Spiritual Portal

BB 25 Bhaktananda Aging 4/25/79

Aging -  There was a saint in India gave a servant a boon, or a fulfilled wish to be young again. So aging is not really necessary.

We don’t want just youth – maturity is the proper state.

We must see others as mature and beautiful – no matter how they look. If we see signs of aging in them we will find it in ourselves.

“Old age” should always be 15 years ahead.

Suggestions:

Thinking - positive
Looking – studying (youth)
Be - happy and calm

Diet: Fresh vegetables and fruit. They are not “old” and have vitality. Eggs, milk, cheese, cottage cheese, beans, millet – rotate proteins. Don’t eat eggs every day. Also lima beans are a good protein – but they don’t have all the amino acids.

In the astral – they have no cooked food – it is all raw fruits and vegetables there. But our body is not adjusted to a raw diet – so mix cooked and raw foods.

How to stay youthful:

•   Mind - attitude
•   Diet – vegetables and fruits, more raw food
•   Fasting – Master’s rule was one day a week or three days a month (not both).
•   Energization Exercises

God lives in the present, it is all we have, we must too. It is not good to speak of our age – legal matters only.

Massage the face gently one or two times a day with fingers to prevent aging and get rid of wrinkles.

Keep the mind busy. Most important.

Retired?  Don’t just sit around all day. Serve the Temple. Be interested in serving others. If you must sit, then knit or crochet, make rugs, etc – find a handcraft to do. Yes, men crochet.

I thought some of the ideas were so good that I quoted it again. I usually energize everyday. I like fasting. It keeps my weight close to where I want it and helps me depend on food less. Still have to try the face message. Eating more and more raw food these days. Meat is death. More and more raw vegetables and fruit. Hope to live on the rays of the Sun and cosmic energy directly instead of thru physical food.

5 meals a day is better than 3; you don’t overload the system and have energy to work.

 

Fasting: “the rule is one day per week or 3 consecutive days per month”

 

Master on colds: Colds are caused by too much sweets and starches. Fasting for two days on water or non-citrus fruit juice. Don’t continue eating bread and all. Keep the throat warm with a scarf. Yogis do this in India.

 

“When I get that certain tickle in the throat I will stop all starches, dairy, sweets and at least cut the cheese in half.”

 

Use soup and salad as the base for your evening meal. Don’t overeat at night – this saps energy you need at night to meditate.

 

Great suggestions.

I was 16 and ate horrendously and had quite a few nuisances in the body. After I read a book on holistic medicine, I became a vegetarian overnight, I started exercising regularly, I started practicing hyidroterapy with cold water and exposing the body to cold air.

The benefits were dramatic. After 6 months I was cured by a cronic cold which was afflicting me since a few years. Doctors were not able to do anything About it. Also, I ceased to have any illness whatsoever and acquired huge energies. I also used to practice hard titiksha, going around with a T shirt in winter, even with freezing temps and dressing up with a full shirt and wool weather in summer. I didn't feel cold nor heat. Although one day I arrived at school with frozen arms.

I don't know if that holds true for everyone but in my case diet and healthy lifestyle it made all the difference.

Another similar case was Rajasi Janakananda. After changing his diet to something which was very similar to the one I used to follow, he lost a lot of excessive weight and was cured of his cold. He went on with his diet the Whole life, his was probably the most healthy and balanced diet I ever heard about. Some people criticize him for being too drastic and point out at the end he got cancer.

Truth may be that he was able to stave off cancer by his radically healthy lifestyle. Had he not been following insanely healthy habits, he probably would have got cancer 10 or 20 years before.
This is what I learnt from an absolutely impartial source, a research doctor who didn't stick to yoga or holistic medicine.

Raw, organic fruit and vegetables plus raw nuts will give you immunity from disease. You must add something else though, or maybe live in a very favourable environment, climate wise and work wise.
As Baktananda told, we are probably not suited now for a totally raw diet. Probably,50-60% raw fruits -veggies-nuts, 30% cooked veggies and 10-20% (by weight) cereals, fresh protein and fats is the best. By calories, these percentages swing toward cereals, proteins and fats.
Fasting is extremely useful although overeating afterwards destroys its benefits.

This is my opinion modeled by 38 years of practicing a vegetarian diet.

I found that I'm not suited right now to the sun rays + cosmic energy diet. I found it the hard way and almost starved myself to death.
Maybe I should have tried it much more gradually and as a long term experiment. I burnt myself and in this lifetime I'm going to try it no longer.
 

mccoy

enjoyed what you shared here. I also have been keeping a fruit and vegetable diet and i have been trying to cut back on so much grains and bread products. They turn to sugar. But it is somewhat difficult because wheat is so plentiful and cheap here in the states. I always have nut butters around to satisfy my 'snacks' with a bit of fruit jam on bread. That and yogurt are my confections. i rarely eat pies cookies or candy bars. Even the healthy type.  I think I'm finely breaking myself of that habit.

