You Eat What You Chant: Cooking the Right Way

Enrique Tubio

A mantra is a short word or group of words repeated many times to help us prepare our mind as a means to relax, attract love, meditate, get ready for an activity; in fact, there is a mantra for almost every activity or desire.

The word mantra comes from man, which means mind and tra, which pertains to protection. 

Apart from its beneficial good vibrational aspects, mantras help us to focus and calm the mind. By focusing on the repetition of the sound, all other thoughts fade gradually until the mind is calm and clear of unnecessary thoughts. Just like junk food we have a lot of junk thoughts or unnecessary mind noise. 

I believe that mantras act the same way as music; for instance, it is not necessary to know the lyrics to a song or an aria to feel the musical notes affecting your senses, either soothing you or not. It is not necessary to know what the singer is saying for music to exert its effects on us. Thus, a mantra's rhythm takes effect on the unconscious plane. This is why it is so powerful. It is subliminally helpful.

In essence, what is the power or the benefit of chanting mantras? The primary function of the mantra is to free the mind from the material, cultural or worldly conditioning we have and to raise our consciousness to a higher or spiritual level. This is very important in the kitchen, as well.

When preparing food, and prior to consuming it, a mantra can be a powerful tool to pour the right emotions and vibration into the dishes. Remember, what you put into it your cooking- anger, rush, depression, happiness, love- so will you eat and feed others.  Sometimes, after having a meal at a restaurant, our emotions may shift so sudden that we don’t even question what might have caused this shift. Our emotions may shift to anger and we may want to pick a fight with our date or simply may suddenly feel depressed. Have you ever thought about the possibility that the person who prepared your meal was angry or in a bad mood while preparing your salad or grilling your steak? I always look, when I can, inside a restaurant kitchen; happy people make feel-good food. Angry people, can feed us anger. 

As you prepare your daily meals for your loved ones, for your date, your husband or your wife, do so consciously. Before going into the kitchen after a long day at work, take a break! Cooking with all that frustration and heaviness will give you more of that with every bite. Simply pray before you cook, pray before you eat. Specially, pray or chant a mantra if you did not cook your meal.

Here is something I say when I cook and trust me, I like to be in a meditative state when I do it. I find that my best dishes come out when in complete connection with the process as I put all the good vibrations into my dishes. 

“It’s not just ingredients I stir, but the good vibrations and appreciation on which I feed” 

Here is a beautiful mantra you can chant while you cook. It helps with protection, blessing of the food and peace. 

Om Hrim Chandikayai Namah

Will you put the right vibrations in your food? Remember to eat for your body and cook for your soul.