Onion and Garlic - vedic view

[murali334]

i have heard lot of stories about onion and garlic.

 

Please share your views.....

 

OM NAMA SHIVAYA

Edited July 20, 2009 by murali334

[theist]

 

i have heard lot of stories about onion and garlic. why its been considered

in vedic culture as equivalent to meat eating.

 

Please share your views.....

 

OM NAMA SHIVAYA

 

Equivalant to meat eating is a nonsense proposal IMO.

[Lotus_eye]

Both Onion and garlic are created by God only and there is no saying that they are rakshas plants. The reason it was avoided by vegetarians were because, they were considered to have aphrodisiac properties. Scientifically proven, Garlic is rich in amino acid arginine and low in lysine and onion too. But comparably the levels are far lower than the levels of arginine present in all the nuts. 100 gms of garlic has atleast a 1000 fold lesser arginine than 100 grams of walnut or almond or cashew. Then why these nuts are taken by devotees and offered to God who say that onion and garlic are prohibited without knowing the beneficial effects. Garlic reduces cholesterol in blood and keep in control.

Arginine amino acid enhances the formation of nitric oxide that relaxes the blood preasure and hence garlic is good for someone who has high BP. Since its a relaxant, it also enhances erection and in fact nuts enhances erection more than garlic and onion since they produce more nitric oxide in the process.

For someone involves in exercising and body building (no harm and you can still be a great devotee of Krishna even if you build your body like Arjuna or Bheema or anyone), in fact these vegetables and nuts are very helpful when taken with enough of soya protein since soya protein are used up in muscle building when released slowly aided by nitric oxide retention.

I have no idea why people hate onion and garlic summarily when they are medicinal plants.

Real aphrodisiac is actually the brain and one who control his thoughts can control his desires. Nitric oxide enhances erection only when the brain sends the signals and its not like viagra to bring involuntary reactions.

For someone with Herpes infection both onion and garlic needs to be avoided since they are low in another amino acide lysine.

Hope it helps

Shyam

[stonehearted]

Here's what Kurma has to say about onions and garlic:

Why No Onions and Garlic | Harmonist

[theist]

Babrhu,

 

Kurma das's arguement is a health based one, listing various sources that claimed to show the detrimental effects on the body of the foods in question. I have nothing to say about that. Some praise both foods for their health bestowing properities. Maybe garlic and onions have benefical and detrimental properties both.

 

I wonder how he would deal with commercial cow's milk. Would he be against the use of commercial cow's milk (blood milk) whose list of health destroying properties is far more agreed upon then anything relating to onion and garlic.

 

Just a curiousity on my part.

[Haridasdasdas]

 

Babrhu,

 

Kurma das's arguement is a health based one, listing various sources that claimed to show the detrimental effects on the body of the foods in question. I have nothing to say about that. Some praise both foods for their health bestowing properities. Maybe garlic and onions have benefical and detrimental properties both.

 

I wonder how he would deal with commercial cow's milk. Would he be against the use of commercial cow's milk (blood milk) whose list of health destroying properties is far more agreed upon then anything relating to onion and garlic.

 

Just a curiousity on my part.

 

He would accept what Prabhupada said, since he is Prabhupada's disciple.

[theist]

NITAAI ( NITyananda Gauranga Hare Krishna NAAma BhaktI ) Yoga By HH Bhaktiratna Sadhu Swami Gaurangapada

 

 

 

 

(2) Bone of Cow becomes Garlic & meat becomes Onion

 

The Vedas state that onion and garlic came from the dead body of a murdered cow and therefore they are considered like eating meat. They break the non-vegetarian principle from the strict Vedic shastric point of view. Strict vegetarians don’t eat onion nor garlic. Since meat is tamasic (mode of ignorance), onions and garlic are also tamasic and rajasic food (mode of ignorance and passion). They may have some medicinal value like even wine is used in medicines sometimes but no one will die without eating them. Devotees do not eat onion and garlic also for the reason that they cannot offer the food cooked with onion and garlic to the Lord as per the principles of Bhakti yoga. So if the Lord does not accept it, then the devotees do not get prasadam.

