This

presentation
is
prepared not to quarrel or
argue with people who say
that garlic has medicinal
effects or may be good for
the body, but to help them
understand that we should
never accept foodstuffs that
are harmful for the mind.
Everyone of us know how temptinga foodstuff prepared
using onion or garlic could be to the tongue but if one is
aiming at mind control, then we should try to avoid eating
foodstuff containing onion and garlic.

A humble offering
To
His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada
Founder Acharya of ISKCON

By
ISKCON Mysore
Krishna Balaram
Temple

Onion - The rounded edible bulb of

this plant composed of fleshy, tight,
concentric leaf bases having a
pungent odor and taste.

Garlic - An onion like plant having a

bulb that breaks up into separable
cloves with a strong distinctive odor
and flavor.

Lets try to understand why Onion and Garlic

are harmful for the mind through..

Scientific Facts
Historical Facts
Famous Personalities
Vedic Facts
Srila Prabhupada
Lord Sri Krishna
Excerpts from Puranas

Scientific
Facts

Dr. Robert C. Beck, DSc, highly respected research physicist

in his lecture given at the Whole Life Expo, Seattle, WA,
USA, in March 1996 on his last research project that
focused on the brain and altered states of consciousness.

The reason why garlic is so toxic is that it contains

sulphone hydroxyl ion that penetrates the blood-brain
barrier including the corpus callosum in the brain, and is
a specific poison for higherlife-forms and brain cells.
At Alpha-Metrics Corporation he built biofeedback
equipment and found out thatgarlic usually
desynchronizes brain waves.
Onions contain complex sulphur compounds. When you
cut into an onion, two chemical reactions take place.
First, when a knife cuts through the cells of an onion, its
enzymes release a strong odor.
Second, the onion releases allicin, a volatile sulfur gas
that irritates the eyes and sends one rushing for a tissue.
One cannot deny the power of the onion on the olfactory
senses.

Historical Facts

Because of its stimulating qualities,

garlic was never part of Buddhist
tradition in China or Japan, whose
practitioners felt it would upset ones
spiritual balance. Garlic was never
adopted into traditional Japanese
cuisine and was shunned by Zen
The Greek citizenry, masters.
especially the
aristocracy, firmly rejected garlic and
found its smell repugnant. Anyone
smelling of garlic was considered vulgar
and was prevented from entering the
temples.
Garlic Like the Greeks, the early Roman
nobility did not embrace garlic in their
own diets but considered the herb worthy
only of being fed to the laborers and
slaves, to give them strength and vigor.
Any man smelling of garlic was
considered of low breeding.

The seventeenth century British view of

garlic was solidly negative, with
expressions like, not fit for Ladies
palates, nor those who court them, or
that eating garlic was part of the
Punishment for such as had committed
the horridst Crimes.
Even till today Hindus and Brahmins
eschew garlic and onions, as they are
too stimulating and interfere with the
ability to reach a high spiritual plain
in meditation and self-realization.
In Pompeii those lowly vendors who sold
onions were rejected from the guild of
fruit and vegetable vendors, and had to
form their own guild.

In the ancient world in Egypt the onions

were highly revered by the poor and
eaten extensively along with bread and
beer. From ancient history up to the 19th
century, onions were relegated as the
food for the poor. The rich found the odor
of Onion downright disgusting.

The pungent odor and awesome strength

of the onion was a mystery to ancient man.
An old Turkish legend explains it rather
profoundly. It tells that when Satan was
thrown out of heaven, garlic sprouted
where he first placed his left foot, and
onions grew where he placed his right foot.

Famous Personalities
Dr. Robert highly respected physicist says most
people have heard most of their lives that garlic
is good for you, and we put those people in the
same class of ignorance as the mothers who at
the turn of the century would buy morphine
sulphate in the drugstore and give it to their
babies to put them to sleep.

Horace, famous Roman lyric poet and satirist,

said of garlic in his Epodes, it is more
poisonous than hemlock.

Hippocrates, history's most famous physician

did warn that garlic caused flatulence, a
feeling of warmth on the chest and a heavy
sensation in the head; it excites anxiety and
increases any pain which may be present.

Percy Bysshe Shelley one of the greatest lyric

poets in the history of English literature, when
he visited Italy with his friend Lord Byron, he
was shocked and appalled to see his friend
eating the garlic that was served at a social
gathering.

Vedic Facts

O sages, one who eats garlic, onions, sigrum (a kind of plant),

turnips and meat, that person should observe a candrayana fast.
- Padma Purana, Brahma Khanda 19.10, spoken by
Suta Gosvami

Onion, shit-thriving pigs, Selu, garlic, Goplyusa (milk of a

cow before the lapse of ten days from calving), Tanduliya (a
grain growing in faecal rubbish) and mushrooms - all these
are to be avoided.
- Skanda Purana
40.9
The expiation for having eaten the prohibited food is fasting.
One should do the stiuka expiation tisucandrayana for having
eaten bhustma (a kind of fragrant grass) and garlic.
- Agni Purana
173.37

