Eating food with the hands in todays' Western society, can sometimes be perceived as being unhygienic, bad mannered and primitive. However, within Indian culture, there is an old saying "Eating food with your hands feeds not only the body, but, also mind and spirit.”
In the Big Brother series some years back, an English participant complained about an Indian participants' use of her hands during food preparations and her eating habits.
“They eat with their hands in India, don’t they? Or is that China? You don’t know where those hands have been!” Within many Indian households nowadays, the practice of eating food with hands has been replaced with the use of cutlery.
Have you ever thought of why previous generations in India ate with the hands? There is a reason for it. The practice of eating with the hands originated within Ayurvedic teachings. The Vedic people knew the power in hand. The ancient native tradition of eating food with the hands is derived from the mudra practice, which is prevalent in many aspects within Hinduism. Mudras are used during mediation and are very prominent within the many classical forms of dance, such as Bharatnatyam.
The hands are considered the most precious organ of action.
This is linked to the Vedic prayer of “Karagre vasate Laksmih karamule Sarasvati Karamadhye tu Govindah prabhate karadarsanam” (On the tip of your fingers is Goddess Lakshmi, on the base of your fingers is Goddess Saraswati; in the middle of your fingers is Lord Govinda), which we recite whilst looking at our palms. Thus, this shloka suggests that all the divinity lies in human effort.
Our hands and feet are said to be the conduits of the five elements. The Ayurvedic texts teach that each finger is an extension of one of the five elements. The thumb is agni (fire) (you might have seen children sucking their thumb, this is natures' way of aiding the digestion in children at an age when they are unable to do any physical activity to aid the digestion). The forefinger is vayu (air), the middle finger is akash (either tiny intercellular spaces in the human body), the ring finger is prithvi (earth) and the little finger is jal (water).
Each finger aids in the transformation of food, before it passes on to internal digestion. Gathering the fingertips as they touch the food stimulates the five elements and invites Agni to bring forth the digestive juices. Besides improving digestion, the person becomes more conscious of the tastes, textures and smells of the foods they are eating, which all adds to the pleasure of eating.
You may have noticed that elders in the family hardly ever use utensils to measure all the different type of spices (masala), and would instead prefer to use their hands to measure the quantity instead. As each handful is tailored to provide a suitable amount for the own body.
Overall there are 6 main documented forms that the hands take when obtaining a measurement a certain type of food ranging from solid food to seeds, and flour. This is a prime example of how many things within Hindu culture may seem weird and unusual at first glance, but once a closer look is taken it is surprising,
but a vast amount of knowledge is revealed.
In addition, the most important factor is transfer of life energy takes place through the hands. When the
food is mixed with one's own life energy, it becomes tastier and is better assimilated. Moreover, you would have seen children eating better when fed by the hand of their mother.
This is because, not only the life energy of the mother, but her love also gets transferred with the food that adds to the relish. Thus love and life energy are the hidden ingredients in the food.
You would have also seen how in the earlier days, the flour for Idli or Dosa that was ground with the hand and also mixed with the hand used to last longer and taste better. It is the same principle that is at work here also. Nowadays, the machine ground flour does not taste as good as the hand ground,
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