Oh, I didn’t talk about food in the mode of passion. Foods in the mode of passion are very hot foods, spicy foods, agitating foods, garlic, onions; they increase the passion. And foods in the mode of ignorance are old foods, fermented foods, all meat, eggs, fish – these are foods in the mode of ignorance.
If we eat those foods, we have their effect, they affect our consciousness. So we’ll be a certain way because of it. So if I understand that again, I can adjust my diet. Maybe our tongues are already attached to a certain taste, “Oh, but I like this, this and this.” Yes, because we are in the mode of ignorance we like mode of ignorance things, but it doesn’t mean it’s good. So we have to start doing sometimes things we don’t like. You see, the guy who smokes cigarettes doesn’t like the idea of quitting, “Oh, I like it.” Yeah, but it’s going to create problems: lung cancer. 50% of the people who smoke die of smoking. Do you like that part? So you have to choose what is important here.
Every report for the addicted smoker that comes out about how bad the smoking is hurts his ears, “I don’t want to know that.” So we don’t read it. You know, they used to put nothing on cigarette packages, no warning. It was like, “This is good for you. Be cool, smoke cool.” But then too much evidence appeared, so they started, “…not so good and if you’re under 18, don’t smoke.” And more evidence and more pressure, pretty soon, “Smoking kills you”, “This package of cigarettes will kill you.” But what do people do? They don’t read that, they buy a pack, put it in the pocket, don’t ever sit around and read it.
And I’ve just read that in America they might to put pictures on the cigarette packages: people dying of lung cancer, you know, a person with a hole cut in his throat and a cigarette smoking through his throat. Really gross looking stuff. And then they concluded this is too heavy. But it’s true.
So if we do only what we like, meaning what my senses like or my mind like, what I’m attached to, we’re not going to go very far, basically we will stay in the same thing. So we need to be ready to change a few things. And when we change and become more in the mode of goodness, our spiritual understanding increases. Our spiritual interest increases, our enthusiasm increases, our ability to understand increases. It is the perfect platform for spiritual growth. Whereas in these other modes you’re not going to do very much.
So the yoga system says, “Don’t do this and do this if you want to make progress.” You can’t have everything. That’s our idea sometimes, “I want everything.” “I want my cake and to eat it too,” as they say. I want it all. You can’t have it all. It’s a life of choices. You have to choose this or this or this.