While I have been in Africa, people have been asking me about yoga and diet. Mostly they are concerned that their attempts to purify and awaken their subtle energies through yoga will all be useless because they are not vegetarians. Every day they revert to the same tamasic non-vegetarian foods. This problem is not only peculiar to Africa; it has been a problem the world over since the dawn of history. Yet we can find a solution to this problem in yoga, for yoga is evolved from tantra, and tantra has the answer.
In yoga we are clear on one thing – there should be no conflict in your personality. What is a conflict? A mind holding two opposing ideas is a mind in conflict. Suppose I want to drink alcohol and at the same time I believe it is bad. This creates a conflict and when it becomes more powerful it can cause mental derangement. This is why in some countries there is such a high incidence of schizophrenia.
I have come across people who were alcoholic and non-vegetarian but they were very good devotees of Shakti, the goddess who personifies the active power of the universe. They were sattwic in mind and absolutely rajasic in their day-to-day life. They had no anger, no passion, no hatred or jealousy, but they were often intoxicated with alcohol and were totally non-vegetarian. However, when they sat for the ceremonial worship of Durga or Kali (aspects of Shakti) they would not move. Even if a snake or a scorpion were to bite them, they would not break the meditation by moving the body.
I can give you one example of a man in India who was my host once during the religious festival of Chaturmas. At one time during his worship of Shakti his dhoti caught fire! He was in meditation and his body was badly burned. I asked later why he did not get up to put out the fire and he said that he simply had no idea it was burning. That’s how deeply he was involved in the ceremony. This shows us how a sattwic mind can have rajasic habits, how a sattwic mind can also have rajasic and tamasic elements.
I know as a yogi that food plays a very important part in life, but at the same time I have a different way of thinking as well. I know that evolution is not only open to those who are careful about food, but that it is also open to those who are pure in mind, no matter who they are.
Liberia, Africa, published in Yoga, Vol. 15, No. 12 (December 1977)