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Question: I would like to ask: In His Holiness’ experience, what relationship has he found between nutrition and health? Bawa Muhaiyaddeen: May God help us all. Āmīn. The first and most important form of nutrition for a human being is to think with wisdom and to have faith in God. A true human being must have compassion towards all lives. If a man can establish these things within himself, that will be good. There are so many ways to eat good clean food, without killing or tormenting other lives, without eating the flesh or bones of other lives: God has made many kinds of good food for every life that has been created. For instance, cabbage has the same kind of nutrition as is found in eggs. In potatoes, right beneath the skin, there is the same kind of nutrition as in egg yolks and whites. There is also a good deal of vitamin B, vitamin C, and iron, just under the skin, and therefore potatoes should never be peeled. In eggplant, there is a lot of iron. In various kinds of fruit there are so many minerals—gold, silver, cooper, lead, and mercury. In beans there are several good things. In greens, such as spinach, there are vitamins B, C, and gold. These vitamins and minerals exist in many kinds of greens, in spices, and in many kinds of fruit, such as lemons and mangoes. When cooked without peeling the skin, ripe pumpkins and squash contain so many valuable energies. If a man can eat like this, using the food that God has given, then the 4,448 illnesses inherent within the body will not arise. Good nutrition can control these illnesses and prevent them from developing. People talk about chemicals these days, saying that all our food is chemically adulterated. But all the chemicals that man has discovered already exist in the earth. The chemicals exist in the air, in fire, in water, and in the sky. They exist in the sun and in the moon. All the chemicals that man uses exist in flowers, in trees, and in leaves. Their energies exist in the earth. Calcium, lime, iron, mercury, oil—all the things that the earth has consumed, all the chemicals exist within the earth. Nothing can grow without chemicals. Their energy is in the earth itself. The energy is there, the currents are there, the magnetism is there, the force is there, and the calcium that makes everything grow is there. They all exist in the earth, in the water, and in the air. But if the level and proportion of chemicals in the soil is wrong or out of balance, then the plants growing there may be infested by insects, they may die or grow too tall without bearing any produce, or they may be burned by the soil. Man, too, must discover the balanced proportions within himself. If he eats in a proper and nutritionally sound way, man will have no illnesses, and it will not be necessary to kill any life for his food. He will never have to eat fish or meat or hurt any life at all. God has placed all the energies that are necessary for him in the fruits and vegetables. But man has to change these things before he can eat them; he has to cook them. There are chemicals and poisons within everything. Anything that a man sees has a certain kind of poison in it. He has to find antitoxins for those poisons. When cooking, there are certain spices that should be used: chilies, black pepper, coriander, cumin, fennel, fenugreek, cloves, and tumeric. Tumeric kills many germs. Black pepper kills many poisons. Chili pepper can melt down blood clots, and anything sour such as lemon or tamarind can melt down fat and help a person lose weight. Salt can nourish certain things and kill other things according to a certain limit. Salt itself contains about eighteen chemicals, and you can also make eighteen different kinds of chemicals with salt. Just as you can help or destroy the world with an atom, you can nourish or destroy the body with salt. Everything must be balanced. In all plants there are poisons and chemicals which come from the earth. Nothing could grow without chemicals. Everything our bodies need is also needed by the weeds, the grasses, the vegetables, the leaves, the fruits. They take these things from the earth, from water, from the warm air, and from sunlight. The plants take in the essences and grow. Certain kinds of air, the light of the sun, and the light of the moon are also necessary; they change certain elements within the plants. We have to understand how to neutralize the poisons in plants through the use of spices. We should wash our food, cut it and cook it. Cook it in a good way. Some foods must be half-cooked, others three-quarters cooked, and still others fully cooked. If his food is cooked the correct amount with a proper balance of spices, man will never get sick. He will never have any kind of illness at all. He will not be deficient in any mineral such as iron, copper, or zinc, and he will have a proper balance of mercury and lead in his body. In his skin and in his tissues he will have neither too much nor too little fat or oil, and his marrow will not dry up. By eating properly, his heart will work correctly. His lungs will not be overworked and will also function properly. The 43,242 breaths that man should breathe during the 24 hours of a day will be breathed properly. And if man breathes correctly, he will not develop high blood pressure or any other diseases. Now, animals can eat raw food without getting weak. For example, cows eat only grasses, but they are strong; and elephants eat only fruit and leaves and weeds, and they are also very, very strong. But there is a difference between the stomach and intestines of animals and those of human beings. There are certain hair follicles within the digestive system which are very different in animals. They enable animals to eat food when it is raw, but human beings should cook their food. If man eats raw food, not only can he not digest it properly, but little by little, traces of arsenic, mercury, other toxic metals, and traces of petroleum which exist in raw food will build up in his body and harm him. Day by day, diseases will increase and residues will build up in his blood, in his bones, or in his skin. He could develop a rash. His blood might clot or become thin, or become too hot, or become toxic and poisonous. He could become anemic or develop diabetes. Man needs to take vegetables which are ripe and prepare and cook them properly. Then he will never become ill. He will, however, always have two basic diseases: the disease of birth and the disease of death, but he can be peaceful in between. If he eats right he can be healthy in between. There is a great difference between the intestines and bodies of animals and those of men. There is a difference between the wisdom and the intelligence of men and of animals in the way that God created them. So man must know how he should eat. If he eats properly, he will have a certain amount of peace. Another point: when animals eat, they eat many different kinds of leaves and grasses. One kind will contain chemicals, another kind will contain poisons, and a third will contain an element that can break the other two down. Because animals eat a combination