 

“Once, in Satya Yuga the rishis were performing gomedha and asvamedha sacrefices for the welfare of the whole universe. A cow or a horse would be cut into pieces and placed in the fire. Afterwards the risis would utter mantras and the same animal would come alive in a beautiful young body. One time the risi who was about to perform a gomedha sacrifice, his wife was pregnant. She had a very strong desire to eat and she had heard that if, during pregnancy one has a desire to eat and does not fullfil this, then the baby that will be born will always have saliva coming from its mouth. Very strangely, she desired strongly to eat meat, thus she decided to keep one piece of meat of the cow’s body that was offered in sacrifice. She hid it and was making a plan to eat it very soon. At that time the rishi was finishing the sacrifice and uttered all the mantras for the new young cow to come to life. However when he saw the new cow, he noticed that there was a little part missing from her left side. He went into meditation and realized that his wife had taken away a piece of meat during the sacrifice. Now his wife also understood what happened and quickly threw the meat far away in a field. Due to the effect of the mantras uttered by the rishi there was now life in this piece of meat. Then the bones in that piece of meat became garlic and the meat became onions in that field. Thus these foods are never taken by any Vaishnava devotee because it is not vegetarian. Plus it is in the mode of ignorance."

 

 

 

(3) Blood of demon Saimhikeya becomes Onion & Garlic

 

Here is another story, from Puranic Encylopedia by Vettam Mani (under CANDRA VI.), (Kamba Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda and Bhagavata, Astama Skandha. Kamba Ramayana is a Tamil text by poet Kambar):

 

“Solar eclipse according to the Puranas. The Devas and the asuras jointly churned Ksirabdhi wherefrom emerged Dhanvantari with the Amrtakumbha (pot of nectar). But an asura mayavi (magician) called Saimhikeya absconded to Patala with the Amrtakumbha which nobody noticed as everybody was busy with dividing other divine objects. Only after the mayavi’s disappearance was it noticed that the Amrtakumbha was missing. At once Mahavishnu assumed the figure of a beautiful woman, got back the Kumbha and gave it to the devas. The devas began drinking the amrta when, at the instance of some other devas, Saimhikeya, the mayavi, assuming the form of an old Brahmin reached svarga, got a share of the amrta and began to drink it. Surya and Candra (Sun and Moon) who were on guard at the gates divined the secret of the ‘old Brahmin’ and informed Mahavishnu about it. He cut the throat of the pseudo-Brahmin with his Sudarsana Chakra. But, half of the nectar he had drunk stayed above the throat and the other half below it. Therefore, though the head and the trunk were severed they remained alive. These two parts, in course of time, evolved as Rahu and Ketu.

 

When the throat was cut some blood dropped on on the ground, and became the red onion and the white onion (garlic) respectively. So both onion and garlic originated from the throat and blood of the demons or asuras, thus their consumption brings us closer to tamo guna (mode of ignorance) which characterizes the nature of the demons and thus is detrimental to Bhakti.”

---------------------

 

So in the Puranas there a differing stories to the nasty origins of onion and garlic so I guess you will have to take your choice on which to believe. Myself I don't believe either one.

 

One thing though appears certain. These stories are the origins of the demonization of garlic and onion in India. If there are scientific reasons to avoid them then fine but to let these myths alone rule our thinking and actions is a silly thing IMO.

[OmHari]

Those who are vegetarians (Onion , garlic, and other roots included) might get appalled reading what you posted above(happens often to some who try to follow "faith" or "religion" and come across them )

The better answer I got is " Onion, garlic stinks and makes our body stink, and with stinking bodies, we cannot enter deity room and thats why we dont consume"

 

Onions and garlic were grown indigenously and have been eaten since prehistoric times.In Ayurveda, medicinal and healing values of garlic are mentioned.

 

Onion and garlic helps boosting up immunity, fighting against coughs and colds, asthma, warding off several diseases, parasites in intestines and many infections . Even modern researches confirm those healing benefits of Allium species.

 

In poor rural places in India, onion is almost a staple food, where they cant eat vegetables every often. Comparing that to eat meat means we are changing the definition of vegetarianism.

