A few of my favorite things – I can’t think of anything I liked more that sautéed mushrooms and onions with garlic – it goes amazingly well on anything! Right?
So why did I give them up?
Six reasons why I gave up mushrooms, onions & garlic
1. They are tamasic – meaning thousands of years of sadhus, sages and reishis, have turned away from this gourmet trinity because it is antithetical to enlightenment. They must have been on to something.
2. Anytime I started a dish, I was always confronted with the menial task of chopping onions and peeling garlic. It is an ungrateful task that I never looked forward to; it was time consuming and messy.
3. Surprisingly, I didn’t miss the onions and garlic in any dish.
4. Ayurvedically speaking, garlic is a very potent medicine, not to be taken lightly; same with onions. Take them both in moderation and to correct certain imbalances of your doshas.
5. Onions and garlic make you hot and excited, so of course, they are off limits to brahmacharya devotees.
6. My least compelling reason, but devotees in Vrindavan are all over this one. Read on…
Onions, garlic & musshrooms are NON-VEG!
…onions, garlic and mushrooms are NOT vegetarian. Long story short – a long time ago, a reishi (wise man) was sacrificing cut-up chunks of cow (yep); his pregnant wife got a hankering for some meat, so she stole a piece. When a new baby cow rose like the Phoenix out of the sacrificial fire, he was missing a side of beef from his little flank, which the wife had stolen. Realizing she was going to get caught red-handed with the chunk of beef, she flung it into the field where the bones grew into garlic and onions, and the flesh grew into mushrooms. See? Non-veg!
I’m all about reason 1 -4; reasons 5 & 6…meh.
In India, “pure veg” means no onion, garlic (or mushrooms), and of course, no eggs, no meat, fish, nor fowl; but it does include copious amounts of dairy.
Would you ever give up mushrooms, onions & garlic?
If yes, what would be the main reason you’d give them up? Let me know in the comments below.