Celibacy

I strongly recommend celibacy and saltless diet to all our sadhakas. Have fruits in the morning and saltless food for lunch. This will make one very determined. Salt is sense gratification. Only one main meal a day.

In 2001 I was requested by Iskcon Pretoria Temple president and co-president was inspired by me. They requested me to live with them and guide them. I immediately put both of them on saltless diet. We used to eat saltless spinach kichidi daily. I also made them keep away from association with the opposite sex. I remember all the females in the temple started to revolt against me that they complained to the local GBC to remove me from the temple. But the two presidents would hear nothing about my removal. What had happened the male members became very determined by this saltless diet and practicing strict celibacy because they were coning masters of the senses. I shared this saltless diet experiment with all of you recently in my announcement. I sent this same message to one of the Iskcon temple president from the Pretoria temple about this experiment. His name was Sri Vrindavan and his reply was as follows: listen to the audio here.

I will share interesting story about eating saltless food. When I went to Nature cure centre in Bangalore they put all patients on saltless diet. Ninety five percent just ate a morsel and fasted for the rest of the day. The next day everyone did the same for few days.

After the fourth day they thought that management will notice that they were not eating and will add some salt. So they decided to try the food on the fourth day and to their amazement the food was very tasty.

In the evening talk they asked the teacher if they changed the cook. The teacher replied that they had not changed the cook or recipe for the last twenty years. But the patients insisted that how come food was so tasty today. The teacher replied: due to you fasting for 3 days, your tongue lost the taste for salty food therefore food was tasty today. I also remember my 2nd son wanted to lose weight so he came with me to Nature cure centre. When he tasted saltless food he decided to fast and he lost 11 kilos in few days.

Prabhus and vaishnavis just try eating saltless food for two weeks with 50 percent salad also without salt as an experiment and tell me how much your senses have become controlled. This is the first healing principle for the body practiced in every nature cure center.

I am giving all these instructions to help you. Just want everyone to control tongue and senses will automatically become controlled as taught by Rupa Goswami. Want to make you spiritually strong by making your body more adaptable. And eat slowly chewing your food 32 times that is why we have 32 teeth. This saltless diet is miraculous. You have more control of your tongue and chanting will become sweeter.

Tongue is not controlled by fasting though other senses are brought under control. To control the tongue you need to eat Sri Krishna prasadam and chant harinama. This will bring the tongue under control. Therefore Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said kirtanyah sada harih.

One should not sleep more than six hours daily.
Bhagavad Gita As It Is

Chapter 6 verse 16
Srila Prabhupada Translation & Purport:

“There is no possibility of one’s becoming a yogī, O Arjuna, if one eats too much or eats too little, sleeps too much or does not sleep enough.”

From the Purport: One who eats more than required will dream very much while sleeping, and he must consequently sleep more than is required. One should not sleep more than six hours daily. One who sleeps more than six hours out of twenty-four is certainly influenced by the mode of ignorance. A person in the mode of ignorance is lazy and prone to sleep a great deal.

Comments by Dharmavira Prabhu

As we can see from above, Srila Prabhupada is clearly stating how many hours we should sleep i.e. 6 hours.

We all should try to follow this seriously. To get up at 3am, one needs to be in deep sleep at 9pm. This is necessary for morning chanting consistently for many years to come.

Are we following?

This is very important for practicing pure bhakti. Getting up early and the only way to get up early is to sleep early. We sleep late due to conditioning. But we can recondition ourselves. According to the scriptures this is the time, this is the hour of the Devatas. Why don’t we take advantage of these hours? Our spiritual advancement will grow in leaps and bounds by following this. One of our devotees named Vraja-bihari das mentioned that I would not get up later than 3 in any circumstances and he served me for ten years. The vibrations in the morning increases one’s chanting by ten times.

This is one of my secrets of both material and spiritual success.
Start Practicing.

From the Purport

The purpose of food is to increase the duration of life, purify the mind and aid bodily strength. This is its only purpose. In the past, great authorities selected those foods that best aid health and increase life’s duration, such as milk products, sugar, rice, wheat, fruits and vegetables. These foods are very dear to those in the mode of goodness. Some other foods, such as baked corn and molasses, while not very palatable in themselves, can be made pleasant when mixed with milk or other foods. They are then in the mode of goodness. All these foods are pure by nature. Fatty foods, as mentioned in the eighth verse, have no connection with animal fat obtained by slaughter.

Animal fat is available in the form of milk, which is the most wonderful of all foods. Milk, butter, cheese and similar products give animal fat in a form which rules out any need for the killing of innocent creatures. Protein is amply available through split peas, dhall, whole wheat, etc.

Foods in the mode of passion, which are bitter, too salty, or too hot or overly mixed with red pepper, cause misery by producing mucous in the stomach, leading to disease.

Foods in the mode of ignorance or darkness are essentially those that are not fresh. Any food cooked more than three hours before it is eaten (except prasādam, food offered to the Lord) is considered to be in the mode of darkness. Remnants of food may be eaten only when they are part of a meal that was first offered to the Supreme Lord or first eaten by saintly persons, especially the spiritual master. Otherwise the remnants of food are considered to be in the mode of darkness, and they increase infection or disease. The best food is the remnant of what is offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Any food prepared by the injunction of the scripture offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead can be taken even if prepared long, long ago, because such food is transcendental. Therefore to make food antiseptic, eatable and palatable for all persons, one should offer food to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.