All because of a single strand of hair ?
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)
