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.

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

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 TurnerAll Rights Reserved

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