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Introduction
Sage Uddalaka instructs his son Svetaketu: "Food when consumed, becomes threefold. The gross particles become the excrement, the middling ones flesh, and the fine ones the mind. My child, when curd is churned, its fine particles which rise upwards form butter. Thus, my child, when food is consumed, the fine particles which rise upwards form the mind. Hence, verily, the mind is food".
Diet is of three kinds, viz., Sattvic diet, Rajasic diet, and Tamasic diet. In the Bhagavad-Gita, Lord Krishna says to Arjuna: "The food which is dear to each is threefold. The food which increases vitality, energy, vigour, health, and joy and which are delicious, bland, substantial, and agreeable are dear to the pure. The passionate persons desire foods that are bitter, sour, saline, excessively hot, pungent, dry, and burning, and which produce pain, grief, and disease. The food which is stale, tasteless, putrid, rotten, and impure, is dear to the Tamasic".
Milk, barley, wheat, cereals, butter, cheese, tomatoes, honey, dates, fruits, almonds, and sugar-candy are all Sattvic food-stuffs. They render the mind pure and calm and play a very important part in the practices of spiritual aspirants, in the mental development of the student, and in the personality- power of the leaders of mankind. Fish, eggs, meat, salt, chillies, and asafoetida are Rajasic food-stuffs; they excite passion and make the mind restless, unsteady, and uncontrollable. Beef, wine, garlic, onions, and tobacco are Tamasic food-stuffs. They exercise a very unwholesome influence on the human mind and fill it with emotions of anger, darkness, and inertia.
No doubt, animal diet may produce a strong Sandow, or a dauntless soldier, or a keen, brainy scientist. But, in the Hindu view of life, the real value is placed upon the moral and spiritual worth of the man.
Man is more than just body and mind; he is essentially an ever-perfect, ever- pure, and ever-free spirit in his true inner nature. Human birth is given as an opportunity and a means to attain this sublime knowledge of his inner spiritual nature and to regain his divinity. In this process, all grossness and animalistic tendencies have to be totally eliminated from the human personality. Non-vegetarian diet, which is gross and animal by its very nature, is a great hindrance to this process. Whereas, pure Sattvic diet is a great help to the refinement of the human nature.
The chemical components of different foods vibrate at varying rate. Each particle of food is a mass of energy. The intake of certain food-stuffs sets up discordant vibrations in the physical body which throw the mind into a state of oscillation and disequilibrium. Concentration of mind is rendered difficult and high thinking is disturbed, because elevating thoughts imply fine vibrations.
Meat generates diseases, excites passions, and produces restlessness of mind. Scientists are coming to the conclusion that there are, in meat, certain things which are absolutely poisonous. A very large number of medical men who have studied the subject of diet in relation to health are forbidding their patients to eat animal flesh, not only as a means of cure for such diseases as gout, rheumatism, etc., but also as a preventive against uric- acid ailments and diseases of many kinds, including consumption, cancer, and appendicitis.
Meat is not at all necessary for the keeping up of perfect health, vigour, and vitality. On the contrary, it is highly deleterious to health; it brings in its train a host of ailments such as tapeworm, albuminuria, and other diseases of the kidneys. In large meat-eating countries, cancer mortality is admittedly very high.
Moreover, flesh-eating involves the exercise of cruelty which is not an elevating virtue. It is a bestial quality which degrades man. Cruelty is condemned by all great men. Pythagoras condemned meat diet an sinful food. The cruel slaughter of animals and the taking of innocent lives which flesh- eating entails makes it abhorrent to all right thinking men and women all over the world.
Butchery and blood-shed is a great disgrace to civilisation and culture. Killing of animals for food is a great blunder; and the mentality it engenders is fraught with potential dangers for the life of humanity, a recognition of which made George Bernard Shaw say that as long as men torture and slay animals and eat their flesh, we shall have war.
If you want to stop taking mutton, fish, etc., just see with your own eyes the pitiable, struggling condition of the animals at the time of killing. Now mercy and sympathy will arise in your heart. You will determine to give up flesh-eating. If you fail in this attempt, just change your environment and live in a vegetarian hotel where you cannot get mutton and fish, and move in that society where there is only vegetable diet. Always think of the evils of flesh-eating and the benefits of a vegetarian diet. If this also cannot give you sufficient strength to stop this habit, go to the slaughter- house and the butcher's shop and personally see the disgusting, rotten muscles, intestines, kidneys and other nasty parts of the animals which emits bad smell. This will induce Vairagya (dispassion) in you and a strong disgust and hatred for meat-eating. (Click here if you feel you need to see scenes from a slaughter-house to induce dispassion for meat. If you can't stomach pictures, you can read about one person's visit to a slaughter-house.)
