The
other day, I was having lunch with my colleagues and suddenly one of the lunch
box slipped and fell on the carpet. My colleague quickly picked up majority of
the food back into the lunch box and rest he cleaned with some tissues. He
said, "This food did not actually touch the carpet and I will eat it. Hopefully,
I don’t get hair in my food". Immediately my other colleague said, Oh,
that's bit hard to imagine and now, I don’t feel like having my lunch".
What
makes a strand of hair so unwelcome and loathful that just by thought of it,
one is not able to eat his lunch? Is it because that hair is no longer
connected to or part of the source from where it came from? Isn't it, the same hair that our song writers
in Hindi Bollywood glorify? The hero sees the heroine getting up from her sleep
and sings a song something like, “How beautiful is your hair. Your black hair
looks like clouds blocking your beautiful moon like face. And, the same hair
the moment it is separated from the person becomes so repulsive. Actually, this
hair thing is a big issue and a stigma in the society. We all have seen these
incidents of going to a nice restaurant and a hair comes in the food that's
served, there is big argument and fight so on.
Got this interesting bit from online encyclopedia about the presence
of hair in food:-
There
is a heavy stigma attached to the presence of hair in food in most societies.
There is a risk that it may induce choking and vomiting, and also that it may
be contaminated by toxic substances Views differ as to the level of risk it
poses to the inadvertent consumer. In most countries, people working in the
food industry are required to cover their hair.When people are served food
which contains hair in
restaurants or cafes, it is usual for them to complain to the staff. Despite
this, it is not a valid ground on which to sue the Restaurant
in the United States, but in the United Kingdom it breaks the regulations of
the UK Food Safety Act 1990, and people can sue over this.
There
are a range of possible reasons for the objection to hair in food, ranging from
cultural taboos to the simple fact that it is difficult to digest and
unpleasant to eat. It may also be interpreted as a sign of more widespread
problems with hygiene. The introduction of complete- capture hairnets is
believed to have resulted in a decrease in incidents of contamination of this
type.
Sometimes
protein from human hair is used as a food ingredient, in bread and other such
similar products. Such use of human hair in food is forbidden in Islam.
Historically, in Judaism, finding hair in food was a sign of bad luck.
Well,
this incident in turn reminded me of a verse from Srimad BhagavadGita 15.7 , where
lord Krishna explains to Arjuna that originally, as spirit souls, we are all
part and parcel of him. But, the moment we become separate from God by ignoring
him we start suffering.
mamaivamso jiva-loke
jiva-bhutah
sanatanah
manah-sasthanindriyani
prakrti-sthani
karsati
TRANSLATION
The
living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due
to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which
include the mind.
PURPORT
In
this verse the identity of the living being is clearly given. The living entity
is the fragmental part and parcel of the Supreme Lord eternally. It is not that
he assumes individuality in his conditional life and in his liberated state
becomes one with the Supreme Lord. He is eternally fragmented. It is clearly
said, sanatanah. According to the Vedic version, the Supreme Lord manifests and
expands Himself in innumerable expansions, of which the primary expansions are
called visnu-tattva and the secondary expansions are called the living
entities. In other words, the visnu-tattva is the personal expansion, and the
living entities are separated expansions. By His personal expansion, He is manifested
in various forms like Lord Rama, Nrsimhadeva, Visnumurti and all the
predominating Deities in the Vaikuntha planets. The separated expansions, the
living entities, are eternally servitors. The personal expansions of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, the individual identities of the Godhead, are
always present. Similarly, the separated expansions of living entities have
their identities. As fragmental parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord, the
living entities have also fragmental qualities, of which independence is one.
Every living entity has an individual soul, his personal individuality and a
minute form of independence. By misuse of that independence, one becomes a
conditioned soul, and by proper use of independence he is always liberated. In
either case, he is qualitatively eternal, as the Supreme Lord is. In his
liberated state he is freed from this material condition, and he is under the
engagement of transcendental service unto the Lord; in his conditional life he
is dominated by the material modes of nature, and he forgets the transcendental
loving service of the Lord. As a result, he has to struggle very hard to
maintain his existence in the material world. The living entities, not only the
human beings and the cats and dogs, but even the greater controllers of the
material world--Brahma, Lord Siva, and even Visnu--are all parts and parcels of
the Supreme Lord. They are all eternal, not temporary manifestations. The word
karsati (struggling or grappling hard) is very significant. The conditioned
soul is bound up, as though shackled by iron chains. He is bound up by the
false ego, and the mind is the chief agent which is driving him in this
material existence. When the mind is in the mode of goodness, his activities
are
good;
when the mind is in the mode of passion, his activities are troublesome; and
when the mind is in the mode of ignorance, he travels in the lower species of
life. It is clear, however, in this verse, that the conditioned soul is covered
by the material body, with the mind and the
Senses,
and when he is liberated this material covering perishes, but his spiritual
body manifests its individual capacity. The following information is there in
the Madhyandinayana-sruti: sa va esa brahma-nistha idam sariram martyam
atisrjya brahmabhisampadya brahmana pasyati
brahmana
srnoti brahmanaivedam sarvam anubhavati. It is stated here that when a living
entity gives up this material embodiment and enters into the spiritual world,
he revives his spiritual body, and in his spiritual body he can see the Supreme
Personality of Godhead face to face. He can hear and speak to Him face to face,
and he can understand the Supreme Personality as He is. In smrti also it is
understood that in the spiritual planets everyone lives in bodies featured like
the Supreme Personality of Godhead's. As far as bodily construction is
concerned, there is no difference between the part and parcel living entities
and the expansions of visnu-murti. In other words, at liberation the living
entity gets a spiritual body by the grace of the Supreme Personality of
Godhead.
The
word mamaivamsah (fragmental parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord) is also
very significant. The fragmental portion of the Supreme Lord is not like some
material broken part. We have already understood in the Second Chapter that the
spirit cannot be cut into pieces. This fragment is not materially conceived. It
is not like matter, which can be cut into pieces and joined together again.
That conception is not applicable here because the Sanskrit word sanatana
(eternal) is used. The fragmental portion is eternal. It is also stated in the
beginning of the Second Chapter that (dehino 'smin yatha) in each and every
individual body, the fragmental portion of the Supreme Lord is present. That fragmental
portion, when liberated from the bodily entanglement, revives its original
spiritual body in the spiritual sky in a spiritual planet and enjoys association
with the Supreme Lord. It is, however, understood here that the living entity,
being the fragmental part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, is qualitatively one,
just as the parts and parcels of gold are also gold.
(Translation
and Purport by Srila Pranhupad)
