Gula
Gula means excessiveness, greediness, overdoing, and exaggeration. These are behavioral pathologies, addictions to substances and similar habits. Eating too much, working too much, being obsessed with sexual engagements to the point of becoming completely uncontrolled – all this is excessiveness. In Sanskrit it is called atyahara.
So let us see what can help cure us of this excessiveness. Vedic tradition offers a very simple method: “Eat only what has been offered to God and eat only that much, that is necessary to keep the body and soul together.”
We have to work at least 8-10-12 hours. Besides that we have to be a good father, mother -whatever we are. We have to withstand all the different challenges of life. For this reason we have to give sufficient energy to the body. That is the reason why we are eating.
Some people eat so much that right after eating they want to lie down. “Now I have to do my digestion.” They just lie down for 3 hours. This is excessiveness and waste of time and health by inappropriate eating. You are supposed to eat to have energy for service.
If you eat things which are unhealthy, like meat, fish, eggs etc., then you are immediately accumulating negative reactions. Offering food to God, as it is described in the Vedic tradition, means that you can not offer whatever you want. There are certain restrictions. Food offered to the Lord must be ahimsa or non-violent. In other words, it cannot come from killing. This food will be blessed by the Lord. In this way we will get cured from excessiveness and we will make progress in our evolution of consciousness.
Greediness can be cured if we learn how to accept and use only those things which are in the service of the truth. We have to be engaged with something, whatever one likes to participate in. We should avoid exaggeration and do the things according to principles we are being given by our mystical tradition guides. We should fulfill our duties and we should not try to utilize our activities just for enhancing our own position. Being obsessed with our own position, with “I, Me and Mine” is also atyaharah. So even acting for the right purpose, we can still adopt an improper attitude. For getting recognition and taking some advantage, we are ready to do more than what we are able or supposed to. These are actually not positive things, even if it is for a good purpose. It is a big effort to obtain praise for oneself, and very often we are ready to push ourselves in front of everyone, or to belittle others.
We have to move toward full participation and acting on behalf of the common goal. That will cure us absolutely from all excessiveness, greediness and similar dysfunctional behavior.