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Celebrity Vegetarian Chef, Kurma (left) with the Food Yogi, Priya Vrata.

May 4, Friday, SYDNEY — Priya Vrata the food yogi teamed up with celebrity vegetarian chef, Kurma Das to provide a delicious vegan dinner for party-goers at Carmella Baynie’s Rasa Mandala CD Release Party in Paddington, Australia.

More than 150 attended the colourful event that featured a 2 hour live performance, a soul yantra visual display created by Vali Quinn of StudioShoot.Me, and an extraordinary dinner plate featuring the Food Yogi’s famous rainbow quinoa salad, Kurma’s fried cauliflower (KFC), puffed sesame bread, tomato relish, egyptian basbousa cake, chai tea and the Food Yogi’s amazing raw chocolates (peppermint hearts and goji/ginger cacao crackles).

“That was the best raw chocolate I have ever had,” people kept saying. The feast was delicious. Some people screamed upon tasting Kurma’s pakoras. Kurma Das excelled once again in the kitchen producing the most delectable Indian cuisine to accompany the rainbow Quinoa salad that consisted of garden mix, kale, spinach, capsicum, red cabbage, avocado, nori strips, carrots, star fruits, pears, and organic quinoa.

Carmella Baynie

Cacao Crackles with Goji and freshly grated ginger

Quinoa Salad

Basbousa Cake

Sesame puffed bread

Over 150 people enjoyed the blessed food.

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As the soft moist grass folds beneath my feet,
I contemplate my good fortune and beg not to repeat,
The failures of the past in a journey so long,
There’s just too much to tell in this very short song.

Holding my hands high, I reach for the sky,
personal liberation — I will not be denied,
By acting in ways that are averse to the course,
of the powerful waves — of that Illusory force.

I am far from perfect — and yet I feel so blessed,
by the saints that walked before me with egos undressed.
They now illuminate my path and guide my sorry plight,
in a world so overtaken by the fear of night.

Getting strength and vitality from the sun, water and air,
I embrace the divine love of the elemental fair,
as they nourish the teachings of the FOOD YOGA path,
and lead one and all to the Lord Jagannath.

The “Lord of the Universe,” manifest within,
every atom of life and every tube-torus spin,
There is nowhere in our existence that God cannot be seen,
and that is essentially what FOOD YOGA means.

So honour your SELF — by honouring that Lord,
See thy presence manifest — in total accord,
with the degree of your love and openness of your heart,
And that my dear friends is where spirituality starts.

So engage your tongue properly — in respectable ways,
Don’t chatter, offend — or eat horrible things today,
Purify the vibration — and the taste on your buds,
and experience the divine presence manifest from the mud,

Of a mischievious mind — submerged for far too long,
in matters of ignorance and sad love songs,
Realise your potential — beginning with your tongue,
and open your heart to the love of the divine ONE.

- Priya Vrata
(The Food Yogi)

MORE POEMS

Continue reading »]]> We are the living links in a life force that moves and plays around and through us, binding the deepest soils with the farthest stars. – Alan Chadwick

EXCERPT from FOOD YOGA – Nourishing the Soul

Yin Yang

According to traditional Chinese philosophers, the Universe was created out of a force called wu ji, which means “limitless nothingness.” Out of this infinite force arose two polar forces known as yin and yang. These yin and yang forces interact with each other constantly to produce all things. The yang world has to do with the physical realm that we wake up to everyday, whereas the yin world is the world of energy and spirit. When a person dies, they cross from the yang world into the yin world. Both worlds are eternal because in essence they are both energetic vibrations. In the grand scheme of things, all energy, whether it is material or spiritual, has a singular Energetic Source. Therefore, what we define as “material” is in fact just a perverted expression of the same spiritual energy. The Chinese have developed a science called feng shui to encourage the harmonious interaction between these two realms.

Like us, food, too, has a physical and subtle existence. It reverberates in both the yin and yang realms and therefore impacts both our physical and subtle bodies accordingly. The art of food selection and combining according to one’s unique bodily constitution (as taught in the Ayurveda[1]) is an example of how this energy transfer plays out.

Life Forces

For centuries, the great yogis of India and Qigong[1] masters of the Orient have known about the amazing power of harnessing and preserving our natural “life-force” or vital energy, otherwise known as Qi (pronounced: chee). To them Qi is tied inextricably to breath, life and natural forces. Qi, frequently translated as “energy flow,” is often compared to Western notions of energeia or élan (vitalism).

However, today we often see the ideogram for this Qi energy written with the component for “rice.” Founder of the spiritual path of Mahikari, Kotama Okada, believes this association of the word for Qi energy to rice, “reflects the materialism of our society.” He says the ideogram originally represented energy flowing throughout the three realms—the divine, astral, and physical. This is evident because, “the older form of the character was written with the component of “fire” and not that for rice. Thus, the character for energy originally represented the spiritual energy of God.”

