Yoga Teacher Training Forum

Namaskar Patel,

You made some good points as well. Firstly, I have to agree that we don't share the same religious faith. I'm sure our names give off certain stereotypes. We are both yoga practitioners, but I venture to guess that you believe in Ganesha, Shiva, Krishna, Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Jagannath, Hanuman and more.

On the other end of the spectrum of spiritual belief, I believe in one God that is the all-powerful Creator of the entire universe. I imagine, you and I are both spiritually healthy and we will both go to a good place after our lives are over.

With all that said, my opinion about the Sattvic diet being too cooling was based upon observation. Many people enjoy eating too much. Eating too much isn't Sattvic. Additionally, Cold meals in a cold climate are depressing. Unfortunately, I'm not perfect in my eating habits, but yoga has made me aware of my own primal instinct to consume more food than I really need and to anticipate the next meal with the passion of a wolf.

I found that people who live in warm climates will readily eat raw food. But it takes some time before a person from a cold climate will feel warm enough inside to have passion for a cooling diet. If summer is one month, we might not warm up inside at all.

Here is a for instance: The indigenous people inhabiting the Arctic, northern Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and eastern Siberia eat a natural diet of meat. There is hardly any vegetation for them to eat. This is the way it natually was. This is a matter of survival in a harsh climate.

The Algonquians called them Eskimo, but we sometimes call them Inuit. However, it takes some doing to convince a person in a cool climate to eat cold food or cold whale meat. They will do it for survival, but given the choice they will cook food.

OM Shanti,

Hamed