The Hindu Renaissance

Hindu Hospitality Food services and Bhagavad-Gita

(A case for strategic deliberations about Hindu brand and standardizations of food-services)

-Dr. Sastry B.V. Venkatakrishna

Hindu University of America

Abstract: - The religious, social, political and economic ideologies provided in Bhagavad-Gita are unique to Hindu traditions. To transform these ideologies in to a socio-economic reality and a factor of significance for the political activism at the global level, proactive Dharmic enterprise is needed. The goal is creation of brands, standards, strategies for managing production-distribution chains for wealth to be used for social welfare. This calls for implementation of a system of strategic professional education which disseminates Gita ideology as relevant to the tangibles to the subjects in the current society. One dimension of these strategic deliberations addresses societal health through food and related services of hospitality at the level of Body, Mind and speech. Bhagavad-Gita, provides the guidance for this ideological empowerment for Hindu's in all walks of life in a gender accommodative way - be it the lifestyle of a monk, household or warrior. This work, in Sanskrit language, delivered on a war field as a dialogue between God-incarnate and human of all excellences lacking the drive to perform right action at the right time contains specific deliberations on food, hospitality and entertainment related issues. In practical terms it means creating a strategy which promulgates dynamic standards and makes available food, hospitality and entertainment services for physical, mental, spiritual health, according to the needs of life style. The paper presents a case arguing for Hindu brand and standards for food based on Bhagavad-Gita ideology; brings out a comparison with the model of Kosher and halal religious brandings. The paper additionally debates (a) the importance of linking the religious standards with life needs like food and water related standards (b) the role of Ayur-veda as the Hindu health science, (c) Study of Sanskrit as the spiritual language for the mental and spiritual health.

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Bhagavad-Gita, popularly presented as the ‘sermon on the battlefield', is a Hindu religious source book. It has guided the course Asian spiritual and hospitality traditions. It is a part of the epic Mahabharata (dated circa prior to 3000 BCE). It is called the ‘eternal dialogue of human with Divine'. The spiritual value of food - services is highlighted as a part of this discourse by Divine in the concluding chapters. These guidelines find its firm imprints as cultural and family practices in the Asian hospitality traditions[i], setting the standards of excellence.

            Why should a discussion about food figure on the battle field discourse or amidst spiritual discourses? Food (broad technical Sanskrit term for this is ‘Aahaara' - ‘Annam') is the common platform addressed by religions, entrepreneurs, economy, medical - health concerns (Ayur-veda), and hospitality services. If the customers of food are sensitive to the relation of food-religion-spirituality, then the industry and service providers for food-hospitality have to address this issue positively.

            The sacred food processing according to Islamic traditions are guided by the principles of ‘halal'. The 250 million strong Southeast Asian market and 300 million consumers in West Asia and North Africa demand halal food products processed according to Islamic religious[ii] principles. The Kosher food processed according to the Jewish religion caters to a billion dollar market. The Japanese are very concerned about the visual appeal of the food and the "separateness" of the foods and tastes. Garlic and hot pepper are not common ingredients. Koreans make kimchee in October or November for use throughout the winter. Kimchee is cabbage marinated in salt water, layered with peppers and spices in crockery, and left to ferment through November and December. Kimchee is eaten with every meal.  These practices sound similar to the specific seasonal and festivity specific -deity specific foods prepared in the Hindu religious practices.

             If these are any indicator of the importance of food-religion-culture relation and customer expectancy, one has to look at Bhagavad-Gita for the religious-spiritual guidelines for  processing food according to Hindu / major Asian  traditions.

            Confucius said, "A man cannot be too serious about his eating, for food is the force that binds society together." This statement summarizes the importance of food in the Asian culture. Preparation needs to be meticulous, and consumption ceremonious and deliberate. Two key elements draw the diverse cultures of the Asian region together: 1) the composition of meals and 2) cooking techniques. The attitude of sacredness and reverence towards food in preparation, serving and consumption is the most critical value that has to permeate the entire process.  The importance given to the nature of the ‘cook' in temple related food preparation which elevates ordinary food to the level of sacred sanctified food (Naivedya, prasad) is the point to be recalled here. The traditional families demand the cook-serving person for food[iii] for religious occasions to be a ‘bramhin'. In the south Indian food chains, the restaurants display the ‘religious brand title' in the names to make a point about the religious standards complied with. For example, a title like ‘Udupi bramhins hotel' / ‘Veershaiva[iv] hotel' presents only ‘vegetarian food'. A restaurant which speaks of ‘Vaishnav food' avoids garlic and onion in the preparations. Meat and alcohol are not served at these places.