Traditional Chinese medicine asserts that the body has natural patterns of Qi that circulate in channels called meridians. Symptoms of various illnesses are often believed to be the product of disrupted, blocked, or unbalanced Qi movement inside the body’s meridians, as well as deficiencies or imbalances of Qi in the various organs. Traditional Chinese medicine often seeks to relieve these imbalances by adjusting the circulation of Qi (metabolic energy flow) in the body through a variety of therapeutic techniques, which include herbal medicines and teas, special diets, physical exercise (e.g., qigong, tai chi), massage, and acupuncture to reroute or balance Qi.

Qigong Master, Dr Yang, Jwing-Ming explains:

To understand Qi massage, you must understand that Qi is the bioelectricity circulating in the body. Because it is electricity, it can be conducted or led through electrical correspondence. Actually, everybody has the ability to do Qi healing. To give an example, when people are sad, their Qi is Yin deficient. If you hold their hands or hug them, your Qi will nourish them and they will immediately feel better. We have been doing this instinctively for a long time. The only difference between the average person and a Qigong master is that the latter has trained in Qigong healing, and can therefore be more effective.

Download FOOD YOGA

Continue reading »]]> SOURCE: Caboolture News, Queensland

Priya Vrata has published a book Food Yoga – nourishing the soul about the benifits of raw food both physically and 

spiritually. Photo Vicki Wood

INTERNATIONAL food yoga hero Yogi Priya Vrata (Paul Turner) – recently conducted two food yoga workshops on Bribie Island at the Witchie Woo Wellness B & B.

Leesa Petfield | 14th February 2012: INTERNATIONAL food yoga hero Yogi Priya Vrata (Paul Turner) – recently conducted two food yoga workshops on Bribie Island at the Witchie Woo Wellness B & B.

Paul said he received positive feedback from both workshops. Some pupils said it was the most positive thing that had happened to them this year. All participants learnt the science of food yoga and were treated to a two-hour gourmet raw food demonstration.

Paul is the international director of Food for Life and the director of Food for Life Global, the charity’s world headquarters. Food for Life is the largest plant-based food relief organisation in the world. The project is in more than 50 countries and serves up to two million meals daily.

Paul’s journey began when he left home at 19. He lived in a commune in Sydney’s Blue Mountains where he was introduced to the fundamentals of Indian cooking by Akrura das, a former Hare Krishna monk. The experience ignited a desire in Paul to one day become a temple chef.

Paul said he was always fascinated with karma and spirituality, so he joined the Krishna ashram in NSW and become a monk. During his time as a monk Paul said he learned the art of gourmet vegetarian cooking.

In 1986 Paul started a Food for Life club and in 1989 his food yogi journey took him to the Hunter Valley region where he started a new Food for Life program. Paul soon realised that food was a wonderful communicator. Travelling to over 54 countries over the next 25 years, Paul helped to inspire and set up new Food for Life projects and train volunteers. Paul said his travels took him to three war zones – Chechnya, Bosnia and Georgia. He led an international team of volunteers to set up makeshift kitchens in villages across Sri Lanka in response to the Asian tsunami.

In 2010 Paul directed an international relief effort in Haiti where Food for Life Global served thousands of organic vegan meals to devastated Haitians.

In 2011 Paul travelled to Japan and established a feeding program for the survivors of the tsunami.

Paul said he had conducted workshops all over the world, directing the journey for food and using food to connect people. He now has several books published and two more books in the making. Readers can download the eBook from www.FOODYOGI.ORG ($9.95) or pick up a softcover at Witchie Woo Wellness B&B, 10 Eighth Ave, Woorim.

For more information on Paul’s food yoga checkout – www.foodyogi.org

SOURCE: Caboolture News

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Standing room only for the Food Yoga workshop

Melbourne, Sunday, 12-2.-2012 — Over 70 people attended the Food Yoga workshop at the St Kilda festival in Melbourne’s Catani Gardens. During the workshop, Priya Vrata (the “Food Yogi”) demonstrated raw food recipes from his new book FOOD YOGA – Nourishing the Soul book. Participants could hardly wait to buy the new book. During the presentation, Priya touched upon a few of the key messages in the book, including the 5 keys to optimum health: Resonating to Phi (fivenesss) by reconnecting to the 5 basic elements, Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Ether. To learn more about this system, download the latest version of the ebook now for only $9.95

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Paul Turner

Continue reading »]]> Australia’s Vegetarian Guru, Kurma Das, author of numerous vegetarian cookbooks, including Great Vegetarian Dishes, shares his thoughts on FOOD YOGA – Nourishing the Soul.

