A NUMBER OF DEAR ascension channels advise that we eat "fresh foods" to help stay grounded in these exciting times of lightening. What does this mean exactly? This article serves to present at least one interpretation on the preparation and eating of 'fresh' foods.

Let's begin with the thought that cooking itself is a re-freshing act of loving service. It is a three-fold process that serves (1) the cook, who acts as an instrument of the nourishment, (2) the recipient, who enjoys the nourishment and may also be the cook, and (3) the god of your understanding, who symbolically accepts the "fruits" of our efforts when we offer the food. We'll explore this third aspect a bit later in this writing. Cooking, then, is much more than just a means to end of bodily nourishment or sense gratification.

As you read this article, perhaps you are being called to journey into greater depths of your kitchen to change some of the ways that you cook and eat? Perhaps also, you may be uncertain about how or where to begin? There is plenty of instruction available on the gunas, or three modes of nature that generously offer ancient guidance on the selection, preparation and intake of foods that are of a sattvic nature. Applying this concept to foods, sattvic means fresh, whole life-giving foods (like fruits, vegetables, sprouts, nuts, etc.) that bring a state of compassion and a feeling of being alert. Rajasic refers to the more fiery or action-oriented aspects of life. These represent passionate and spicy foods that may over-agitate or yield a mood of restlessness. Tamasic refers to items that hold denser energies that tend to bring a mood of sluggishness.

For more active inspiration though, perhaps you can rent the movie Finding Nemo, an animated children's movie (for the child in all of us!) about a diverse community of fish in the ocean. It's pretty incredible and widely available in many languages. One of my favorite scenes finds the allegedly absent-minded Tangfish, Dory (aka voice of actor and comedienne Ellen Degeneris), offering support to Merlin, the nervous father-fish of the adorable little clownfish Nemo. Little Nemo swims out too far and becomes 'lost' in the ocean, while, his dear father, full of his own neurotic fears about the vast ocean, is swimming frantically trying to find his little boy, who is but a drop of water in big sea. Dory befriends Marlin, counseling him with what have become the most famous lines in the movie, "just keep swimming, swimming, swimming"! Marlin's journey leads of course to his son, and to his own personal 'rescue' through surrender to the vortex of the East Australian Current that carries him on a wild and eventually wildly fun, life-changing ride to a breakthrough experience. It can happen that quickly!

So, let's benefit from Dory's sage advice and just keep cooking, cooking, cooking! We never know what we will find inside. Cooking is such a great service and learning experience. I recall my own experience on the brink of stirring life changes when I finally transitioned to a vegetarian diet with no onions, garlic or mushrooms. Sometimes I still feel some apprehension when preparing meals for increasingly larger groups. After all, while growing up, I was the one who always went outside to be in nature and help tend the yard instead of staying inside to learn cooking. I was nervous to even prepare rice, having heard sagas of mushy, sticky outcomes. My dear husband and our friends were so kind to me when I started cooking foods in our Indian tradition, which was brand new to me at the time. They ate everything no matter what. Kindly, they'd ask, "What is this?" I'd reply, "Does it look or taste like anything you've eaten"? All the while, I would be secretly hoping that it would at least taste like the recipe I had prepared! They would just laugh and eat it up. This is the beautiful gift they gave (and still do).

I learned that cooking allows us time... precious time... and we need to find ways to take and relish this re-newing and nurturing time. Often we are too busy and distracted with many thoughts. We might just pop something in the microwave or open a bag of potato chips. When we do cook, the silence may find us pre-occupied with re-playing old dramas, talking on the phone or still pondering an unsettling interaction. It is very important to be aware of our frame of mind as the energy used in preparing food will be what enters the food.

While cooking, there can be a variety of meditative or focal techniques to re-fresh all of our koshas, or energy sheaths. The chanting of a sacred mantra like 'Aum' is an earth honoring blessing from core of the earth to core of our being. The chanting of sacred mantras that honor the divine feminine and masculine, like the Yugal Maha Mantra, creates a sacred space of overflowing loving devotion. The chanting of a mantra such as one offered by Swami Satchidananda - where we recite "giving giving, serving serving, loving loving" - extends a beautiful intention. And simply, just the making of a meditative space for gratitude quiets the mind.

