One of the goals for any spiritual aspirant is to try to reduce the Karma Footprint or amount of new Karma bondages we generate in this life, wherever possible. That way, we can slowly drain our Karma bondages (Sanchit) and make significant gains on the spiritual path.

While many sources generate new Karma bondages, given that we consume 3 to 4 meals a day, one of the significant sources of Karma Footprint is our food consumption. Therefore, we must find ways to prevent, and if not prevent, then at least contain that to some extent.

As discussed in the earlier two (non-veg and veg) posts, plant-based food is far more advantageous to our Karmic situation than meat-based (non-vegetarian) foods. Therefore, as a first step, we should no doubt try to limit or stop the intake of meats (non-vegetarian food) as that will significantly reduce the new Karma bondages. 

But this alone can’t solve the problem entirely, as plant-based foods also generate new Karma bondages, albeit slowly.

So, how else can we stop new karma bondages originating from food?

The answer to this question lies more in how than what gets eaten. Let’s try to understand this in more detail.

If we eat because our body needs food for survival without caring about taste or likes and dislikes, we won’t generate any additional Karma bondages, irrespective of what we eat.

But how many of us can do that, right? For example, many of us can’t even eat a few bites without salt.

That means, irrespective of whether we eat plant-based or meat/non-veg food, we eat food for taste and care a lot about our likes or dislikes, and without some ingredients, we can’t even think of eating our meals. 

Therefore, Shri Krishna suggests another approach in Bhagavad Gita. As per this approach, if we wholeheartedly offer all the prepared food to God and then eat it as a Prasad, that food does not generate any karma. 

The reason is that whenever we eat anything as a Prasad, it always tastes good because we treat it as a blessing by ignoring our likes and dislikes, thereby avoiding the generation of any Karma bondages irrespective of what we eat.

However, it might not be always possible to physically offer food to God before eating, but in our mind, we must always accept and eat everything as a blessing. 

In summary, to avoid the Karma footprint of food, we have two options:

1. Eat food to sustain the body without attaching to its taste or our likes and dislikes. OR
2. Eat everything as a Prasad or blessings.

BTW, while doing this, we must not forget that food is only one of the sources of the Karma Footprint. 

It won’t do much good to us if we follow one of the two above options and then go on sucking people’s blood by cheating, mistreating, or exploiting them; we won’t make much headway on the spiritual path.