FOOD: A wonderful partner on the journey towards spiritual awakening by Koulia Christofi (member of the Activated Vegan Food group)

Have you ever considered what food provides you with? 

What kind of relationship do you have with food? 

 Most of us consider food to be a vital partner for our survival and enjoyment in this life. 

We eat food to suppress our hunger and take all the nutrients needed for our physical body- the annamaya kosha- to function properly. 

We nurture our emotional body, the pranamaya kosha with moments of joy when gathering around the table with friends and family or when tasting a favourite flavour. 

But is this enough? 

Wouldn’t it be ideal if food could also assist us on our journey towards spiritual awakening? 

One may ask: How can food assist us in this path? 

Food can act as an additional medium for maintaining and enhancing our prana. 

Maintaining our prana at high levels is essential as we follow the path to develop our mental capacity.

An average person spends all their prana in performing the activities that are required for their survival. The front side of the brain, which is responsible for the development of our consciousness, is hypoactive for most of us as it needs big amounts of prana. Therefore, it is very important to preserve, enhance and correctly invest our prana so that we can slowly wake up the frontal lobe that will help us in our spiritual growth. 

 Of course, one can argue that there are so many other ways to achieve that, like pranayama and polarity practices, contact with the five elements of nature, living in the now, having meaningful relationships.

All these are so important in preserving and enhancing our prana but imagine how much more powerful our sadhana would be if we also add to this list the food that we consume daily. 

Activated Vegan Food (AVF)- Qualities Plant based food, which meets certain qualities, can provide us with more prana than what is required for digestion. Hence, it can become a wonderful partner on our journey for spiritual awakening. 

My dear teacher Anandhi has named this type of food as “Activated Vegan Food (AVF)” identifying 3 characteristics that the food needs to have to preserve and enhance our prana.  You can find the pre-recorded course here and study it on your own time. 

1. Alive The 1st characteristic is that it needs to be alive. Alive is the food that maintains high levels of prana and contains at least 95% fresh, raw or freshly cooked ingredients. To make sure that our food is alive we need to soak the seeds, pulses and grains and when possible, to sprout them. Why do we do that? During soaking and especially sprouting, the seed is in the process of growing into a plant and releases all vitamins and other nutrients needed for the plant to grow. Therefore, by consuming a sprouted seed we receive the best it has to offer in terms of nutrients and prana. The sprouting also releases the phytic acid from the seeds which prevents the absorption of certain nutrients. Hence, the nutrients of a sprouted seed can better be absorbed by our body. 

 2. Easily Digested The 2nd characteristic that the food needs to have to maintain and enhance our prana is to be easily digested. This can be achieved with the correct combination of ingredients and the use of mixtures of herbs and spices that help the digestion. Digestion is a complex process that consumes big amounts of prana. Hence, the consumption of simple food that needs less prana for the digestion allows us to save prana and invest it for other purposes. Good digestion is so important for both our physical body and our spiritual growth. Dr. Swami Gitananda said that you can eat anything provided that you can digest it. Digestion is closely related to Manipura chakra, the luminous chakra that rests in the navel region and connects us to the whole universe from where we absorb prana. Undigested food, as well as undigested experiences, can distort our connection to this chakra and block our capacity to see things clearly and to absorb prana. It is important to keep this path as clear as possible by making sure that we can digest both our food and our experiences in life well. A tip to ascertain good digestion of food is to leave gaps between our meals, that is to eat again after we have completely digested our previous meal. It is advisable to leave a 5-hour gap between the meals so that our stomach not only can digest food, but also have time to perform its other activities, such as the production of the serotonin hormone which is responsible for our wellbeing. 

 3. In Tune with the Environment The 3rd characteristic of the Activated Vegan Food is to be in tune with the environment. That is, to consume local and seasonal food. My teacher says that Ammaji always insisted to have freshly cooked food and to shop every day from the local market. This practice is not only ethically correct as it is in line with a more sustainable way of living but also tunes our body to the present conditions. Consumption of food that is in tune with the environment makes our physical functions more efficient and gradually this has the same effect on our mind, as body and mind are not only united but share the same prana. 

 To sum up: Food can become a wonderful partner on the path to maintaining and enhancing our prana. This can be achieved by consuming food that: 1. Is Alive, 2. Is Easily Digested and 3. Is in Tune with the Environment. 

Introducing Activated Vegan Food (AVF) in my life After introducing the AVF in my life 7 months ago, here are my first impressions. Note that I don’t exclusively consume AVF and this allows me to notice the differences when I eat activated and non-activated food. 

First, I would like to admit that AVF is very tasty. I enjoy very much the fact that every main meal includes all 6 flavours: sweet, sour, pungent, bitter, salty, astringent, giving a sense of fullness and satisfaction. Since I started eating AVF, I stopped feeling tired and sleepy after having the main meal of the day. This has had a great effect on my mood as I feel more alert and ready to deal with situations any time they arise. 

 Another important factor is that I have control over the ingredients that I consume. Think about all the preservatives that are included in every processed food. In Activated Vegan Food we don’t need to check any labels as the ingredients we use are natural. 

 Introducing AVF in my life also had a positive influence in helping me quit a habit that did not help my wellbeing, and this was the consumption of coffee. Coffee was an addiction for me rather than a pleasure, that’s why I wanted to get rid of it. At the beginning it was not easy but as the days went by, I realized that I didn’t need that immediate energy boost that coffee used to give me, as I did not feel sleepy and tired after my meals. 

Therefore, I would say that AVF indirectly helped me in quitting coffee. 

Cooking AVF is a joyful process. It feels good to take a break from all other activities and for 20 minutes just focus on preparing a healthy, tasty, and activated meal. 

Having formulas and not recipes allows me to be creative as there are so many ingredients and combinations that can be made. 

I am now using spices and mixtures of spices that are so tasty and which I have never used before and I enjoy the combination of colors that emerge from every different dish. 

 Last but not least, I have the option to prepare a simple or a fancier dish based on my mood and appetite, knowing that any of the two options will sustain and enhance my levels of prana. 

How does all this sound to you? If it sounds appealing and it is something that you would like to do for yourself and those closest to you, there is a wonderful online seminar about Activated Vegan Food created by Anandhi Korina Kontaxaki. 

It includes not only the theory behind this wonderful system but also a step-by-step guidance on how to introduce it in your life. 

 My teacher always says that it is a sin to waste our prana. I would add that it is a blessing to build our life in such a way that we can preserve our prana without much effort. Adding some habits in our daily routine, that can help us enhance our prana, would be ideal. Food, being an integral part of our everyday life, could become a vehicle for enhancing our prana and hence a wonderful partner on our journey towards spiritual awakening.

K.C.