             Followers of Asian religions generally adhere to a traditional Asian diet. The standards of Asian diet [v]are set in tune with spiritual values inset. Gita states that the Divine is present in the form of fire in the belly in each being; it operates through the energy of vital airs prana-apana resulting in the digestion of different types of food (Gita 15-14). These are the same energies that go in the breathing process and are regulated in the Yoga practices. The act of ‘food consumption-intake is taken on par with the ‘sacred ritual' Yajna. The recitation of at least one unit of Bhagavad-Gita before taking the food, as a prayer is a standard practice in many families.

            According to Gita, food which is dear to every one depends upon the temperament and predisposition of three spiritual qualities satva, rajas, tamas. (Gita 17-7) The foods that promote life, mental strength, vitality, health, happiness, cheerfulness, which are juicy, nutritious, wholesome and agreeable-are dear to the individuals of satvik spiritual temperament. The foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry, burning are dear to the individuals of rajasic spiritual temperament. Such foods may lead to consequential pains, repentance and ill-health. The foods which are spoiled, tasteless, foul smelling, stale, what has been left part eaten and is unholy are dear to the individuals of tamasic spiritual temperament.

            Food is a critical part of spiritual rhythm of hospitality. Food offering to a hungry person is considered the ‘highest charity' in Asian traditions. Mass feeding on the occasions of festivities and major social events is a common practice and social norm. The serving of food should never offend the dignity or divinity of the recipient or bloat the ego and profiteering sense of the server. A satisfied customer remembers the quality of satisfying service long after the money transactions are over. Infusion of natural love in serving food adds a family / spiritual dimension, fragrance and satisfaction - for the recipient and the serving. This quality has to be a part of the education, training and job criterion for service personnel in the hospitality industry, especially at the food service point. Warmth of food-hospitality service is a direct reflection of the warmth of spirit in preparation and serving it. This is the most cherished family value in the Indian spiritual traditions. The food service to the God is the model on which the food service to the guest-consumer-customer is to be made.

            In a hospitality industry and food production-distribution chain where packaged food is the current norm, the diversity of food, the preparation, packaging is a major issue. The customers need a variety of food depending upon the age and temperament. There would be differing needs in different periods of day, week and occasions. Food also covers ‘beverages' and includes the most essential ingredient ‘water'[vi].

            Indian version of Hindu hospitality is legendary. The maxim of hospitality in India has crossed generations and is not only learned but truly believed by each individual. The Sanskrit saying, "Atithi Devo Bhava" - "the guest is truly your God" dictates the respect granted to guests in India. This provides a different in paradigm of relation when compared to the statement ‘consumer is the king [vii]'. Of course, the ‘King' was recognized as the ‘visible walking God' in the cultures where this maxim emerged. Jewish traditions look at God as ‘King'. This original meaning has undergone a change in the globalization model. Each guest-customer needs to be treated with the utmost consideration to their needs.

            The recognition of the needs of appropriate customs that should accompany the food services - in terms of balanced entertainment as a feed to the mind along with the food, is an important part of hospitality services. In many instances of service, this balance of food for mind and food for body are highly imbalanced and out of tune with the spiritual standards.  Entertainment and fun need not be interpreted as a sliding down on the scale of spiritual standards. Asian hospitality leaders who want to exploit the opportunities in the industry should take lead in supplementing the food fun services [viii] well supported by Hindu perspectives linking food-religion-spirituality. Providers of food, fun and frolic of high quality with premium charges in the hospitality services industry are obligated by a responsibility for providing the spiritual ambience of matching quality in their services. Giving ‘spiritual imbalance' as a farewell parting gift at the end of ‘fun filled time' to the valued unsuspecting customers is unethical and irreligious.

            Cultural influences contribute greatly to many factors at the root of diverse eating disorders. The perceived ideal of ‘slenderness' for females and the body ‘building type' for males leads some individuals to strive for unrealistic expectations about changing their body type. These individuals define themselves in terms of their bodies. They come to think of dieting, weight control, nutrition, weight gain, and rigid self-control of appetite as moral issues. Asian traditions have specific guidance on preparation of seasonal specialty foods to promote health and spirituality in tune with the nature. This is a part of the festivities food traditions. This is one way of food discipline getting a handle on the ecology, agricultural patterns and the economies and lifestyles.

            The hospitality services may look at this issue as a unique feature of food services as a tool to get aligned with the natural balancing processes. Bhagavad-Gita can be an important study topic in the hospitality training to teach about the integrated link of food-religion and spirituality. By making available select readings from Bhagavad-Gita highlighting the unique excellences of Hindu hospitality standards, the customers may be helped to move a notch higher in their expectations of hospitality services.

