We have our own cook who prepares for us three meals a day of traditional vegetarian Indian cuisine. Breakfasts are generally light; fruit, yogurt, oatmeal with bananas, or Puja, a crushed rice dish from south India. The lunches and dinners always include rice, Chapate (a flat bread similar to a tortilla), raw vegetables (generally root vegetables, cabbage, and tomato), and usually have some sort of lentil dish and a cooked vegetable or tofu dish. We are only served fruits and vegetables that are in season, and the food is prepared with no salt, garlic, onion, or heavy spices. They are feeding us according to the Ayurvedic diet with foods that are easy to digest and coincide with the proper yogic diet. I feel completely nourished and I haven’t missed the meat, sugar, or processed foods, and it certainly is nice to have freshly cooked meals every day without having to prepare anything myself.
We have a little dining area in the kitchen where we sit on the floor at tiny little tables. We always chant a mantra together before meals. We are not supposed to talk and socialize during meals as not to disturb our digestion, but most of us don’t follow that rule very well. The food is very tasty and I look forward to the meals every day.
