The Essence Of All Religion The Essence Of All Religions | Page 32

The Essence of All Religion
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Dadashri : In your caste, when they cook anything, they
will cook whatever is samrassi for the caste, but if you serve
that to somebody from another caste they will not consider it
samrassi. Perhaps your own caste eats fewer chili peppers
than the other caste does. A samrassi meal means that it is
different for each caste. ‘Samrassi’ means tasty food. It means
that no single ingredient dominates. All the ingredients are
proportional and within normal limits. Just drinking a glass of
milk is not a samrassi meal. It is samrassi when you enjoy all
the six different types of tastes together. If you cannot endure
bitter taste, then substitute this taste with vegetables like karela
(bitter gourd), kankoda (green vegetable in gourd family), etc
or the leafy greens of fenugreek seeds (all these have some
degree of bitterness in them). You have to eat something that is
bitter. Lots of diseases arise as a result of not eating bitter
foods. Then in the end you have to end up taking quinine
(extremely bitter medicine to combat malaria). Because there is
a lack of the bitter taste in our diet, we have problems. All the
six tastes must be included.
Questioner : Is it for the balance of various tastes that
we say, “Dada Bhagwan! Give me strength to eat a samrassi
meal.”
Dadashri : Yes, you have to ask for the strength. What
is your bhaavna? Your bhaavna to take samrassi meal is your
purusharth (effort with awareness, independent will) and when
I give you the strength, your purusharth becomes stronger.
Questioner : Is it true that there should not be any
lubdhapanoo in the taste?
Dadashri : Yes, you should not feel that you do not like
anything other than things that are sour in taste. Many people
will say that they do not like sweet things at all and that they
only like foods that are spicy. This is not called samrassi.