Hello, friends! Today, let’s talk about the topic of information consumption. Every day, we consume some form of information from external sources, and this process can be compared to eating food on a plate.

Just as eating low-quality food affects our well-being, our bodies, and our minds, the information we consume has a similar impact on us. We live on three levels: the physical (body), the subtle (mind), and the spiritual (soul). What we consume defines who we are.

Therefore, we should be selective about what we consume and how much. In Christianity, there is a sin called gluttony. In the Vedic tradition, there is a term comparable to this Christian concept of gluttony: atyahara. According to the Vedic sage Srila Rupa Goswami, this is something we must eliminate from our lives. He wrote about this in the second verse of his book The Nectar of Instruction.

Atyahara refers to overeating or excessive accumulation of things. In Christianity, this aligns with greed. Similarly, we should apply this principle to the consumption of information: we should avoid overconsumption and ensure that the information we consume is of high quality (in the mode of goodness).

In Ayurveda, within the context of nutrition, it is believed that we should eat only when the previous meal has been fully digested. Otherwise, adding more food to undigested food creates toxic deposits in the body, such as poisons and pathogens. This is why it is important to eat only when we truly feel hungry. The same principle applies to information: we should only consume it when we have fully digested (processed) the previous information, which means transforming external information into internal knowledge.

In my view, based on the principle of atyahara—eliminating overeating and excessive accumulation of things, or, in Christian terms, gluttony and greed—we should extend these principles to the realm of learning. We should consume only what is necessary, beneficial for us, and in the right proportions.

Stay happy! Best of luck, friends!