And in the old times even, many of the priests lived in the desert. They didn’t have any food. They just ate like dry bread and just dipped it into water, and that’s all they ate. And maybe some dates, which were easy to store and kept for a long time. […] And these priests and monks or nuns just wanted to be alone, to pray to God, to feel God’s Love and Blessing, that God will bless them. They just wanted to be alone with God. Whether they were already very highly enlightened or not, the noble ideal, the lofty goal is to reach God, to know God, to love God more, and to be enlightened in this respect. […]
If you really want to eat only once a day, or eat simple – the no-pain kind of vegetables that I have listed some to you, not all of them… I don’t have time to think about too many things. The Supreme Master Television work, physically, takes up a lot of my time. A lot, a lot – many hours – and I do other things as well. Even photography takes many, many hours just for you to enjoy a few seconds, a few minutes. My team works very hard, and of course I’m working along with them. But I think the list (of no-pain foods) that I have listed for myself is enough already for me to live on. It worked. It works up to now.
And if you don’t want all those, you can even just have brown rice, sesame and some fruits – melons, those no-pain fruits. Then you’re OK also, and you’ll feel satisfied. You will feel light-hearted, light-footed as well; you’ll be happy. But of course, if you are in any situation that you don’t have those foods, and you have other foods, vegan, of course, then you can partake in some. But if you worry that you don’t have enough nutrition, then it’s a very unnecessary worry. You can also eat white rice with those vegetables and fruits that I listed. Even though the list is not complete, it’s enough. My God, we don’t live to eat, we eat to live.
And in the old times even, many of the priests lived in the desert. They didn’t have any food. They just ate like dry bread and just dipped it into water, and that’s all they ate. And maybe some dates, which were easy to store and kept for a long time. They just accepted maybe six months’ supply of food, enough to survive. And these priests and monks or nuns just wanted to be alone, to pray to God, to feel God’s Love and Blessing, that God will bless them. They just wanted to be alone with God. Whether they were already very highly enlightened or not, the noble ideal, the lofty goal is to reach God, to know God, to love God more, and to be enlightened in this respect.
In the Himalayas also, many Hindu monks just ate whatever dry food that they could store in the Himalayan mountains – very high, far away from it all. Maybe just some rice and dahl, the lentils that they can cook with some salt, and maybe some spice if they have it. Otherwise, that’s all they live on. Because in the deep Himalayas, like Gaumukh, the snow will cover all the road or any access for at least six months. So for six months, nobody is able to go to Gaumukh – such a deep and high region of the Himalayas – to supply any food or anything. Perhaps some of these monks also live on air, like breatharians or waterians; it’s easier and simpler for them to be away from the world, so that they can enjoy the bliss with God or contemplate on God.
It would be the best if they already have a Master who transmitted to them the Liberation Method, and then they continue to stay far away from others so that they have easier access, easier contemplation. But they don’t do much in such a region. And in such an area, the air is pure, the energy is pure – no disturbance of any kind, no human to go there either to bring food or to worship them, disturbing their peace. That’s why they wanted to stay so far away from it all. I wish I could also, because, I remember, when I was in the Himalayas, it was the best time I had. I never felt any trouble. I never worried about anything. I didn’t even think of the words “peace” or “disturbance.” There was no such situation or thinking or attitude or mental relation to it. You just live your life. You just feel so good. You don’t think of anything else at all in this world. You never want anything more in this world.
Even, at that time, I didn’t have a lot of money at all. I told you already, I could only eat some (vegan) chapatis every day, once in the evening when I came back to my hut, the mud hut. And then maybe one (vegan) samosa in the morning when I passed by the old lady who made such heavenly (vegan) samosas that I’ve never tasted so good anywhere else. That was in Rishikesh. It wasn’t the highest Himalayan part. You have to go up higher to Gaumukh. Then it will be the last of the Himalayas that you can reach. Further on, I don’t know if any monks or nuns would stay. It’s more difficult to access there. Now, I did not intentionally become an ascetic there. Same like in a retreat; it’s just the way it is.
In the Buddhist tradition, when you’re in retreat for three months every year, you just have to be alone or be with your similar community people. You don’t eat more than that. Maybe in the Buddha’s time, they had more food. But in my time, I was alone in the back of the temple, which is the room used for the ashes of the Buddhist believers who are dead. And then the relatives brought them there so that they could hear the monks in the front – a little far down below the temple – who recite the sutras to help them to have peace and be liberated from hell or from whatever unfavorable existence. I didn’t have any people to bring food to me every day. I didn’t want to. Of course, I could have asked the monks down there to help bring food to me but I didn’t want to. There were some people who wanted to visit me. I also refused, except for one or two times for my own disciples. At that time, I had a couple of disciples, and they came to visit me in the end because they brought some new people for initiation. I did not want to see a lot of people. I did not want to see anyone. Therefore, I took just sesame and brown rice.
In the first week, I had some orange juice brought to me together with that provision. But later on, there was no more left, so just sesame powder, brown rice, and salt, of course, or some soy sauce. Probably some soy sauce also, but at the end, only salt. And I survived and I didn’t feel bad or sick or anything. On the contrary, when I went out into the world at the request of longing people, then I began to have a little bit of a problem here and there, and then sometimes almost fatal. It could have been fatal, but then God still wanted me to live, to continue to work. Maybe that’s why I survived many attempted assassinations, many life and death medical conditions, and physical sicknesses. But it’s not the asceticism that brought me to where I am or helped me in any way. It is the convenience of it that affords you to be alone and quiet so that you can continue to contemplate on your inner meditation and not be disturbed or distracted by any kind of worldly interference. That’s all.
But I do not – I emphasize – I do not advocate for asceticism as a way to force your body just to feel that you can; of course you can. But do not try to force yourself too much into trouble, alright? I just want to tell you, if you want to have less meals or less troublesome cooked meals, then you can have them more simple. But do not force yourself. OK? If your body cannot bear it, stop immediately and return slowly to normal. Do not immediately jump from one extreme to the next – the relaxing kind of way of life, but always be vegan. Not because you’re scared of karma only, but mainly because we don’t want to hurt any beings.
Even animal beings – they don’t look like us, but they are souls. They have souls in them, and they have a spiritual connection with the Universe. Many animal-people know more than we humans will ever know. They have an acute sense of knowing things that will happen before they even happen. They could see through you. They could predict what you’re going to have as trouble or as an accident. And they try to warn you a lot, but most humans cannot hear the animal-people talk.
Sometimes you see an animal-person suddenly jumping around you and disturbing your TV-watching, because that animal-person knows that that program will bring you bad karma, burden, for example like that. My dog-people know that. Many of them try to stop me many times, but because I have to work, I have to know the world in order to take care of the world, so I have to sacrifice. But if you don’t have to, you must not.
Don’t watch too many worldly programs, especially those violent films and shows. They are very, very bad for you. They deplete your energy. They drag you down to a lower level, even if you’re already on a higher level. They make you sick. They make you ill. They disturb your mental capacity and everything, especially if you watch it at night, when you need to sleep. Even if you are a night person, you better not abuse yourself too much – mentally, psychologically, emotionally, wisdom-wise, because the nighttime is a time to rest, time to meditate, and contemplate on the higher, loftier dimensions in the Universe, nearer to Heaven, nearer to God.
Nighttime is the time of the negative force, who is roaming around and disturbing your peace, sucking up your energy, even influencing you to do wrong, thus creating bad karma for you or/and others consequently!
Photo Caption: Lay Low, Deep in the Forest, So Humble, Hardly Noticed, But Can Live Through Summer and Winter!