Steve, but grains are pretty good, providing they are whole, not refined and possibly organic.

I enjoy a slice of black bread with butter or unsweetened peanut butter and honey.

Of course they can bloat and impair digestion if eaten unsparingly and sometimes it's too easy to overindulge

Well I really admire people who are not greedy about food. I have taken inspiration from those around me. Sweets... they just show up in so many unusual ways and wheat is one of them. Fattening.. so much food is fattening.

You admire people who are not greedy but sometimes, like my own case, it is just an issue of different scale, or extent.

For example, I think about myself as greedy because I like to eat healthy foods.

But I make no breakfast because I'm not hungry at all when I wake up (so no exercise of will power here)

I make a brunch based on fruit, yogurt and almonds. After that I'm naturally full, I would never dream about eating more. So I deserve no praise for self-control

In the evening I eat lots of vegetables, raw (summertime) or cooked (wintertime). After veggies, there is no much room in the stomach for else. I eat some dark bread, a little cheese and finish up with some sweet stuff, which often includes chocolate. I consider myself greedy because I eat the sweet stuff.

About 20 years ago I would eat more, but my trick was to fill myself up with vegetables and fruit. Also, whole grain cereals are healthy and fill up earlier.

Since satvic food tends to be more digestible, you can eat more of it usually . Of course it can result in excessive weight just the same.

I've been reading again Baktananda's suggestions in the original post.

He supports a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet, not a vegan diet. Also he suggests lots of raw foods but not only raw food, to which our body is not adjusted.

In my nearly 4-decades of diet experiments I found that's teh best for me. Some people may prefer to eat a vegan diet for many reasons. That's perfectly all right although it needs attention.

The lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet has nothing wrong by itself, though, as the great Baktananda clearly expressed. Basically, this is also Yoganandaji's suggestions in the SRF lessons.

This is absolutely true, you have to find what works exactly for you. I use to try and follow what everyone else suggests, but what I eat now is totally what I have found to work for me, even though I "fall down" at times and eat things I shouldn't.

SI, what's basically your ideal diet now?

Basically fruit, mostly blueberries, mangos, watermelon, kiwi, and some dried fruits. Ground or whole nuts mostly almonds, pecans, cashews. Fried zucchini with curry, some potatoes, broccoli, and other veggies, high protein vegetable broth. Sometimes I'll add an egg to the hot broth and make like an egg drop soup. Or on weekends 2 scrambled eggs for breakfast with cayenne pepper. Salads with oil/vinegar dressing. Chocolate sometimes. Pure lemon juice with water. Let's see, indian ginseng extract with water twice a day.

That's about it. No boxed or bagged foods like crackers, chips, no breads or flours, no processed foods, no processed sugar, If I need to use sugar we have cane sugar or honey.

Sometimes I do grab a cookie or something like that since at work people bring that stuff in constantly, but I can mostly avoid it.

SI, that's a very good sattvic diet. The only potential lack I can envisage is maybe B12 or cyanocobalamin, since cooked eggs do not contain much and you do not apparently eat dairy products.

Do you take any B12 supplements?

Actually about 3-4 times a week I take a vitamin, just because I think I need to, but I bet I don't really need it.

https://megafood.com/store/en/non-gender-specific/one-daily/

In the contents it is indicated 250% RDA of B12, but the source (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is told to contain B12 analogues which are not really useful to the body. Although I'm not sure Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the source of all vitamins and minerals listed on the label.

I find that 50% or less of the FDA RDA is enough in some subjects because of omeostasis, but a minimum treshold should be met. B12 can also be stored during binges based on milk products for example.

Mccoy

I decided to review Brother Bhaktananda’s - and therefore most of Yogananda’s recommendations for food and health and slowing the age process- recommendations and suggestions about health and eating. We have been talking about it in another thread - ‘Longevity and Health’ - but since some of the threads have apparently disappeared ( that you created on aging ) I thought this may be a good place to bring up the topic of aging. Brother Bhaktananda once told me that I had a long life ahead of me. Being now 71 I suppose that prediction has already become some what true.

I find that what you said about Rajasi has also become true of my life….He may have had cancer much younger if it was not for his generally good health, and following a good diet. There were three times in my life that I found I may have easily died by health problems had it not been for practicing Hatha yoga, eating a vegetarian diet, a constant practice of Yogananda’s energization exercises and the grace/blessings of the gurus.

Good idea to resurrect this post, I wrote those things in 2014 and 2015, before I went deep down the rabbit hole of nutrition helthspan, longevity, reading dozens of books, articles and participating in the forum of caloric restriction practitioners.