FOOD YOGA – Nourishing the Soul is a virtual manifesto of the art and science of food yoga, and is a treasure trove of priceless information about many of the divine aspects of food. - Kurma Das

FOREWORD

It is an honour to have been asked to write a small foreword to this fascinating book. I have personally known Paul Turner for over 30 years. We have shared a common yoga path, and from time to time, we have found ourselves cooking together in kitchens around the world.

We both became inspired and empowered by the same teachings of the founder of ISKCON, Swami Prabhupada. From him we learned the art and science of the Yoga of Eating.  As explained in this book, one of the main elements of this Yoga is the preparation of sacred foods. For thousands of years, kitchen-yogis in temples throughout India have practiced the divine art and science of preparing wonderful and diverse vegetarian food saturated with love and devotion.  Cooking thus becomes yoga.

The Sanskrit word yoga carries the meaning of ‘connection’, specifically the connection between the individual soul and the Supreme Soul. This connection has now been broken, and yoga is the means for reestablishing it.

The techniques for reestablishing the connection are intimate and personal. If we love someone, we want to do things for them, and a very common thing that people do for people they love is to cook for them.

Kitchen Yogis around the world prepare offerings in this same spirit of love. This love is manifested at every stage of the cooking process – from the purchasing of the ingredients to the final offering of the sacred meal to the object of one’s devotion. Such a spiritualized diet is thus spiritually elevating.

If something is good for you spiritually, it is generally also good for you materially. Medical studies have shown that vegetarians tend to suffer less than others from various heart diseases and cancers. As far as the planet is concerned, the meat industry is one of the most wasteful of natural resources and the most destructive of the environment. A spiritual vegetarian diet is good not only for your soul but also for your body and our planet.

From The Yoga of Eating you will learn how to achieve optimum health by practicing the Food Yogi diet and lifestyle, which includes what to eat, when to eat, water therapy, food offering meditation, and conscious eating. The characteristics of a food yogi, the metaphysics of food, sacred foods, the importance of water, the culture of spiritual hospitality – and much more – are explained in detail.

FOOD YOGA is a virtual manifesto of the art and science of food yoga, and is a treasure trove of priceless information about many of the divine aspects of food.

By reading this book you will learn just how important food is to your spiritual journey. You will discover how to genuinely feel compassion and respect for all living beings, and how this universal respect is so fundamental to a Food Yogi lifestyle.

Foods prepared with loving intention have the ability to unite people in a loving bond. From this excellent book you will learn how to spiritualize your eating, and by doing so, help the world to become a better place.

Kurma Dasa
New Govardhana Farm
Murwillumbah, Australia
14 January 2012
www.kurma.net

About KURMA

Kurma was head chef at Melbourne’s most popular Vegetarian Restaurant, Gopal’s, for many years and is the author of Great Vegetarian Dishes which is in its seventh print run, Cooking With Kurma, Quick Vegetarian Dishes and most recently Vegetarian World Food. All books have received wide acclaim for their professional, clearly written and richly illustrated presentation of vegetarian cuisine.

Kurma has hosted three internationally broadcast television cooking series seen in over 46 countries. His third and latest 26-part TV series “Cooking with Kurma – More Great Vegetarian Dishes” screened throughout Australia on SBS and Foxtel.

eBOOK $9.95

Softcover (318 pages) $29.95 Buy Now

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Paul Turner

Continue reading »]]> Australian born, Priya Vrata (aka the FOOD YOGI), director of Food for Life Global is currently on a tour presenting FOOD YOGI workshops. The 1 – 3 day workshops present the philosophy of Food for Life as it relates to food choices, lifestyle, respect for nature and spirituality. The presentation is based on notes from Food Yogi’s book, FOOD YOGA – Nourishing the Soul a 320 page manifesto of the Food Yogi lifestyle with a specific emphasis on introducing a Food Offering Meditation.

• Metaphysics of food
• Sacred Foods and Alchemy
• Sacred Geometry of Food
• The importance of water
• Food Politics
• Spiritual Hospitality
• The 10 Characteristics of a Food Yogi
• Food Offering Meditation
• Conscious Eating

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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Paul Turner

Continue reading »]]> FOOD YOGA – Nourishing the Soul is officially available as an eBook today, January 1st, 2012! 

FOOD YOGA – Nourishing the Soul is a completely new approach to holistic living. Until now, books on healthy living and nutrition have focused on the mechanics of health and happiness, and in doing so, have promoted philosophies and plans that in one way or another have alienated vast numbers of people. As a result, despite volumes of literature and research there is no consensus on what diet or mode of living is best. What they have all failed to identify is one underlying truth that connects us all and from which all health plans can be reconciled and/or elevated to their ultimate stature.