Garlic, leeks and onions, mushrooms and (all plants), springing from
impure (substances), are unfit to be eaten by twice-born men.
A twice-born man who knowingly eats mushrooms, a village-pig,
garlic, a village-cock, onions, or leeks, will become an outcast.
- Manu Samhita

(But) he should avoid stalks of lotuses, safflower, gold or

silver, onion, garlic, sour gruel, a thick fluid substance; so
also chatraka (a kind of mushroom), vidvaraha, greasy milk of
a cow during the first seven days of calving, vilaya (a
particular product of milk) and mushrooms.
- Padma Purana Vol. 42,
4.56.19b -24
By eating garlic and onion one becomes sinful and as
atonement one should perform Candrayana.
- Garuda Purana
1.96.72

Srila Prabhupada

So far foodstuffs offered do the needful. Whatever is

available and also very nice, that is offerable, as long as no
meat, fish, eggs, garlic, onions, or other very objectionable
foodstuffs are there.
- 19th February 1972. Letter to Upendra
dasa Calcutta.
Regarding the cook-book, that is a nice proposal to divide
into two parts. There is no harm if devotees have invented
recipes, so long they are strictly vegetarian, no garlic, no
onions, like that.
- 27th October 1972. Vrindavan - Letter
to Kirtanananda.
No. No meat, no onion, no garlic, no intoxication, no liquor,
we dont smoke even, we dont take tea, coffee. We simply
take what is absolutely necessary for keeping the body fit to
execute Krishna consciousness. We dont indulge in luxury or
for the satisfaction of the tongue.
- 12th March 1968. Radio Interview on KGO.
San Francisco

Lord Sri Krishna

Foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry
and burning are dear to those in the mode of passion. Such
foods cause distress, misery and disease.
- Bhagavad Gita
Ch.17:9
If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit
or water, I will accept it.
Bhagavad Gita Ch.9:26
The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins
because they eat food which is offered first for sacrifice.
Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment,
verily eat only sin.
- Bhagavad Gita
Ch.3:13

Excerpts from Puranas

Once, in Satya Yuga the rishis were performing gomedha and

asvamedha sacrefices for the welfare of the whole universe. A cow or a
horse would be cut into pieces and placed in the fire. Afterwards the
rishis would utter mantras and the same animal would come alive in a
beautiful young body. One time the rishi who was about to perform a
gomedha sacrifice, his wife was pregnant. She had a very strong desire
to eat and she had heard that if, during pregnancy one has a desire to
eat and does not fulfill this, then the baby that will be born will always
have saliva coming from its mouth. Very strangely, she desired strongly
to eat meat, thus she decided to keep one piece of meat of the cows
body that was offered in sacrifice. She hid it and was making a plan to
eat it very soon. At that time the rishi was finishing the sacrifice and
uttered all the mantras for the new young cow to come to life. However
when he saw the new cow, he noticed that there was a little part
missing from her left side. He went into meditation and realized that his
wife had taken away a piece of meat during the sacrifice. Now his wife
also understood what happened and quickly threw the meat far away in
a field. Due to the effect of the mantras uttered by the rishi there was
now life in this piece of meat. Then the bones in that piece of meat
became garlic and the meat became onions in that field. Thus these
foods are never taken by any Vaishnava devotee because it is not
vegetarian. Plus it is in the mode of ignorance.

Here is another story, fromPuranic Encyclopaedia by Vettam Mani

(under CANDRA VI.):
Solar eclipse according to the Puranas. The Devas and the asuras jointly
churned Kshirabdhi wherefrom emerged Dhanvantari with the Amrtakumbha
(pot of nectar).
But an asura mayavi (magician) called Saimhikeya absconded to Patala with
the Amrtakumbha which nobody noticed as everybody was busy with dividing
other divine objects. Only after the mayavi's disappearance was it noticed that
the Amrtakumbha was missing. At once Mahavisnu assumed the figure of a
beautiful woman, got back the Kumbha and gave it to the devas. The devas
began drinking the amrta when, at the instance of some other devas,
Saimhikeya, the mayavi, assuming the form of an old Brahmin reached svarga,
got a share of the amrta and began to drink it. Surya and Candra (Sun and
Moon) who were on guard at the gates divined the secret of the 'old Brahmin'
and informed Mahavisnu about it. He cut the throat of the pseudo-Brahmin
with his Sudarsana Cakra. But, half of the nectar he had drunk stayed above
the throat and the other half below it. Therefore, though the head and the
trunk were severed they remained alive. These two parts, in course of time,
evolved as Rahu and Ketu. When the throat was cut some blood dropped on
the ground, and became the red onion and the white onion (garlic)
respectively. So both onion and garlic originated from the throat and blood of
the demons or asuras, thus their consumption brings us closer to tamo guna
(mode of ignorance) which characterizes the nature of the demons and thus is
detrimental to bhakti.
(Kamba Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda and Bhagavata, Astama Skandha. Kamba
Ramayana is a Tamil text by poet Kambar.)

Hope the presentation was helpful.

If you are serious about avoiding food stuffs that cannot be
offered to the Lord and that may ruin our spiritual progress
then we have a practical solution for you.
Just chant.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
attentively