Guru Purnima

Guur Purnima is also celebrated as Buddha's Jayanti (birthday)

Click on the above picture to read better.

It is Guru Poornima...The full moon day when Gurus --teachers are honoured.

Here is some reading on it. (click please)

Here is an earlier v. brief entry on the same day!

Realising that a culture has dedicated an entire day to teachers, and that too centuries ago tells you what the culture is about. 

It is these things that make me fall in love with Hinduism and its off shoots over and over again. 

Unique Relationship: A quiz

SO, since no one responded, here is the response.....

As a youtube video.... click to watch

Now, how many of you already knew it?

Can you guys guess? If so, please comment.  I will update this post in a week or so.

What is the unique relationship here? (first published on July 4, 2019

Paushtik Aahaar (Nutritious Nutrition)

The word Paushtik means Nutritious.  Ahaar, generally used to mean food, actually means diet. You may be interested in an award winning blog of the same name: Ahaar.

I wanted to share above picture, which I stole from twitter to show traditional punjabi food. To be specific punjabi food for farmers, not sedentary workers like us.

1. Sarson da Saag: Spinach curry (usually served with dollops of ghee)
2. Makki di Roti: Corn chappati/roti. 
3. Ghar da makkhan: home made butter (white)
4. Dahi: home made yogurt. 
5. Hari mirch (green chilli)
6. Piyaaz: Fresh peeled Onions
7. NImbu da acchar: Homemade lemon pickle
8. Lassi: Milk and yogurt drink. Can be sweet or salty, and very popular at Indian restaurants.

It is important to note that this is all vegetarian. Even though punjabis eat meat, quite often.  This is also occupation and geography appropriate food. All the ingredients are grown in the state.  Saag and make di roti, are winter food.  Between February and October diet will vary.  Chappatis are made with wheat, there is more rice and also lentils and other vegetables.  Lassi however, is more popular in warmer months.  So, here it is out of place.

Each item on the plate is well thought out. The spinach curry takes quite a bit of work to prepare, as does the makki chapatti.  Spinach leaves have to be washed, cut, boiled, ground by hand or blended in a mixer, boiled and sometimes lentils are added, loads of ginger and onions are added to it.  Once done it is blended or ground again, and a special mix of spices especially using cumin is added.  

I remember my french friend, Madam A saying, 'that is too many steps', whenever she saw me cooking. 

i am working on putting together another blog about food and significance of proper diet. 

But want to explain here briefly that according to Indian wisdom, mainly hindu wisdom, food can be three types.

1. Sat-that which cultivates values of goodness and calm

2. Rajas-that cultivates activity more than calmness

3. Tamas-that which cultivates feeling of laziness, and even aggression. 

Purely vegetarian, simple food is Sattvic.  The one with spices is Rajasic and the one with meat is Tamasic.

Hence the focus on vegetarianism in ayurveda, Indic medicine (Ayurveda means, the science of longevity).