Thread by @anbezhil12

Annam Atma Paripalanam: Food nourishes the soul!
In Sanatana Dharma, the term annam is used for the English term 'food', but not as an equivalent. The term annam denotes and connotes physical and spiritual ramifications. Annam is not just something which is input to stomach and

digested, but it includes everything that is ingested by the ten senses and the mind. This is the reason our physical body is called ‘annamaya kosha’.('உடம்பை வளர்த்தேன் உயிர்வளர்த்தேனே' என்று சொல்வார் திருமூலர். இந்த உடம்பு சோற்றால் அடித்த சுவர்.) A number of our scriptures talk

about annam. The main emphasis is on the truth ‘What we eat, we become’.
Kanchi Maha Periyavaa took sanyasam at the age of thirteen. From that day, until he attained videha mukti at the age of 100, he lived an exemplary life of strictest austerity. His daily main meal was often

astonishingly simple: a small handful of puffed rice soaked in buttermilk. Even this was not taken when he went on fasting for days together. Occasionally, he took bhiksha from his devotees, but it was more to satisfy their desires than for his own welfare. A typical South Indian

Meal is served in three main courses: sambar sadam, rasam sadam, and more (buttermilk) sadam. Sambar is also known as kuzhambu in Tamil, a term that literally translates to 'get confused'. Paramacharya explains how these three courses are related to the three gunas of

spirituality: the confusion of sambar is ‘tamo guna’, the clarified and rarified flow of rasam is ‘rajo guna’ and the all-white buttermilk is ‘satva guna’. Our meal reminds us of our spiritual path from confused inaction to a clear flow of action and finally to the realized bliss

of unity. Sadam-Cooked rice, the main dish of a South Indian meal is called sadam. That which has sat is sadam, in the same way we call those who are full of sat, sadhus. We can give another explanation for the term: that which is born out of prasannam is prasadam. What we offer

to Swami (God) as nivedanam is given back to us as prasadam. Since we should not add the root 'pra' to the rice we cook for ourselves, we call it sadam.
Rasam
Rasam means juice, which is also the name of filtered ruchi. We say 'it was full of rasa' when a speech or song was

tasteful. Vaishnavas, because of their Tamil abhimanam, refer to rasam as saatthamudhu. It does not mean the amudhu (amrita) mixed with sadam. It was actually saatramudhu (saaru or rasam + amudhu), which became saatthamudhu. Vaishnavas also have a term thirukkann amudhu that

refers to our payasam. Thiru kannal amudhu has become thirukkann amudhu. Kannal means sugarcane, the base crop of sugar and jaggery used in payasam. I was talking about rasam. If something is an extraction of juice, then would it not be clear, diluted and free of sediments? Such

is the nature of our rasam, which is clear and dilute. The other one, served earlier to rasam in a meal, is the kuzhambu. Kuzhambu contains dissolved tamarind and cut vegetable pieces, so it looks unclear, its ingredients not easily seen.
Buttermilk
A western meal normally ends

with a dessert. In a South Indian meal, desserts such as payasam are served after the rasam sadam. Any sweets that were served at the beginning are also taken at this time. After that we take buttermilk rice as our final course. Paramacharya explains that since sweets are harmful

to teeth, our sour and salty buttermilk actually strengthens our teeth, and this has been observed and praised by an American dietician. We gargle warm salt water when we get toothache. The buttermilk is the reason for our having strong teeth until the end of our life, unlike the

westerners who resort to dentures quite early in their life.

Source: Sollin Selvar Sri Kanchi Munivar (Tamil)
Author: R.Ganapathi