Vast numbers of people face the difficulty of the craving for food, whether in the form of eating more than their body requires, or eating foods that carry little nutritional benefit but which represent large caloric content or which satisfy a particular craving for a specific taste. There are substantial downsides to indulgence in food cravings, including unnecessary weight gain and the health impacts that come along with that.
For the spiritual seeker, the physical impacts are just a part of the concern. The more an individual fixates on food, obtaining food, preparing food, enjoying food, the more it can act as a distraction to his spiritual sadhana. The concentration is diverted and time is invested in the food-craving cycle that could, and should be better spent in a focus on the development of the spiritual opening and its integration into the being.
There are many subtle triggers for the desire for food or the craving of specific foods. Some of these are the result of food being treated as an emotional support, a response to stress or as some kind of ‘reward’ mechanism trained into one as a child. In some cases, food represents a sublimation of an otherwise suppressed sexual energy which pushes the second chakra, the seat of the lower vital, with that unfulfilled energy rising slightly from the first chakra, but being prevented from its normal outlet by the action of suppression.
In some instances, cravings arise as a result of changes in hormonal balance or response to a stressful situation. The food acts to manage the reactions and in some cases helps to reduce the residual stress. As we host a population of bacteria in our digestive system, there are occasions when signals from this bacterial colony are sent for nourishment it needs, or craves.
In some instances, the vital enjoys the taste of the food as part of its normal human means of satisfaction, in the absence of the higher and more refined forms of enjoyment found in the experience of spiritual bliss.
The physical body is able to send signals to the brain about its needs for specific nutrients, so it is useful to be able to stand back and observe the various desires or cravings that arise and thereby distinguish the differential causes of the desire or craving, and respond appropriately as part of the process of managing the vital and physical nature and aiding in the eventual transformation of the body-vehicle.
With the eventual development of the supramental manifestation in the human being, vast changes in bodily functionality have been envisioned, including changes that might radically alter our relationship with food or even our need for obtaining nourishment through food. While this change is apparently not imminent, it is useful to recognise that past habits of interaction do not necessarily determine the shape of the future.
Sri Aurobindo observes: “It is the attachment to food, the greed and eagerness for it, making it an unduly important thing in the life, that is contrary to the spirit of Yoga. To be aware that something is pleasant to the palate is not wrong; only one must have no desire or hankering for it, no exultation in getting it, no displeasure or regret at not getting it. One must be calm and equal, not getting upset or dissatisfied when the food is not tasty or not in abundance — eating the fixed amount that is necessary, not less or more. There should be neither eagerness nor repugnance.”
“To be always thinking about food and troubling the mind is quite the wrong way of getting rid of the food-desire. Put the food element in the right place in the life, in a small corner, and don’t concentrate on it but on other things.”
Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pg. 66
Sri Aurobindo Studies 