Sadhguru: There is something called as Virudha Ahara. That means
if you eat one thing and put another thing which works opposite to that,
now the damage is big. If you eat anything which has Tamas,
inertia will come in your system. Cognition level slowly will go down.
Professor Swaran: So, Sadhguru, what in your view
is the fundamental cause of mental disorders? Sadhguru: Ah,
if you're asking for one cause? Professor Swaran: One. Could be many?
Sadhguru: See, one thing is the way we eat, it's a very big part of mental illness.
The way we are ingesting chemicals and hormones today unconsciously at various levels,
is a serious part of mental illnesses of this generation. How we ingest,
how we take food in, this may sound a little far-fetched for UK,
but please listen to me carefully. We... we look at life there like this,
you are who you are as a person, you are who you are because of the parentage that you had,
the schools that you went to, the education that you had,
now the exposure that you have in your life.
That's why you’ve will become this kind of a person, isn't it?
It's all, many, many things receiving. So, all the times you're receiving.
What you're receiving is not just information and thought.
Life receives in so many levels; on the energetic level it receives.
So, in India, we see that anywhere if you want to receive something,
first thing is you cross your legs, all right. Right now,
I'm sitting that way, it may not be visible to you.
But first thing is cross your legs because
we don't want to receive from the lower part of our body;
we want to receive... anything positive means we want to receive from the upper part of our body.
So, if you go to some place where we think it's energetically strong,
first thing is we cross our legs and keep our hands open.
Because we want to receive from the dimensions which represent...
You know, in the yogic physiology, it's like this, there are
112 chakras, 114, but actually 112 within the sys... human system.
Out of these 112, there are seven categories of them, sixteen in each one of them.
These seven are generally known in the world today as chakras.
So, the first three are survival processes. And the in between one
is representing a meeting of this. It is from here on (Gestures),
from Anahata onwards, which is enlightening processes of life.
So, in that sense, it is important you receive certain things in certain ways.
Food is considered very basic level of reception.
How we receive food, what we receive is very important. Today, what are we receiving?
Right now, as you see societies get more and more affluent,
they start eating worse and worse food.
What a rural person in India would not touch, very sophisticated cities
are eating that kind of food. When I say that kind of food, almost anything
that western societies are using today are a minimum thirty to sixty days old
In yoga, there food is classified as Sattva, Rajas and Tamas.
Tamas means inertia. If you eat anything which has Tamas,
inertia will come in your system. Inertia does not mean you just become lazy.
Inertia means certain things slow down; certain things means essentially
regeneration of the system slows down.
Today, you know that neural... neuronal regeneration is one of the most
important aspect of keeping your brain reasonably functional throughout your life.
If you are consuming foods which are Tamasic or causes inertia
in the general function of your system, in the energetic process of who you are,
then you will see cognition levels slowly will go down over a period of time.
Because everybody understands this, this is why they're drinking
cups and cups of Coca-Cola or coffee or alcohol or something else,
because they know they need to balance that. So, this kind of balance
is a very rudimentary way of balancing your system,
that you're putting wrong things and then you're trying to correct it with right things
The highest number of antacids in the world, nearly sixty percent of the world's antacids,
sold in America, the most affluent population on the planet.
This means they have a whole choice of nourishment, they can eat the best food,
but no, they will eat the worst food because commercial forces will decide what you eat.
You cannot eat consciously anymore what you want to eat.
Just I'm saying, if everything becomes fresh food... In the yogic culture,
if you cook something, the maximum time in which you can eat it is one-and-a-half hours;
ninety minutes, before that you should have eaten the food.
After that, we won't touch the food because it is started gathering Tamas –
inertia will begin to happen.
If you want to experiment, you can experiment – use something... eat something very fresh
for one week, eat something which is processed and kept for
one month, two months and then eat it. You will see the level of alertness in the system,
you will notice it in your experience. But it is happening at the cellular level.
It is happening in terms of...We call this Ojas; there is no English word for that.
If you create sufficient Ojas, which is a non-physical dimension of energy,
if every cell in your body is wrapped in this,
believe me your aging processes is almost... will not progress.
Your cellular age will almost remain stagnant for a long period of time.
Some of the tests they have done on me and, you know, (Laughs)
they are saying that I'm... my cellular age is twenty-five. Well,
I still am like twenty-five. I'm maintaining the same level of activity,
I'm maintaining the same weight, same everything. This is not some miracle.
Every human being is capable of this with some simple attention to fundamental things.
Going further in terms of food, there is something called as Virudha Ahara.
That means if you eat one thing and put another thing which works opposite to that,
then in your system there is a war. You know digestive process is largely
between acids and alkalines and all this stuff. For example, you eat meat which is fatty;
if you eat it by itself, it may not cause that much damage. But you ate that
with rice and ghee, you call that biryani and you ate it,
now the damage is big because these two things will not go together.
This is why any... any non-vegetarian food and milk and milk-related food were never mixed,
because the moment you mix it, it will go opposite to each other
and you create a battle within yourself. In the yogic culture,
food should should not remain in your stomach bag for more than two-and-a-half hours.
Within two-and-a-half hours, it should have moved out, you must be feeling empty stomach.
Hunger will not come, empty stomach will come, and that is good.
We want our stomach to be always empty because in an empty stomach everything works well.
And the colon health is something that is completely neglected today.
If you do not keep your colon clean keeping your mind in a balanced state is very very difficult.
So, in Ayurveda and Siddha, first thing if you say anything, you are having sleepless nights,
you are having disturbed something, mild, any kind of psychological problems,
first thing is purging. Purge the system, clean the colon, suddenly you feel a little balanced
So, in the yoga centre, the day starts with a small marble-sized ball of neem and turmeric.
There are many aspects to this, of what impact it has on your system.
One immediate thing it will do is, it will keep your alimentary tract clean.
When we say clean, this is the region, this whole digestive process is a region
where you have maximum amount of other life.
So, within this alimentary tract there're a whole host of microorganisms,
many of them have turned friendly to us. We are living because of them,
we are able to digest food because of them. Many, many
functions in the body happen because of them, but still there are many who are harmful to us.
The uniqueness of neem especially when it is taken along with turmeric,
if these two things go together, largely those things which are not necessary for the body,
those things can... that which can harm the body, any kind of parasital life which is there,
all these things get eliminated.
It is not a whole solution but it will bring the basic
necessary atmosphere in the body to make the corrections;
either with medicine or with necessary practices you can bring about correction.
How do we apply this to a person who is suffering right now?
That needs a compassionate approach, not a standard approach, my way or your way,
it is a very silly way to go at it that this is the only way it can be done,
because that's not how human beings are. A judicious action of what
could be maximum right than wrong, more right than wrong is all you can do,
I don't think anybody has an absolute right about mental conditions that people are in.