That truth is: our constitutional nature is spirit and we are all spiritually equal. Any healthy living program therefore needs to address the “nutritional” needs of body, mind and spirit. Utilizing scientific facts and logical argument, I introduce the reader to higher concepts of self worth, whereupon the selfish ideals of impersonal consumerism are replaced with a philosophy of grateful, interdependent spirituality, where health and happiness, are not the exclusive domain of a chosen few, but are possible for everyone. The book aims to encourage the reader to start making food part of their daily spiritual ritual. I have attempted to make the presentation as non-sectarian as possible, without losing the integrity of the message.

The book covers a wide range of topics related to food with the aim of making people think more deeply about their food choices and how important food is to their spiritual development. The book leads the reader along a path of becoming more aware of the divine nature of food to the point where they are then introduced to what I call, The FOOD OFFERING MEDITATION, which summarizes the lessons learned along the way and serves to put them in the right frame of mind to transform their eating into a spiritual experience. The book is a result of teaching The Yoga of Eating at vegetarian conferences around the world for the last 15 years. Based on the positive responses from my seminars, I feel strongly that the public is fully ready to embrace the ideals of FOOD YOGA and this book will provide the unbiased guidance they need.

Joel Salatin of PolyFace Farm, Fresh, and academy award nominated Food Inc. speaks about the new food paradigm this way:

“There is a certain sense of sacredness that can come from our connection with our food: Having a relationship with our farmers, seeing and knowing where our food comes from, being present while preparing it, giving thanks or making an offering, and most importantly being present while eating. Generally, we would be lucky to have part of this equation going just some of the time. The ideal is having the full chain of events working in our lives on a regular sustained basis. This is what the new paradigm of food is striving for.”

ORDER ebook NOW for $9.95

Softcover $29.95

Print on demand from LULU. Extra for shipping.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Paul Turner

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Yogi Priya with a raw vegan chocolate mint "cheese"cake

Yogi Priya conducted another workshop at the beautiful Witchie Woo Bed & Breakfast retreat centre on Bribie Island, owned and managed by entrepreneur, healer and visionary Craig Harmer.

Twenty three partipants learned the science of Food Yoga and were then treated to a 2 hour raw gourmet food demonstration by Yogi Priya and his Food Yogi assistants, Craig, Vicki, and Ange.

The raw food demonstration included:

• Garden avocado salad
• Garden Pate
• Hummus
• Brazil Nut milk
• Almond cheese
• Chocolate mango vegan cheesecake
• Chocolate strawberry vegan cheesecake
• Apple pie
• Mango ice cream
• Banana nutmeg ice cream
• and 6 power smoothies

Witchie Woo Bed and Breakfast Wellness Retreat

The Witchie Woo Wellness Retreat offers first class accommodation along with the following healing services:

• Massage
• Crystal Healing
• Yoga
• Reiki
• Psychic Readings
• Mediumship
• Mediation
• Kinesiology
• Hypnotherapy

Contact your host Craig Harmer on
Phone: 07 34081577
Mobile: 0488442283
Email: charmer8888@bigpond.com

 

 

 

 

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Taichung, Taiwan — June 24 – 27 — Australian born, Paul Turner (aka Priyavrata), director of Food for Life Global is currently on a tour of Asian countries presenting FOOD YOGI workshops. The 3 day course presents the philosophy of Food for Life as it relates to food choices, lifestyle, respect for nature and spirituality.

The presentation is based on notes from Turner’s yet to be published book, FOOD YOGA – Nourishing the Soul – a 320 page manifesto of the Food Yogi lifestyle with a specific emphasis on introducing a Food Offering Meditation.

The idea behind the book was inspired by the founder of Food for Life, Swami Prabhupada, who said that “everyone should get a chance to take prasadam…” He believed strongly that through the liberal distribution of prasadam (food that is prepared with loving intention and then offered to God) the whole world could become peaceful and prosperous.” The meaning of this statement is that clean, non-violent foods that are prepared with loving intention have the ability to unite people in a loving bond. We all have experience of this when we sit down to a meal prepared with love on holidays.

The purpose of the Food Yogi course is to introduce students to the culture of spiritual hospitality and the importance of food on their spiritual journey. Students learn how to achieve optimum health by practicing the Food Yogi diet and lifestyle, which includes, what to eat, when to eat, water therapy, a food offering meditation, conscious eating and raw food demonstrations.

The Food Yoga workshop covers a variety of subjects, including:

• Metaphysics of food
• Sacred Foods and Alchemy
• Sacred Geometry of Food
• The importance of water
• Food Politics
• Spiritual Hospitality
• The 10 Characteristics of a Food Yogi
• Food Offering Meditation
• Conscious Eating

Every day is followed with a raw vegan food demonstration to show students that it is easy to prepare tasty, nutritious, good looking meals in minutes, including: Sprouting, salads dressings, green smoothies, energy drinks, live vegan soups, live vegan wraps, nut and seed pates and live vegan desserts.

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