The role food plays in Spirituality is of vital importance as it governs how you think, feel and vibrate.
Spirituality & plant based diet
Every living being in the Universe has a “life force” within it. Life force energy has been referred to by different names in different cultures, like “Prana” in Hinduism, “Qi” in Chinese traditions or “Ki” in Japanese philosophy. This life force is the spiritual energy that keeps a being alive and healthy. A person that is physically sick has a weak life force than a person that is healthy. The life force fades away when a being dies.
It is not actually the act of eating and digesting food that keeps us alive but this mystical life force that keeps us alive. We draw and ingest this life force from the food that we eat. A food that is alive is rich in life force than a food that is dead. This is why, a plant based diet is spiritually rich as compared with a meat diet of a person who consumes a dead body that is spiritually empty. Vegetables and fruits bear this energy and have the spiritual life force within them.
Foods that are alive also have an aura around them, which could be captured through Kirlian photography. The above image shows the energy field around an apple and around a slice of meat. The more foods you consume that have a high life force energy, the more spiritual energy enters your body. Food derived from plants also helps to balance your chakras and align your energies. The sight or smell of food is enough to help you assess their energy signatures. Fresh fruits and vegetables are beautiful, brightly coloured, feel vibrant and smell good when fresh or even when slightly over ripe. Chopped up meat on the other hand looks bloody, red, scary and smells awful until cooked. You don’t even have to look at the food; reading these words give you a sense of the energy field surrounding the food.
Food is your medicine: How food can heal you
If you have read my article on Chakras, you would remember that all chakras have a specific function and colour. The food that you eat can be correlated to your chakras. Food is one of the many healing agents that could be used to balance your chakra. For example, root vegetables are good for your root chakra. Beetroot, potatoes or fresh red apples are grounding for your root chakra which is also signified by red colour. Oranges or carrots are good for your sacral chakra. Since water is the element for this chakra, liquid foods are also good for this chakra. Yellow foods like lemon and corn helps to balance the Solar Plexus chakra, avocados and green leafy vegetables help the heart chakra and so on.
If you are experiencing a problem in an area of the body that is governed by a particular chakra, eating food of the corresponding chakra characteristic or colour will help in restoring a balance.
Your food has a vibration
Each piece of food that you put in your mouth is a vibrating field of energy. The article on thoughts had mentioned that everything is energy and food is no exception to that law. Vibration of anything (including food) can be affected with focussed intention. The emotion you hold while preparing a meal or even while having a sumptuous meal will affect its vibration. For example, imagine that you go to your favourite restaurant and order your favourite dish. If the food is prepared by a chef that is depressed or is angry with something that happened earlier during the day, he will inadvertently end up transferring those emotions and vibrations of his thoughts to your plate. This food will then be served to you filled with dense low vibration. Eating the dense vibration could make you sick or disbalance your chakras.
This is the reason Reiki practitioners are taught to give Reiki to the food before consuming it. This removes any unwanted energies that have been put into the plate unknowingly. A good cook always knows that a meal has to be prepared with love or made with excitement and passion. But little do they realise that the actual reason behind this lies in the etheric realm. A meal prepared with such positive thoughts will taste extraordinary since it has been pumped with lot of positive emotions and high vibration.
“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.” -Paul McCartney
Moral reasons also play a central role in switching to a plant based diet. You cannot claim be be spiritual if you have a dead animal on your plate. It is that simple. I come across several people in everyday life who approach me for spiritual advice and talk about positivity, energy, healing, crystals and then eat meat with no regrets. Killing another sentient being does not serve the higher purpose, especially when the being has been born in confinement, force fed and tortured all its life before getting culled so that you could enjoy a meal.
Most of these animals live in unimaginable conditions and subjected to harm. They spend their life in fear of being killed and are depressed due to all the abuse. Such low vibration exist in the energy field of these animals due to the abuse sustained by them until they are finally killed. They do not die happy. At the moment of death, they hold a vibration of fear and pain. These low vibrations becomes the energy signature of the meat that you eat. You literally ingest the vibration of fear, trauma, abuse and depression. Eating meat then becomes counterproductive to your spiritual progress. Each time you eat meat, it lowers your vibration and nullifies the efforts you have taken to raise your frequency through Spirituality. There are no such risks involved when you ingest fresh vegetables.
How to finally switch from a meat diet to a plant based diet
“To become vegetarian is to step into the stream which leads to nirvana.” -Buddha
The following steps could help you switch to plant food if you thinking about a positive transformation. If you have read the article on the power of thoughts, then you would know that you have made a great start since everything begins with a thought. Your willpower will play a big role in how committed you are to transform yourself.
People who are too addicted to meat and cannot give up or people who turn to veggies for a while, only to relapse back to a meat diet need a slightly different approach. Just like changing any other habit, this would require a little effort.
There might be times when you cheat on yourself, deviate from the planned routine and catch yourself eating meat. Do not worry. Everyone slips at times. If you catch yourself slipping, start again from Day 0. After resetting your days again and again, you will eventually emerge victorious. Universe will reward your efforts.
If for some reason, it seems a tall order to complete a step, find an external motivation to keep you going. Write yourself little post it notes and stick it on your refrigerator or behind your bathroom door. Write and stick notes around your house with positive affirmations that keep reminding you to stay on the right path (eg: “You are now on a veggie diet” or “You can do it” etc). If required, print out small pictures of cute animals that are commonly eaten and post it on your fridge as a constant reminder that what you are doing is for them. What you are doing, is saving a life and changing the world. These positive affirmations and pictures go a long way to re-wire your brain subconsciously to switch to a plant based diet.
If you are struggling to find good recipes for your diet, there are plenty of apps on iOS and Android that can help you with making a switch. Have your kitchen shelf stocked with the spices or herbs that are commonly used for cooking.
When you first start your journey, you will notice several changes to your vibration. You will feel more energetic and alive since you are now consuming food with life force. You will feel a lot more positive which will do a world of good for your thoughts. You will feel lighter and could feel some of the toxins leave your body gradually during the course of the steps. Consuming food high in vibration will be perfect for your spiritual journey and it will help accelerate the awakening process. Though I do not impose the idea of turning vegan on anyone, I do recommend it to people who seek guidance. In the end, it is your free choice and you must do what feels right for you as everyone is on their own path to spiritual upliftment.