When we begin cooking in this manner, our choices more readily become more sattvic, as if by magical transformation! It is the classic example of controlling the senses through surrender. Control means strength: to use force or determination. Control also means flexibility: a way of modulating, like a dial. We use this strength and flexibility to attain yoga, where we recognize the divine that resides within and makes all things one but simultaneously different. Living from this point of realization opens us to the effortless flow of surrender.

When we continue cooking in a more mindful manner, we become more mindful, yet less conscious of procedure in the context of time. We relax, or surrender, into it. In the beginning, we don't want to 'burn' anything and may try to rush the process. In Indian cooking in particular, there are methods of preparing the spices (chaunce) over heat to realize their action. The spices all have their purpose in flavoring the food and adding particular health benefits. So, each time you use the recipe, you can experiment with the heating temperature (strength) and timing (flexibility), carefully holding a space for each ingredient and observing all of the transitions the food makes as it is being tempered in the heat... just like us. When we are able to peel back the layers of time though careful observation, 'clock' time just melts away. The recipe is prepared and we don't know even know quite how it happened. Similar to driving to a familiar destination and upon arrival, remarking how quickly you arrived without any seeming effort!

Along the way you start to remember to ask for divine help. I have had a number of wonder-filled experiences while cooking all of these dishes I've never even seen, let alone tasted, and was unsure at certain points: I would say aloud, "Is this what it is supposed to look like? Shall I keep stirring longer?" Sometimes my divine chefs will stay at the kitchen doorway just to reassure and other times they are right over my shoulder... and I just follow the messages they are giving as read through my instinct.

Finally, there is perhaps the most important concept to preparing 'fresh' food; namely, the offering of the food to the god of your understanding before it has been tasted. This is like offering the fruits of your actions. If we believe that we are here to love and serve others, then each of our actions is a fruit being offered. We offer these fruits symbolically to the I AM presence.

This is slightly different than saying grace. Grace is flavored with the mood of 'god-consciousness', where we thank god for the bounty and ask blessings for us and the food. While this is a wonderful action of gratitude, the subtle shift in offering the food is our acknowledgement of the power of loving service to the divine that resides in each of us. Serving or honoring god/others through our food preparation is a life-giving and health-promoting manifestation of the fruits of our actions. It creates a re-freshing awareness that with each act we are extending a humble 'gift' to the divine and to each other rather than being in the role of taking bounty and asking for blessing.

Offering food is also slightly different than 'clearing' the food energetically... asking that the food be in our highest and best. Again, the subtle shift is in the focus. We are asking the divine to accept the service of our humble gifts (actions). In this exchange, with god's symbolic acceptance or 'tasting' of the food (which represents our actions), the food is indeed transformed and becomes a holy or 'fresh' meal beyond what we could imagine as our highest and best.

If 'karma' comes from the fruits of our action, then the sincere offering of the food/actions 'deletes' the karma from it - in a sense, it purifies our actions. It's asking for the great forgiveness from god, self and others for anything we did to another that was less than positive in intent or action. It is the asking for love to wash over everything and make it all fresh and new. With this process we are re-committing to live more fully in love and light and gratitude and thus, the need for words like karma will not be necessary!

Higher aspects of the ascension process may reveal that there is no 'karma' but many of us are perhaps not at that level of living yet. We may not be seeing everyone as a soul all the time but our awareness of this is growing, and every day, we are knowing that this is the reality.

So, the purpose is not to eat for merely for our own sensory pleasure. We don't want to form attachments to the food or to develop any ego about actions we may have performed.

Each of us is a great cook inside. Just follow our instincts and keep pouring our intention of loving service into the food and we will start to feel the flow. As we move through the ascension process, we are lightening our physical vehicles energetically and transmuting them. Cooking with consciousness can help this process by taking in food that serves us well, and passing on the foods with denser energies. This is a purification process that works in concert with all of the other things we are doing to stay grounded and help our cells adjust.

The partaking, or eating of the food is just as important. Sharing the fruits of our actions in communities where we can have these soul-level interactions is happening in greater and greater numbers. If this is what you are seeking, let your intent be known! You can also feel free to contact the author for suggestions in your part of the world.

© Terry Gupta, 2007

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Terry Gupta and her husband are co-founders of YogaCaps, Inc. a nonprofit organization dedicated to education and research on natural and effectiveyogic techniques that are easy to do and cost-efficient. She started to learn Indian vegetarian cooking about two years ago and now cooks for a monthly satsang group in New Hampshire, USA. She may be contacted at www.yogacaps.org.