            In this sense promulgation of a ‘Hindu Food Standards' for food - services of different nature is a need of the hour. This will help in providing a comparable model of religious standards of Hindu traditions for the halal and Kosher. The consolidation of the religious identity in practical terms can be a major community binding factor having economic and social significance. The standards based on Gita as above are faith accommodative and can be lead thoughts for global health standards for food services in terms of ‘spirituality related parameters'. Ayur-veda concepts, Yoga related concepts get integrated here with the true ‘spirituality' and get connected with the tangible realities of economic significance. This dimension of understanding, extended on the level of ‘language' - ‘interactive communication' provides a model for the ‘spiritual language standards' in the model of Sanskrit. These are suggested to be used for advancement in the mental and spiritual health, in a totally faith accommodative way. Gita refers to this as the standards of speech and calls it as a ‘penance of speech' (vang-mayam tapah). The physical food concept gets elevated to the level of ‘food for the mind and speech'. This is one way of addressing the global, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-linguistic, communities in a tangible way on the platform of Hindu standards of food, food services and speech related standards for health and spirituality in the frame work of  ‘productive economy and life styles'.

            Yoga and Ayurveda, the acknowledged Hindu traditions, emphasize the importance of food and food related services for balancing physical, mental and spiritual health. The standard of health determines the standard of food one will be able to consume and enjoy. In the series of inaccurate representation of Hindu Vedic traditions through restricted translations[ix] in alien languages in the last three hundred years , the traditional standards related to ‘Svasthya'- ‘Saamya' - ‘Aarogya'[x] have been yielding place to  narrow visions in the matter of standardization of food and food related services.

            For example, the setting of standards for milk[xi] in relation to the pasteurization[xii] is one issue that can be addressed here. This issue which started at a period when the religion-science-society issue was not in the lime light of globalization[xiii] Another important issue is in relation to the water as presented in the standards of  US Food and drug administration [xiv] .There is no consideration about the ‘mental and spiritual health dimensions' related to food in these standards. And these are the vital issues to be debated in this case.

            The importance of food for holistic health is recognized even by non-Hindu religions and yet we see that the standards promulgated on the global level have no consideration for these issues, especially from the Hindu traditions perspective. If halal and Kosher can become issues for standards in relation to food in the global markets, what is the standard expected from the Hinduism religious tradition? And how would that be relevant for the contemporary life styles? This is an issue that needs to be seriously debated.

            Standardization is one small aspect of the broad vision in the meaning of the word ‘samskruta' which means ‘refining for excellence'. This covers the thoughts represented in the traditional words - ‘shiva'= auspicious, ‘sundara' = tasteful and aesthetic, ‘satya'= ground reality to be faced with as truth. The traditional Sanskrit word for cooked food is ‘samskrutam'.

            Panini, the grammarian of Sanskrit language provides a specific rule[xv] for this technicality. Kautilya, the classical writer on Hindu traditions of statecraft and public policy[xvi] emphasizes the need to have food related standards to be regulated by state in accordance with the Vedic traditions.

            The Hindu temples should set standards for the serving of food according to the references provided in Bhagavad-Gita, which transforms the mundane ‘food' to the level of ‘prasad-naivedya - a sacred ritualistic offering'. This recognition of the food preparation, distribution, processing, serving as an act enabled by the divine and serving the divine,[xvii] needs to be presented as live dynamic activity in the Hindu community and institutions.

            I conclude this paper with the following concept from tradition, which highlight the importance of food and its role in building balanced personality of the individual - ‘The individual is what he/she consumes. The input in the form of food and entertainment mold the personality and spirituality'. (annaanuruapaa tanu chitta vruttih) This is an inspired thought from the traditional word ‘anna-bramha' - in which food is realized as the supreme manifestation of the Bramhan.  

References

1. Bhagavad-Gita Text in original Sanskrit.

2. Cross-Cultural Counseling: A Guide for Nutrition and Health Counselors (FNS 250). U.S.

 Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

3. Kittler, P. and Schuer, K. (1989). Food and Culture in America, Van Nostrand & Reinhold,

 1989.

4. Nutrition, Food, and Culture, National Livestock and Meat Board, Chicago, Illinois.

5. Artha shastra of Kautilya - ISBN: 81-7182-079-4; Published: 1969, Diamond Books-

 http://www.diamondmagazines.com/book/search.php

[i] "As Asia achieves unprecedented growth, we need to develop Asian hospitality leaders who can exploit opportunities created by this growth," said Prof. Neo Boon Siong, Dean of Nanyang Business School. "The Cornell-NTU partnership will offer talented individuals the opportunity to learn from the experience of a renowned leader in hospitality, supported by Asian perspectives provided by NTU. With its broad reach, the Institute will make a positive impact on the overall growth and economic well-being of Asia. I anticipate that the Institute will set the standard for hospitality management education in this part of the world." Cornell School of Hotel Administration   http://hotelschool.cornell.edu

[ii] According to the statement dated Feb 16, 2005 by  Datuk Mustafa Abdul Rahman, Director General of the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) at a Seminar Islam Hadhari: Bioinformatik Sebagai Alat Dakwah organized by the Institute of Islamic Understanding : "The food industry needs to ensure that their products are halal and in accordance with international standards in terms of safety and quality.... The processing, packaging, storing and even transportation would have to be taken into account to ensure that the food products are clean, safe and of good quality". The paper presented was entitled: "Using Bioinformatics to Disseminate Information on Islamic Foods and Products".

