ANNAPOORNA

Growing up, whenever me or my brother made a face while eating or generally did anything disrespectful towards food, our mother would scream - " Dont do that, its goddess Annaporna "

This is how much we respect food in India ! 

Stories of the Goddess are narrated right from childhood and children are taught the value of food and the perils of wasting food. My grandparents would always recite a few mantras and say a little prayer before eating.People hardly do that anymore.

It is believed,that when the Goddess is pleased,we are blessed with nourishing, healthy and tasty food. She also gives us wisdom and renunciation. In our Indian culture, we lay a lot of importance to food and eating habits.

The Goddess of food and nourishment is Annapoorna Devi with ‘Anna’ meaning ‘food or grain’ and ‘Poorna’ meaning one who is whole, complete or perfect. She is said to be an incarnation of Goddess Parvati, the wife of Lord Shiva and one of the numerous forms of Shakti. Annapoorna Mata is shown having two hands holding a bowl in one hand and a spoon in the other. She is either depicted standing on a lotus or sitting on a throne. How the goddess came into being, is a very interesting story.

Once there was a discussion between Lord Mahadev and Devi Parvati, wherein Lord Mahadev said that the world was an illusion(Maya) and everything was temporal and illusory, including the food that is eaten. But Parvati disagreed as she was the provider 

of food and argued that the world could not survive without her. To prove her point she disappeared and nature came to a standstill. There were no seasons and everything became barren. This led to severe drought and famine as there was a shortage of food and water. Lord Shiva soon realised his mistake as he was incomplete without Shakti. Meanwhile Parvati could not bear to see her children suffering and began to distribute food in Kashi (Varanasi).Lord Shiva then went with a bowl and humbly took alms from her.He realized his foolishness. Parvati fed him with her own hands. And from then on, Parvati is worshiped as Annapurna, the Goddess of nourishment.

In the spring season in Varanasi (Kashi), there is an Annakuta festival, which is celebrated every year after Diwali. During the festival, Goddess Annapoorna's temple is decorated with rice sprouts. In the winter, she is celebrated in a grand manner as the sustainer of life. 

Our relation to food is an indicator of your relation to other aspects of our life. What we put in our body has a direct effect not only on our body, but also on our mind and soul — on how we lead our lives. If our food is full of Prana (life force ) it will give us the ability to live our life to its fullest potential. Food that is pure, full of Prana and prepared with love and positive feelings, gives us much more than just the feeling of satisfaction to the taste buds. It nourishes your body, mind, senses and soul, while increasing physical energy, positive thinking, creativity, longevity and heightened awareness of life in all its beauty. It brings us closer to the divine state. 

The history untold

In school, during history class, we learnt a lot about the British Raj. They told us how the British built railways,roads,canals, bridges and also started the postal system in India. We were told, how they brought in the industrial revolution. In fact, the British were so glorified in the books, that at times, I actually felt grateful to them for the development in the fields of communication and transportation.

But what the books forgot to mention, was that, this development was not for the nation or its people. It was for their own interests. The British used the transport and communication system to export food grains, cotton etc to other parts of the world. The export of such items, for which there was a shortage in the world markets, due to the world wars, fetched a lot of wealth to the British empire.

And how did this trade affect the Indians ? Here is something that our history books did not tell us, but each one of us should know.

In 1943, there was a major famine in Bengal. Somewhere between 3 to 4 million people died. The deaths were due to starvation, malnutrition and disease.The famine also caused major economic and social disruption, ruining millions of families.This famine was due to the unsympathetic and ruthless policies. of the British. There was not really a shortage of food grains in India, but the British exported almost all the food to its troops all over the world, while millions of Indians starved to death.More than 70,000 tons of food was exported worldwide as the famine set in. When Winston Churchill received a message from Delhi about the increasing deaths of Indians, his only reply was that he regretted that Mahatma Gandhi was not one of the victims.

Hitler was responsible for the death of approximately 11 million people over a period of four years. While 4 million people died in one year in India. This comparison is just to understand the magnitude of the unfortunate event, which has been completely forgotten and ignored by the world. Its a shame, that instead of letting the future generations know the truth, our history, that we are taught in school is manipulated and distorted to suit the vested interests of some.

http://www.ibtimes.com/bengal-famine-1943-man-made-holocaust-1100525

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/82/a1934282.shtml

~ Poonam Patil Kalra