Influence of Jain Food on India

Jainisim is governed with the idea of non-violence or ahimsa. This high ideal has had a tremendous influence on India's cuisine resulting in India's glorious vegetarian culture

Jainism is a very evolved philosophy and a very gentle religion. Many Jains have very soft and peaceful souls and very simple lives and they command respect wherever they go. This philosophy was also seen as having many good ideals by ancient India and many of its principles have been naturally incorporated into Hinduism and India's culinary culture.

Jainism takes non violence to a very strict level and respect life at any level including plant life. They make sure that there lifestyle does not cause injury to anyone. Gandhiji has been influenced greatly by this philosophy and in turn influencing Martin Luther King to resort to non violence.

As a result of this the Jain diet consists of grains like wheat, rice, lentils or pulses and beans, oil-seeds are recommended as they fall under the category of non-injurious food. They are yielded only when their plants get dried of their own after their age ends. Fruits and vegetables that become ripe on the plants or branches of trees or those that fall on their own after becoming ripe, are used for food.

Jains are strict vegetarians and many also avoid root vegetables as it is violent to plants. They also avoid any liquor so they can live a mindful life. Other aspects of their food philosophy is that they regularly offer food to poor people, fast on certain days, do not waste any food, drink filtered water and eat after sunrise and before sunset.

In Jain conduct, uneatables are stated to be of five kinds:
Articles involving injury or death of mobile-beings e.g. Meat.
Articles involving injury or death to many creatures
E.g. Root vegetables as they involve destruction of countless one-sensed beings.
Intoxicants e.g. Wine etc.
Articles not worthy of use e.g. Saliva, Stool, and Urine.
DespicableArticles causing harm to the health are uneatables of the fifth category.

Jain ideas can be traced back to the seventh century B.C. in India, though it was Mahavir Jain who formalized the philosophy of what was to be known as Jainism in the sixth century. Mahavira, most likely born around 540 BC, was a Kshatriya of high Licchavi tribal birth. At the age of 30, he renounced family life and proceed to live, for the next 12 years, as an ascetic.

See Also:

• What is Jain Food?
• Night Eating Facts
• Jain Food Habits: Some Facts

Spicy Indian Vegetarian Food Beats H1N1 Virus

Banglore: The next time you are served spicy vegetarian food do not grimace, because it is the much sought-after manna from heaven that has been lately found to effectively stave off the fatal impact of the dreaded H1N1 virus.

Researches have thrown light on the possibility of spicy Indian vegetarian menus restricting the number of swine flu deaths to just over 500 in a country with a population of 1.03 billion. The World Health Organisation (WHO) had initially warned that India would be the hotspot of swine flu impact.

Nutritionists, too, now attribute the muted impact of swine flu in India to spicy dishes, which are rich in anti-oxidants that boost the body's immunity system. Bangalore-based nutritionists told DNA that spicy Indian menus could just be the right answer to effectively prevent contracting the H1N1 virus.

Indians have a lot of vegetables, fruits and spices on their menu - a fitting recipe to fight the swine flu infection, the nutritionists said.

"Indian food has a lot of spices and herbs, vegetables and fruits, and there is no doubt that this has helped fight the infection among Indian swine flu patients, minimizing the mortality rate," says Farhana Afroz, chief nutritionist and head of dietetics department, Wockhardt Hospital, Bannerghatta Road.

A research by an Alabama team in the US has found that high levels of antioxidants -- present in spices, vegetables and fruits -- can neutralize a lethal action by a villainous protein that destroys crucial cells in the inner linings of the lungs.

These cells, known as epithelial cells, expel fluids from within the lungs and prevent pneumonia, the most common cause of death among H1N1 patients. But once the cells are destroyed by the protein, the lungs retain fluid, leading to pneumonia.

The Alabama research, published in the November issue of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Journal, shows how antioxidants that are found in abundance in plant-based foods, might hold the key in preventing the flu virus from wreaking havoc on human lungs.

The research team first injected frog eggs with anti-oxidants, and then infused the M2 protein along with the lung cells of a mouse into them. They discovered that the antioxidants in the frog eggs stopped the M2 protein from destroying the mice's lung cells.

Jain Food Habits | Night Eating Facts

By Mahavir Sanglikar

For orthodox Jains, eating after night is a sin. The logic behind it is that after sunset, there are lot of insects and invisible creatures everywhere, and if you eat after sunset, these insect and creature can fall in your food. Thus you will eat them unknowingly with your food, and you will be a cause of killing them. Obviously, for the orthodox Jains, the night eaters become great sinners.

Many Jain monks always like to speak against night eating in their discourses. For them, bashing night eaters has become a top priority thing.

Now, let us see what were the facts behind banning night eating, and is it practical to eat before sunset in modern days.

Just before one hundred years, there was no electricity in India. Soon after sunset, there was a blackout like situation everywhere. Not only Jains, but also people of all communities used to eat before sunset. There was no difference between human beings and animals on this front. It was a natural thing for all of them to eat before sunset and go to sleep after it. Sleeping at 7 to 8 P.M. and to wake up at about 4 A.M. was a routine thing for most of the people. Literary references confirm these facts. Even today, there are many villages in remote areas in India, where electricity has not reached yet. The routine life of people there is similar to the abovementioned situation.

Entry of electricity in India changed the lifestyle of people rapidly. This process was boosted by industrialization and the entry of radio and television. Today the timings of going to sleep and waking up are very different from the timings mentioned above. Generally people go to sleep after 10 to 11 P.M. and wake up at 6 to 7 A.M. Note that in both the situations, the sleeping period is 8 hours, which is ideal for human beings.

Now coming to the point, it is very practical for most of the people to take a dinner at 8 PM to 9.30 P.M. They eat at bright light and there is no question of falling insects in the food plates. Everybody knows it. Realizing this, the bashers of night eating are saying now that eating before sunset is better for health as it allows a gap between eating and sleeping. If you eat at night and soon go to sleep, it would create health problems etc.

Now, some questions arise. Was the practice of eating before sunset for health reasons? The answer is: No! No Jain texts say that one should eat before sunset for his/her health. The only reason they give is the falling of the insects and creatures in the food plate.

Well, now coming to the so-called health benefits of eating before sunset. In prior times, the people used to eat before sunset, say at 6.00 P.M., they were going to sleep at 7.00 to 7.30 P.M. Now people eat at around 9 P.M. and go to sleep at 10 to 10.30 P.M. In both the situations, the time gap between eating and sleeping is about 1 to 1.30 hours. This proves that the health reason is a new ‘invention’, invented just to force the out of dated practice on people.

The truth is that orthodox people do not want to leave most of such outdated practices even if they have become just madness. Although they do not know ABC of Science, they try to find ‘science’ in such practices. But they are very confused people, as eventually they like to bash science also, and at the other times they have to take support of science. It is just ridiculous!

Jains should stop to follow and promote such out of dated and stupid practices and work on awaken the people on bigger sins like frauds, thefts, lies and hatred etc. It is a very shameful thing for Jain community that they are on forefront in economic crimes and offences. Shameful thing is that most of the Gutkha manufacturers belong to Jain community. They are responsible to spread cancer like diseases in Indian youth. But the Jain monks like to invite these Gutkha kings in their so-called religious functions. After all, Jainism is running on bad money!

Jains should remember that any religion is measured on what the follower community does and not on what is written in its scripture.


Post Box No. 58
Chinchwad East, Pune 411019
India
Cell No. 91 962 372 5249, 927 309 3122
Email: jainway@gmail.com
Blog: http://jainway.blogspot.com/