 

I am having hard time in believing these stories already, and in my opinion these things discourage some people to join "faith". I think being vegetarian/vegan would be enough, and limiting diet even not eating, carrots, or radishes, red lentlils, tomatoes, seem to me little outrageous

[theist]

The thing that I cannot grasp it that some highly intelligent people have fallen into this trap and actually believe that eating said vegetables is the same as eating meat. It's just bizarre.

 

Some years back on this very forum some disciples of a prominent GV guru were here saying those of us who ate carrots were meat eaters. All of these superstitions like an eclipse being some demon swallowing the Sun, really cloud the sublime teaching of transcendental Krishna consciousness.

[OmHari]

 

NITAAI ( NITyananda Gauranga Hare Krishna NAAma BhaktI ) Yoga By HH Bhaktiratna Sadhu Swami Gaurangapada

 

“Once, in Satya Yuga the rishis were performing gomedha and asvamedha sacrefices for the welfare of the whole universe. A cow or a horse would be cut into pieces and placed in the fire. Afterwards the risis would utter mantras and the same animal would come alive in a beautiful young body. One time the risi who was about to perform a gomedha sacrifice, his wife was pregnant. She had a very strong desire to eat and she had heard that if, during pregnancy one has a desire to eat and does not fullfil this, then the baby that will be born will always have saliva coming from its mouth. Very strangely, she desired strongly to eat meat, thus she decided to keep one piece of meat of the cow’s body that was offered in sacrifice...

 

 

 

What, all these in Satya yuga:eek2:

 

 

All of these superstitions like an eclipse being some demon swallowing the Sun, really cloud the sublime teaching of transcendental Krishna consciousness.

I would like keep as far as possible from superstitions, and as near as possible towards loving Hari

[dev singh]

from my reading i have come to understand that foods with pungent or sharp smell and tastes are to be avoided. not because of sin, but as an aspiring spiritualist, avoiding these foods would help in controling of desire, be it sexual or taste wise. i think it depends of the level of control that the individual has that would determine waether or not they should eat hese foods. as sri ramakrishna says " a young plant must be well guarded, but when fully grown, an elephant can be tied to it " the plant would be your spiritual life and by avioding these things in early spiritual growth, later on when control is there, there is no need to abstain because you now have control over desires

[raghu]

 

The thing that I cannot grasp it that some highly intelligent people have fallen into this trap and actually believe that eating said vegetables is the same as eating meat. It's just bizarre.

 

Some years back on this very forum some disciples of a prominent GV guru were here saying those of us who ate carrots were meat eaters. All of these superstitions like an eclipse being some demon swallowing the Sun, really cloud the sublime teaching of transcendental Krishna consciousness.

 

Eating carrots is not equivalent to eating meat.

 

Neither is eating garlic and onion equivalent to eating meat, as you have stated earlier.

 

However, orthodox Hindus (including Vaishnavas) do not eat garlic and onion because of their rajasic qualities.

[OmHari]

 

Eating carrots is not equivalent to eating meat.

 

Neither is eating garlic and onion equivalent to eating meat, as you have stated earlier.

 

However, orthodox Hindus (including Vaishnavas) do not eat garlic and onion because of their rajasic qualities.

 

Namaste,

 

Are you saying that only "Satvik" food can be offerable to Hari? What about spices?

 

And wondering where does it mention, what food is satvic and what food is tamasic.The original texts only describes the qualities of food and not names of food.

 

Any way, I think being vegetarian is very important if we want to know about loving God or loving others or even self. If we worship deities but dont respect the Supersoul present in other life forms, then we cannot understand love for Hari.

[kaisersose]

 

Namaste,

 

Are you saying that only "Satvik" food can be offerable to Hari? What about spices?

 

With due respect, it is not like Hari is gonna eat the food offered to him. Whatever food is offered to him will ultimately have to eaten by you or someone else. Therefore, obviously, you have to offer food that you consume and therefore (again) these restrictions are based on your diet and are not coming from Hari. I do not think anyone here takes the position that Hari will frown upon an offering of carrot halwa because carrot is a "forbidden" vegetable...or that Hari the universal God is partial to a desi diet.

 

These are distractions that many people easily fall prey too. At some point, most of their religious activities are about following rules than actual worship. Rules vary from one Vaishnava group to another and several times there are conflicting rules adopted by people even inside the same tradition! Everyone has an opinion and no two opinions are fully alilke.