of all these, the chemicals and poisons are neutralized. Like the spices human beings use to break down poisons, different kinds of weeds also contain antitoxins. For example, when a mongoose kills a snake, it rolls around in a certain weed to rid itself of any traces of snake poison. You can use certain herbs to draw out the poison in treating a snake bite. There is even a certain kind of root that you can place before a snake to repel it so that it will not bite you. It is because cattle and other animals eat many, many different kinds of grasses and leaves that the poisons do not work inside them. But if an animal is not able to eat a wide variety of grasses and leaves, it might become sick and die. God has placed all these things on the earth so that one poison can be counteracted by another. In addition, animals like the cow and goat have two stomachs. Their food is cooked in one stomach, they regurgitate it, and then chew it again. They take their food from the ground and put it in that cooking place inside. The acid in their stomachs forms the heat to cook the food inside them. The bile and the energy within their own bodies cooks their food. After being cooked in one stomach and then regurgitated, it has changed. Man cooks his food outside on a stove, but the animals cook it in the heat and acid of their own bodies; they lie down, regurgitate their food, and then they eat it once again. Therefore, animals really do eat cooked food. But man is not built like that. Man puts everything directly inside. He does not regurgitate and then eat it again. That is the difference. Man must think. Look how strong an elephant is, which lives on fruits and leaves. Look how strong a bull is. Look how strong an ape is. Look at all things. Even small animals have such strength in proportion to their size. They do not eat human beings or other animals. Very strong animals like elephants and bulls are vegetarians; they eat no meat at all and they live in peace. They live in tranquility. They live with great strength, tranquility, and freedom. They do not find fault with each other; they are not evil towards each other. We should think about that. Man must reflect upon how he should eat. He should eat in a way that hurts no one. God has placed all things that are necessary for man on the earth: the leaves, the seeds, the beans, the grasses, the weeds, the fruits, the vegetables, such as carrots, potatoes, beets, spinach, all kinds of greens. Even certain flowers can be eaten. And they all contain such good energies. If man washes and eats this kind of food, he will be eating man’s natural food. Then his life will be in a good state. This kind of food will give man strength, energy, and peace. It will allow his wisdom to be in a good state. The animal qualities in man can be controlled through proper diet. The snake-like qualities can be controlled. His arrogance, his haste and his anger will decrease simply by eating peaceful food. This is the kind of freedom that man can attain, and it will establish the state of living as a human being. We have to think of this. Eggs, milk, cheese, butter, nuts, beans, grains, fruits, and vegetables contain all the nutrients found in any animal which man might consider eating. There is no necessity to look for them anywhere else. All those essences are in fruits, in vegetables such as carrots, cabbages, in beans, in grains, in everything. If he uses these things properly, he will have fewer illnesses. That is one point. But if we living corpses eat dead corpses, what is the use? So much pork is eaten, so much chicken, so much beef, lamb, and other kinds of flesh. We kill countless numbers of these animals. They are dead corpses and our bodies are live corpses. If we put these dead corpses into our live corpses, we will become vast cemeteries. The stomach will become a huge cemetery. Look at how many illnesses animals have. They have so many kinds of diseases. Different animals have different germs. Pigs have specific types of germs and poisonous parasites. Cattle have different viruses and germs and parasites. Goats have different microorganisms than cattle and pigs, and chickens have still other kinds. Each animal has a different set of viruses, germs, parasites and acids. Their bodies and their blood are different from those of man. If man eats meat, he will take on the qualities of the animals he eats. The chicken’s quality of scratching and digging in the earth, the goat’s quality of butting and striking against things, the cow’s qualities, and the pig’s forceful qualities of pushing others aside-the qualities of all these animals can be imbibed by eating their flesh. The qualities of the animal whose flesh a man eats will come into that man. And once those qualities enter, the man’s anger, his hastiness, and his animal qualities will increase. The animal’s blood will intermingle with his blood. The smell of that dead flesh will come out in his perspiration. When the essence of animal flesh intermingles with his body, the animal qualities also come into him. These animal qualities are what cause one man to murder another, to harm and torment another. If a cat catches a mouse, what makes the cat happy? To let the mouse go and then to catch it again. The happiness of a cat is the unhappiness of a mouse. The cat tortures and torments the mouse before it finally kills it. Man is just like that. We have to think of this. Flowers have a variety of smells. They contain essences and scents which are made into perfumes. Different herbs also have a variety of smells within them. By extracting the chemicals contained within certain herbs, we obtain essences which can be used as medicine. The smell, the fragrance, the qualities, will develop within us, and if we eat vegetables, the peaceful qualities of vegetables will develop within us. Meat will give us arrogant qualities; fruit and vegetables will give us peaceful qualities. Their essences will develop within us. We have to think about this a little. We have to see what is good and what is not. Eating meat is not very good—many illnesses can develop. In the way that a seed must depend on the earth to grow, man must depend upon God. Man must establish a good state with in himself. We must believe that there is a Power known as God. All of creation grows depending on the earth. Similarly, the wisdom of man must depend upon and trust in God. If man transforms himself so that he is an instrument in the hands of God, he will attain peace. Then he can benefit from the use of herbs and from eating properly, and he can live free of illness. If he has those good qualities, all lives will respect him and bow down to him. If we were really to speak about man’s life and chemicals and nutrition, it would take three or four months. We cannot really talk about this in half an hour. May God help us. May He give us His aid and His grace. His power is almighty. May He protect us, grant us His grace, and make us true human beings once again. Āmīn. Āmīn. Copyright: Discourse Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship Family Newsletter Mar- Apr 1997
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