I tried a low-carb diet with moderate protein, I tried a vegan diet, but at the end I went back to the SRF/Bakhtananda diet, specifically designed to my own individual tolerances and needs.

For example, I had to cut down fruit drastically, since I noticed that my blood glucose is rising, due to age but probably due to past excesses in sugars, although natural (I used to drink vast amounts of  fruit juice, use to eat ridiculous quantities of honey, fruit and so on).

So, only modest amounts of fruit, no honey, very little cereals now. However some people tolerate glucose well even when not young and for them it's good to eat healthy carbs.

After my recent research and listening to the neurological signals coming from the body (how the body responds to foods). presently my diet is based upon the following food.

Breakfast: kefir or yogurt or Greek yogurt or fresh milk with cacao powder and erythritol

Lunch: all kinds of vegetables, then low-fat cottage cheese or mozzarella, walnuts with splinters of parmesan cheese or other cheese, often low-fat. Other nuts like almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, pecans and so on.One green banana as a sweet.

Dinner: basically a replica of lunch, with different vegetables.

With lunch and dinner I'll also include beans, eggs, mushrooms, when I can.

I find that my body does not tolerate very much starch and cereals (they bloat me without satiating me very much), so I eat modest amounts of them. Some people tolerate them better, they can be nourishing and inexpensive, too many can result in problems (elevated fasting blood glucose) but it all depends on individuals.

Beans are considered a very healthy food, their starch is not deleterious but they usually must be eaten in moderate amounts. I eat them as a side dish or as a condiment.

If Bro B foresaw a long life for you, I think it's going to be 100+. 71 is presently not even the average life expectancy, which in America is around 80 or a little less for males.

Cancer is the most dangerous of the 3 horsemen of death.

Cardiovascular disease is pretty much preventable. Cognitive impairment ditto. Cancer, that's another deal altogether. Whatever tool we have at disposal, we should use it.

The above being said, high glycemia (blood sugar) seems to support the growth of cancerous cells. A way to avoid high glycemia is to avoid sweets and many cereals. This also implies avoiding too much fruit. Of course, dried fruit must be avoided like hell.

Are you checking your fasting blood sugar? It's the easiest thing to do, for a few dollars investment, you can buy a monitor and stripes and detect any unwanted rise in fasting blood sugar.

Another easy trick is to monitor your blood pressure regularly. A high pressure is an ally of the 1st horseman of death, cardiovascular disease, which includes heat stroke, brain stroke, myocardial infarction, and other pretty things.

Whoever is serious about his or her health, should monitor at least fasting blood glucose, at a pharmacy or at home, I'm going to post the best monitor for the buck, the one which I use.

Ditto for blood pressure. regular measurements are a good life insurance. If BP rises, take action, even pills if necessary, they are far better than strokes.

The four Horsemen of the Apocalipse are:

1-Conquest
2-War
3-FAmine
4-Death.


The 4 Horsemen of chronic disease and premature death are:

1-Heart and cardiovascular disease
2-Cancer
3-Neurodegenerative disease
4-Diabetes and metabolic disease (this is actually of support to the previous ones).

Yogananda was hit by the first horseman, heart disease (heart stroke or myocardial infarction)

JAnakananda was struck by the second horseman.

Of course, the horsemen were allowed to hit these saintly figures because of karmic reasons. Being borne with human imperfection is common with Avatars, since they need to be anchored to the material world by some imperfections, lest they dissolve in the cosmic ocean.

The causes of Rajarsi's cancer may have been many. Almost surely, as already said, his rigorously healthy lifestyle checked the growth of his brain cancer and brought to him who knows how many years of extra life. However, the following image speaks for itself. Those sinister figures are the astral intelligences which govern these deathly diseases. Behind the death of Janakananda there was a malign activity of the third astral horseman of death.

(https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/queen-of-seducers-and-destruction/images/8/82/Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse.jpg)

Mccoy thanks for your concern and I will take some of those precautions. However, I do not believe you know what type of Cancer I had. It was melanoma….stage four. Which was most likely caused by the Sun and not diet at all. I was driving a truck at the time and it started with my left arm which frequently sets in the window seal exposed to sunlight.

Stage 4 cancer is the stage where cancer has spread to distant organs and is also known as metastatic cancer. Stage 4 cancer is typically not curable but there are treatments available and improvements in cancer treatments are being made constantly that increase the survival rate for patients with late-stage cancer.

By the way currently I am completely cured of melanoma. Credit given to the gurus on this miraculous journey back to health.

Steve,  yes, I remember it was melanoma, if I'm right you went through the new immunotherapy procedure, which by the way does not increase enormously the probability of survival, statistically. So, yes, the grace of God and Gurus has been perhaps the governing factor.

Diet cannot do miracles against cancer. Some people are born with unfavorable mutations in the BRCA genes, which makes them prone to cancer, whatever the lifestyle.