 

Stick to what is common among all these groups and you are in a much better position. Or else, you will find yourself spending most of your time figuring out rules and struggling to adhere to them.

 

 

Any way, I think being vegetarian is very important if we want to know about loving God or loving others or even self. If we worship deities but dont respect the Supersoul present in other life forms, then we cannot understand love for Hari.

 

I fail to see how a vegetarian diet accomplishes this goal. The garden slug has the supersoul present in it too, but do vegetarians care? No. And what about people? Vaishnavas hate non-Vaishnava Hindus, though technicaly speaking, these non-Vaishnavas have the Supersoul too. We hate terrorists, we hate people whose views differ from ours, etc, etc. The list is not small.

 

Obviously diet comes nowhere close to addressing your goal of respecting the supersoul in other life forms. Worshipping Hari to the best of his ability is all that any Vaishnava can do. The rest are just details.

 

Cheers

[smaranam]

 

We hate terrorists

 

 

We hate terror not terrorists. Terrorists are in total seperation from God and they need sympathy and education and bhakti. Its mostly a question of

"But who will bell the cat ?"

[sant]

 

We hate terror not terrorists. Terrorists are in total seperation from God and they need sympathy and education and bhakti

Im happy to see someone who thinks like that.

God Bless you smaranam ji

[kaisersose]

 

We hate terror not terrorists.

 

it is my opinion that the general pulbic (including Vaishnavas) do not differentiate betwen the two. When we say we dislike corrupt politicians, we do not mean we dislike corrupt politics. We actually dislike those individuals. Ditto with other criminals like pedophiles, serial killers, etc.

 

 

Terrorists are in total seperation from God and they need sympathy and education and bhakti.

 

That is wrong. Terrorists are driven by religious ideals which means they do not consider themselves apart from God. On the contrary they consider themselves closer to God than most people.

 

As for sympathy and education, they are sympathetic to their own people and many of them have decent education too. Finally about Bhakti, like I said earlier, they are religious to a fanatic degree, which in their world would mean they possess more Bhakti than most people on the planet.

 

Cheers

[sant]

 

When we say we dislike corrupt politicians, we do not mean we dislike corrupt politics. We actually dislike those individuals.

 

 

Quote:

 

Dislike and hate are two different words.

[smaranam]

May Hari bless you eternally Sant ji

[sant]

Hate in my opinion is an ill feeling.

So whoever it is there shouldnt be any reason to hate.

Not like i dont hate someone.

But its hard to stop ill feelings towards someone who has caused hurt to you or who you think has caused hurt.

But sometimes illfeelings come themselves and the devil inside you becomes alive.

[chandu_69]

 

We hate terror not terrorists. Terrorists are in total seperation from God and they need sympathy and education and bhakti. Its mostly a question of

"But who will bell the cat ?"

 

I read terrorists proclaim "god is great" while going on a killing spree.The terrorists and their masterminds have god on their mind at least 5 times a day.The heads of these terrorist organizations are religious scholars and are deeply immersed in Bhakthi(of their variety)

 

It is actually ignoramuses like you who need sympathy.

Now the question is who will educare people like you?.

[smaranam]

 

I read terrorists proclaim "god is great" while going on a killing spree.The terrorists and their masterminds have god on their mind at least 5 times a day.The heads of these terrorist organizations are religious scholars and are deeply immersed in Bhakthi(of their variety)

.

 

I do not have a lot of knowledge at all, to talk to scholars like yourself, also don't have a lot of time to continue right now, nevertheless....

 

There is spirituality and there is religiosity, or wrong kind of religiosity.

"Their kind of bhakti" is not spirituality. They are disjoint from the Supersoul.

Not that ordinary material people, atheists, aspiring devotees are completely aligned with Him. But the terrorists are even further away from Him.

 

Rumi the Sufi Saint was aligned with Him.

Terrorists ? You know the answer.

[chandu_69]

 

I do not have a lot of knowledge at all, to talk to scholars like yourself, also don't have a lot of time to continue right now, nevertheless....

I am not a scholar.I am just more clued than you on what other religions teach.

