Why Onion and Garlic is Not Vegetarian — Loving Foods

Onion and garlic are the most important part of our daily life and for some people, it is impossible to imagine their food without onion and garlic. But in some Hindu communities Like Vaishnav and brahmins, onion and garlic are strictly prohibited. Not only this some people consider onion and garlic as non-veg. As per modern medical science onion and garlic both have very good medicinal properties, Not only as per modern medical science, Ayurveda ( The ancient Hindu healing system ) also says that both onion and garlic have medicinal properties. So this makes us a lot confused is it good to eat onion garlic or not. in this article, we will see that Why onion and garlic are not eaten in spiritual Hindu families and Why onion garlic is not vegetarian. And hope this will clear all your doubts about eating onion garlic.

Medicinal properties of onion and garlic.

Don’t get confused in Ayurveda and the Spiritual diet

People often get confused about spiritual diets and the Ayurveda diet. Sometimes both suggest you the same thing. But this doesn’t mean that they both are the same, They both have a very different approach.

What is Ayurveda

Ayurveda is Indians’ ancient healing science, The word Ayurveda is made from two different words of Sanskrit “Ayush” Means life, and “Veda” Means science together “Science of life”. It is believed that Ayurveda is about 5000 years old. And Ayurveda believes in a healthy lifestyle. Rather than treating disease Ayurveda promotes good health. Ayurveda is for every individual.

What Ayurveda says about onion and garlic.

Ayurveda also says that onion garlic has very good medicinal properties. But in Ayurveda, every food is considered a medicine, and suggested to eat every food in a moderated quantity. Instead of eating medicine eat your food as medicine. Ayurveda says a lot about what to eat, How much to eat, When to eat, and with whom to eat. For example, If you eat garlic with honey in winters its keeps your body warm and protects you from viral cold and fever. But if you eat the same thing in summer, It makes you feel very uncomfortable by creating extra heat in your gut. Ayurveda never says no to garlic and onion.

Spiritual diet System.

A spiritual diet is for the specified people like brahmins, sadhus, or a person with a spiritual goal. This diet has only Sattvic foods in it. The sattvic diet is the only diet recommended by the Hindu spiritual diet. If you will dig a little more you will find the categories like Amisha dravya and Hamish dravya.

• The people who have some spiritual goals.
• The follower of a specified cult for well-being or inner peace. like Vaishnav, Satsang, Buddhism, and Jain.
• People who are doing some spiritual rituals.
• On-time of doing Vrat/ Upvas

These are some conditions where people don’t eat some particular foods like onion and garlic. They all have their own reasons to not eat something. Next, we will discuss some of the very common reasons why people avoid eating onion and garlic

Why onion and garlic are not eaten in Hindu.

There are different reasons, Why onion and garlic are not eaten in Hindu. Here we will see some of those reasons.

Is Tamsik Food

The main reason people avoid eating onion and garlic is that it is considered as a tamsik food. As per Ayurveda, there are three types of food Sattvic, Rajasic, and tamsik. The tamsik food is food that increases anger, laziness, dullness, and diseases.

Increase Sexual desire.

As per Hindu Scriptures, the Kam(sex), Krodh(Anger), and Lobh(Greed) are the main enemies of humanity. and the onion and garlic are said to increase the sexual desire and anger in the human body. This is the reason people who are in spiritual practice don’t eat onion garlic.

Foul Smell

Eating raw onion and garlic causes a foul smell from your mouth and body through sweat. As a Hindu spiritual practitioner, the smell is very important for your personality. If you are going to a spiritual get-together with sadhus you definitely avoid smelling foul. This is also a reason people avoid eating onion and garlic. You have also seen the offering to god have a lot of things with a very nice smell like incense stick, Flowers and perfume.

Distract your mind from focusing.

People with a spiritual goal have constraint their minds and keep them focus. But the onion garlic can make irritating by generating excess heat and increasing your sexual desire. Even in modern days, the captain who has to take a flight is advised not to eat onion garlic 72 hours before they take the flight. Because it can decrease your decision-making power and make it dull.

Jain and Buddhists also avoid eating onion garlic.

Jain believes that when we grow vegetables below ground, many worms and insects start living in them. At the time of uprooting them many of the worms were killed. The basic principle of both Jain and Bodh dharm is non-violence that’s why they do not eat anything grown underground.

Devotees only eat the food which can be offered

Onion garlic is not the Satvic food so that do not offered to god and the devotee of god should eat only the food which offered to god. And this should be taken as prasad.

Why onion and garlic is not vegetarian.

So now you know why onion and garlic are not eaten in Hindu. Time to know why onion and garlic is not vegetarian. The main reason for considering onion garlic as non-vegetarian is that both have common properties. The non Vegetarian things like meat, egg, and Fish are considered as tamsik bhojan. Some of the earth-grown things like onion, garlic, and Masoor dal are also had the same effect in the body after eating. That is why those things are also considered as tamsik food. There are some other reasons due to which garlic onion is not considered vegetarian. Like the story of Rahu Ketu and A another story which says that the onion-garlic are grown from Meat and bones of a cow. Everybody has a different reason to not eat garlic and onion. Let’s see what the Rahu Ketu story says about onion garlic.

Story of Rahu and Ketu

At the time of Samudra Manthan, the first thing which came out is the venom and it was consumed by the lord shiva after that lord shiva was called Neel Kanth.

The last thing which came out is Amrit after getting Amrit both dev and Asur start fighting for Amrit. And then the lord Vishnu takes the Mohini avatar and divides the Amrit in both dev and Asur very cleverly by giving Amrit to devs and giving Wine to Asurs.

That time there was an Asur named Swarbhanu hi has doubt and He changed his form and went and hid between the Surya and the chandrama. But as soon as he drank the Amrit, the Surya and the Chandra recognized him and told Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu slit his throat with Sudarshan Chakra. Due to the nectar reaching the throat, both the parts of his body became alive. The one on his head is called Rahu and the one on his body is called Ketu.

Now let’s come to garlic onion, it is said that garlic onion originated from the drop of blood that fell from the neck of Swarbhanu. It is because garlic and onion have the properties of nectar, but due to the origin of the blood of a demon, it encourages demonic tendencies.

Summary

In the conclusion, I just want to say that you can eat onion and garlic but as medicine. not as food. You can eat your food like medicine but you cannot eat your medicine like food. Scientifically there is no issue with eating onion garlic. But if have any spiritual goal or you need to be focused to achieve your financial goal or complete some kind of higher study. Then you should avoid eating onion garlic. The benefits shown above are for the person already suffering from this illness. They are not preventions. That’s why if you are a healthy person you don’t need these benefits.

If you want more reasons for not eating onion and garlic you watch the video below By Amarendra das, he has described it very nicely, By the cultural way, Scientific way, and spiritual way. Click here to watch the video

Originally published at https://lovingfoods.in on July 28, 2021.