and lunar eclipse, because this is the common sense of life, this is not network science. The greatest ignorance is knowing that you are not ignorant. That's the whole problem.
All the network scientists, I beg you, eat some fresh food. Keep yourself healthy and aware, not for me, but for life. If you want, you can eat during a solar and lunar eclipse, okay? You don't die, it's just that the inertia increases. If you don't mind inertia – you're already drinking and smoking anyway, doing these things probably won't make any difference to you, probably not.
Today if you take a fancy car and go to any gas station in India to fill up with 87 octane gas, your car will stop within a few kilometers and you need to fill it with special fuel, why? because of its high performance. So if you want to be a high-performance person, you need to take a serious look at what kind of oil you want to add to yourself. You're a scrapped machine (laughs), so what's the matter if you eat and drink whatever you want? You can live as much as you want, it's really fine, okay?
So, if you're disappointed that you didn't die from food in a solar eclipse (laughs)...... I'm sorry, you're just too superstitious, eh? The nature of life is this: the earth, the sun, and the moon have a significant impact on this life. If you are aware of how it works, you can ride its cycle and your life will be effortless and easy. But if you are not aware – these cycles can overwhelm you, and everything will leave you struggling, suffering from great prejudices within you. Because prejudice and resentment can make you more miserable than physical illness, pain, or injury. Please don't do this, try some fresh fruits and vegetables, it may help. It doesn't matter if the next time it's a solar or lunar eclipse, one time you eat something that isn't fresh, the next time you eat something fresh, do an experiment and see.
Effect of lunar eclipse
Sadhguru: During a lunar eclipse, what would have been a full lunar cycle (i.e. 28 days), will occur in a subtle way during a 2-3 hour lunar eclipse. On an energetic level, the Earth's energy mistakes this period for the entire lunar cycle. This causes anything that deviates from its natural state to decay at an accelerated rate. That's why before and after a lunar eclipse, raw fruits and vegetables don't change much, but cooked foods change quite dramatically, and nutrients will turn into poison.
01. Lunar Eclipse Effect: Food spoils quickly!
Poison will take away your awareness. If it's mild, it means you'll get lethargic. And if it gets to a certain point, it means that you will fall asleep. If your awareness is taken away completely, it means death. Drowsiness, sleep, death – just to varying degrees. So, during a lunar eclipse, on a subtle level, cooked food will experience much more rapid decay than usual.
02. Lunar Eclipse Effect: Can We Eat Raw Food?
Before and after the lunar eclipse, the changes in cooked food will be quite significant, and the nutrients will become poison.
If you have food in your body during a lunar eclipse, your energy will age for 28 days in those two hours. Does that mean you can eat raw food? No, because once the food enters your body, the acid in your stomach will erode it, making it look like semi-cooked food, and therefore cause the same effects.
It's not just about food, it's about your own state. If you deviate from your natural state in any way, you will be susceptible to interference from these forces. If you are in a natural state, the interference of these forces with you will be minimized.
03. Lunar Eclipse Effect: The Moon and the Human Body
Whether physically, mentally, or energetically, the moon's cycle has an impact on the body's systems. This can be easily seen from the cycle that our mothers go through. I talk about mothers because they are synchronized with the moon that we are here. If their bodies weren't in harmony with the moon, we wouldn't be here today. Because the Moon goes through a full cycle in 2-3 hours, there is some confusion in the body of all mothers. Men's bodies are also affected by this, because in a way, their mothers are also present in their bodies – not physically, but in other ways.
04. Lunar Eclipse Effect: When the body is confused
When the body is in a state of confusion, the best thing to do is to keep it as empty as possible and be as aware as possible. The easiest way to achieve awareness is to not eat. That way you'll be aware of at least one thing. Also, once you are on an empty stomach, you are also more capable of staying aware and conscious. Your body becomes more transparent, and you are better able to notice what is happening in your body systems.
So how fortunate we are to be guided by wisdom in this world
Even though I wanted to have lunch at first, my mother had already cooked for us
On the other hand, in terms of my current physical condition, practicing yoga in the morning and playing ball in the afternoon still makes my body feel tired
But after reading this article, I knew how to do it
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