Ask The Guru

While we are on this food topic, let me bring to your notice an interesting classification of food types by Indian food scientists.

According to Sri Krishna (as explained in the Gita),

There are three kinds of food:

White food (sattvic, balanced, invigorating, calm),

milk, paayasam, any prasadam material offered to God,
many fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, fruit juices,
cow's ghee made from freshly churned buttermilk/yogurt
fish eaten very sparingly

To be preferred over other types of food.

Red food (rajasic - passion-rousing),
most restaurant food, spicy food including
samosas pakoDas, chaat :-)
vegetable oils

to be eaten in moderation by normal people, to be completely
avoided by those who want to become the SuperMen of the World.

Black food (tamasic - dullness/sleep-inducing)
meat (especially beef, pork are the darkest),
intoxicants and habit-forming agents (caffeine, drugs,
alcohol, tobacco)
excessively cooked food,
any food cooked more than a day ago.

to be avoided as much as possible by one who wants
to acquire great concentration, intelligence and achieve
great things in life.

The darker your food mix gets, the duller you become, like a sloth.
The redder your food mix gets, the more passionate you become, like a tiger.
The whiter your food mix gets, the sharper, calmer and more self-controlled you become, like a lion.

> I was wondering if Non-Vegetarianism and the Gayatri Mantra could both go
> together.

The real question is not if they go together, but how effective the
anuShThaana (practice of gayatri) will be if accompanied by such habits.

My answer is based on what Sri Aurobindo and The Mother said in

The Four Austerities and Four Liberations

The short answer is that
the saadhaka's progress will be like that of a crippled man dragging himself
along on an uphill path.
Yes, there will be some effect, but miniscule.

Now the long answer.
Forget about Gayatri Mantra.

Even a person's normal buddhi (intelligence) (mental sharpness,
agility and viveka, intuition) gets gradually dulled if one eats meat, since meat is taamasic food, and tamasic food
induces tamas laziness, dullness, lack of fine discrimination
and agility.
It glues one to one's baser animal instincts and prevents the flowering of higher faculties.

Higher powers (such as direct perception of Reality) stabilize in a man
only after he quietens his baser sensory impulses and cravings,
his chitta vrttis (agitations of the mind) and lastly his attachment to fixed ideas.
Leading a taamasic/rajasic life including
- eating meat or any tantalizingly spicy food for that matter,
- consuming material intoxicants and stimulants (including coffee, smoke,
drugs, alcohol)
- thinking ill of others (let alone talking)
- gossiping, blabbering frequently
all of these so badly agitate the subconscious mind that the
mind becomes unreceptive to the Enlightenment descending on the
consciousness. Eventually the higher Shakti recedes, leaving the soul to
its fate. Some of the visible effects of this are
- dullness of mind (manda buddhi),
- inability to make good decisions in career or personal life due to
loss of viveka (discrimination) and alertness.
- loss of focus, self-control at critical moments leading to screw-ups in life.
- loss of balanced, unprejudiced judgement.

The purpose of Gayatri mantra is to invoke the Supreme to
impel/enlighten our intellect to receive higher things such as intuition
(Truth-perception) that turn even ordinary man into a genius (Einstein).
(I'm ignoring self-realization for the moment, because it goes over
people's heads).

But if one keeps the intellect attached like a slave to lower things,
calling for higher things like Knowledge and Power to descend on him
will be fruitless, obviously.

Mind you, it is *not* the Gayatri mantra that loses power, but it is one
who indulges in tamas and rajas that can't receive and benefit from
that power, like seeds dropped on a hard floor vs. fertile soil.

Doing Gayatri while indulging in taamasic/rajasic food is like pouring water into a pot
while punching holes in it. Very little stays.

But, you may ask, what about all the great scientists of the world who eat beef and
pork?. They are achieving what little they are achieving based on
whatever little tapas/concentrated effort they accrued in their past (lives). I'd say that is
little because, compared to the occult supernatural powers and the vast knowledge of the universe our sages had, the discoveries made by modern scientists
seem like baby steps. We are awed at the discoveries that modern scientists are making, only because we don't have modern examples of the other side
to compare against. If we, the modern scientists, observe the tapasya
rules, our progress in science would be much more rapid and
effective, according to Paramahamsa Yogananda. The current pace of science is like running with legs tied.