The tradition in Tamil Nadu is to eat your meals off a fresh banana leaf. Of course if you are really traditional you would be sitting on the floor, but I find that when I try to do that all I do is spill on my shirt. So we ate at a table.
The cups containing the white liquid have payasam; a sweet rice desert. And the orangish liquid is Rasam, a devilishly yummy pepper soup. Let me explain…
A typical lunch would start with just a little bit of a sweet to wake up your appetite. Then, with plain white rice, there would be some dal, a spicy vegetable (sometimes two) plus a potato or eggplant dish, and sambar, which is a thick kind of thick mixed vegetable stew. Then, you would have more rice with rasam poured over it, and then more rice with freshly made (every day) yogurt and hot hot pickles. Then… a sweet to finish with.
As it says in the Ishavasya Upanishad;
“purnamadah purnamidam purnaat purnamudachyate
purnasya purnaamadaya purnameva vashishyate.”
Purnamadah can be translated as “This inner reality is full”.
Purnamidam can be translated as “That outer reality is full”
Fullness…in both senses of the word, inner and outer. Sort of like lunch.
A more traditional translation would be:
This is complete. That is complete.
From that completeness comes this completeness.
If we take away this completeness from that completeness,
only completeness remains.