 

 

There is spirituality and there is religiosity, or wrong kind of religiosity.

"Their kind of bhakti" is not spirituality. They are disjoint from the Supersoul.

 

Well, the terrorists think people like you follow wrong kind of worship(Murti worship, for instance), which is backed up by their scriptures and the understanding of the theologists of their scriptures.

 

 

 

Rumi the Sufi Saint was aligned with Him. Terrorists ? You know the answer.

 

You should know sufism( including the rumi variety) is not recognized as mainstream.

[kaisersose]

 

There is spirituality and there is religiosity, or wrong kind of religiosity. "Their kind of bhakti" is not spirituality. They are disjoint from the Supersoul.

 

That is just a matter of opinion as they think idol worshippers are disjointed from the supersoul and are wrong. However, all this aside, Prabhupada has endorsed that Allah and all other other foreign (non-Indian) Gods are none other than Krishna. Let us check the implications of such an identification.

 

1) Allah = Krishna & Krishna = Allah (per Prabhupada)

 

2) In the Arabian desert, Krishna preached Jihad to Mohamed as part of the Islam religion. In simple terms, people who did not align by Mohamed's new religion and people who worshipped idols, were to be put to the sword and that would please Krishna immensely.

 

3) Allah preached to Arjuna in India that people who think of him during their time of death will reach his lotus feet.

 

4) When the terror team crashed places into the WTC, they were shouting the name of Allah (aka Krishna), which means they were thinking of him during the time of death.

 

5) Plus, they also engaged in Jihad as preached by Krishna.

 

6) 4 and 5 together means, these terrorists reached the lotus feet of Krishna by following his instructions given out in two different countries under two different names.

 

If one agrees with the identity of Krishna = Allah as proposed by Prabhupada, then one cannot disagree with conclusion 6, no matter how much one can try to tap dance around it.

 

Cheers

[smaranam]

1. They do not like Hindu's way of worship. So ?

 

Due to perceived injustice , should people go around harming civilians, because Krishna says in the Gita "Arjuna, pick up your arms and fight" ? And claim on top of that that its because they disagree with others' worship?

 

2. I do know that Sufism is not mainstream. That doesn't mean Muslim Grihastas and those in Islamic Varnashram all agree with the viewpoint of terrorist organizations.

 

3. Why bring Srila Prabhupad into this ? This was my view long before knowing about him.

 

4. Whether these people are motivated by false ego, distorting and misusing the Koran words out of context, whether their cause is free of ego, whether their injustice is real or not, Allah alone knows. Allah alone knows whether they go to Allah-loka or pay a price for their Karma on earth.

 

5. Have these people ever wondered whether the Holy wars they are permitted to wage could be symbolic ?

 

----------

 

6. One of my Shiksha Gurus once said : Krshna reciprocates as we surrender. (BG 4.?) Hence there are 84 crore species on earth. Souls get bodies acc. to desires - to fly, swim, walk etc.

 

 

7. So we can easily say that ....

 

Krshna reciprocates as we surrender, in quality, quantity, intensity and variety.

 

This is why there are so many abodes in the spiritual sky - Golok, Vaikuntha , Dwarka, Ayodhya, Kailash .... as well as Kingdoms of Allah, YHWH, Jehovah.

 

Don't Christians and Muslims have karma and rebirth ?

 

MOTHER SAYS ....

 

a. To a peaceful, responsible child who makes intelligent decisions : "Vegetables give good vitamins and minerals. We should eat vegetables"

 

b. To a child having soft corner for junk food or who breaks boundaries "Eat up your vegetables or else you will not be able to walk, jump, think , grow tall"

 

 

No doubt, Hinduism is the mother religion. Vedic and Sanatan.

We are extremely fortunate to be born into, come across or adopt it.

 

We are previledged to know thru' Vedic knowledge ....

 

* that God leaves the fair and just law of Karma on auto-pilot , so He can do better things - like being a benevolent and loving personal companion, so we can experience His bliss, His sat-chit-anand nature.

 

*That He assigns the wrath, thunder-lightning, floods part to Indra, Varun , Agni so that He is free to disguise as the bangle seller and dress Radha's wrists with bangles right under her family's nose.

 

 

 

From onions to terror. Oh well...