[iii] AGE AND DINING- "When the waitress puts the dinner on the table the old men look at the dinner. The young men look at the waitress. "Gelett Burgess, 'Look Eleven Years Younger' (1937). "But doth not the appetite alter? A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age." William Shakespeare (1564-1616) 'Much Ado About Nothing'. "No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers." Laurie Colwin

[iv] veerashaiva is a sect under the saivism of Hindu religions.

[v] The vegetarian diet is the default understanding. The non-vegetarian diet also has its own standards, which in the current practices seem to have been

  lost in the time scale. There are value standards which can be referred to in the source works.

[vi] The Sanskrit traditional prayer is for the blessing of ‘anna-pana' = food and water.

[vii] A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption of our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider to our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to do so.- http://www.mahatma.org.in/quotes/quotes.jsp

[viii] Gita wording for this is ‘aahaara -vihaara'.

[ix]  The primary translations like ‘dharma'= religion; Veda = Poetry of Aryans, who were cow grazing nomads of certain historicity;  followed  by secondary constructs like  ‘Bramhana jaati' = upper social class in the hierarchy of caste ridden society of India; ‘Study and use of Sanskrit' = ‘bramhinization' with an ulterior motive of suppressing the lower strata of society ; and many like this are at the root of this kind of presentation. The concepts of ‘secular religion', ‘fundamentalism' and ‘religious terrorism' are consequences of such distortions of sacred traditions and languages. These words have gained currency in today's media and public mind and have become the weapon of political strategies!

[x] These are technical Sanskrit terms from Yoga and Ayurveda disciplines. The generic translation of these as ‘health, balance, freedom from disease and discomfort'

[xi] http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~ear/pmo03-4.html; link from FDA home page which details about the milk standards and safety at the url http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~ear/prime.html

[xii] Pasteurization :This second step of the process involves heating the milk to high temperatures for a determined amount of time in order to kill the bacteria. Nearly all of the milk in the U.S. is now pasteurized due to health reasons. There are several methods to pasteurization including HTST method, the batch method, and ultrapasteurization method. HTST or High temperature short time requires heating the milk to 161 degrees ^{Fahrenheit for 15 seconds and then quickly cooling. The batch method involves heating the milk to 145 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. Finally the ultrapasteurization method involves heating the milk to 280 degrees Fahrenheit for two or more seconds and then cooling rapidly. The HTST method was most likely used in Greenbelt as it was the one of the first methods devised.} (World Book Encyclopedia, 459-464) - (Source:- http:// www.otal.umd.edu/~vg/amst205.F97/vj11/sub4.html )

[xiii] Milk, while containing mostly all of the nutrients required for human growth and good health is an important asset in a families diet. Not only does it provide such nutritional value but also milk offers alternative milk products and uses. Therefore a food with such importance would be expected to be an important issue among communities and the nation. Milk and milk delivery in Greenbelt, became such an issue that the community's actions made an unprecedented impact on health standards and prices, as well as the specific milk companies occupying the market during 1937-1945. As the standards on the production of milk were raised the process of milk production changed with stricter guidelines on fat content and bacteria content as well as technological advances such as homogenization Furthermore, the milk industry now and then has been a thriving one in which both the farmer and the consumer have benefited from. ( source: http://www.otal.umd.edu/~vg/amst205.F97/vj11/intro.html)

[xiv]  http://www.fda.gov/default.htm  and    http://www.epa.gov/safewater/standards.html.

[xv]  The taddhita section provides a rule ‘tena samskrutam' in which meaning a special affix is added. It is a specific reference for the cooking process.

[xvi]  Kautilya's Arthashastra: A Neglected Precursor to Classical Economics - Charles Waldauer, William J. Zahka and Surendra Pal , Indian Economic Review, 1996, vol. 31, issue 1, pages 101-108 , http://econpapers.repec.org/article/dseindecr/v_3A35_3Ay_3A1996_3Ai_3A1_3Ap_3A101-108.htm

[xvii] This recognition does not take out the economic significance or relevance of the activity. The current practice of isolating ‘food service' at the temple as an activity to be obtained as a ‘hired service' or as a ‘charity' needs to be practically discarded. The entire service needs to be looked afresh as a ‘service rendered at the altar of the divine, like a medical professional provides the health care at the hospital'. While the economic value of the activity is not taken out, the dignity of service is added; it should be a service rendered personally and professionally. It is not to be treated as a ‘convenience provided by payment of money earned through otherwise means'. It is not a business venture of  ‘making God a business partner by feeding His/Her servants' and  a ‘tax saving activity'.