All slaughter-houses should be abolished, and the use of animal flesh as food should be absolutely given up. Flesh-eating is unnecessary, unnatural, and unwholesome. The countless instances of reputed philosophers, authors, scholars, athletes, saints, Yogins, Rishis who lived on vegetable diet conclusively prove that vegetarian diet produces supreme powers both of mind and body, and is highly conducive for divine contemplation and practice of Yoga.
Man is created a frugivorous or fruit-eating creature. This scientific fact is evident on a comparison with the carnivorous animals from whom he differs completely in respect of his internal organs, teeth, and external appearances, whereas, anatomically, he is most intimately allied to the anthropoid apes whose diet consists of fruits, cereals, and nuts.
When man abandons flesh foods and takes his nutrient direct from nature's hand, of well-ripe and healthy fruits and grains, nuts and vegetables with addition of honey, cheese and milk, we shall find a large number of diseases disappearing. People will have more power of endurance and attain longevity.
What is needed is a well-balanced diet, not a rich diet. A rich diet produces diseases of the liver, kidneys, and pancreas. A well-balanced diet helps a man to grow, to turn out more work, increases his body-weight, and keeps up efficiency, stamina, and a high standard of vim and vigour.
People who are slaves to the flesh-eating habit cannot give up animal diet, because they have become confirmed and inveterate meat-eaters, and hence they try to justify their habit by various arguments and statistics. One cannot change their ways merely by argumentation and disputation. Ultimately, it is only the force of personal example that has a strong effect upon the people around you.
Man body is much similar to non meat eating animals when compared to meat eating
animals.
Human teeth, like those of the herbivorous creatures, are designed for grinding
and chewing vegetable matter. Humans lack sharp front teeth for tearing flesh
that are characteristic of carnivores. Meat eating animals generally swallow
their food without chewing it and therefore do not require molars or a jaw
capable of moving sideways. Also, the human hand, with no sharp claws and with
its opposable thumb, is better suited to harvesting fruits and vegetables than
to killing prey.
Once within the stomach, meat requires digestive juices high in hydrochloric
acid. The stomachs of humans and hebivores produce acid less than one-twentieth
the strength of that found in carnivores.
Another crucial difference between the meat-eater and the vegetarian is found in
the intestinal tract, where the food is further digested and nutrients are
passed into the blood. A piece of meat is just part of a corpse, and its
putrefaction creates poisonous wastes within the body. Therefore meat must be
quickly eliminated. For this purpose, carnivores possess intestinal tract only
three times the length of their bodies. Since man, like other non-flesh-eating
animals, has intestinal tract twelve times his body length, rapidly decaying
flesh is retained for a much longer time, producing a number of undesirable
toxic effects.
One body organ adversely affected by these toxins is the kidney. This vital
organ, which extracts waste from the blood, is strained by the overload of
poisons introduced by meat consumption. Even moderate meat-eaters demand three
times more work from their kidneys than do vegetarians. The kidneys of a young
person may be able to cope with this stress, but as one grows older the risk of
kidney disease and failure greatly increases.
Medical studies prove that a vegetarian diet is easier to digest, provides a
wider range of nutrients and imposes fewer burdens and impurities on the body.
Vegetarians are less susceptible to all the major diseases that afflict
contemporary humanity, and thus live longer, healthier, more productive lives.
They have fewer physical complaints, less frequent visits to the doctor, fewer
dental problems and smaller medical bills. Their immune system is stronger, their
bodies are purer, more refined and skin more beautiful.
The inability of the human body to deal with excessive animal fats in the diet
is another indication of the unnaturalness of meat-eating. Carnivorous animals
can metabolize alomost unlimited amounts of cholesterol and fats without any
adverse effects. The vegetarian species have a very limited ability to deal with
any level of cholesterol or saturatd fats beyond the amount required by the
body. When over a period of many years an excess is consumed, fatty deposits
(plaque) accumulate on the inner walls of the arteries, producing a condition
known as arteriosclerosis, hardening of the arteries. Because the plaque
deposits constrict the flow of blood to the heart, the potential or heart
attacks, strokes, and blood clots is tremendously increased.
Sodium Nitrate and sodium nitrite, chemicals used as preservatives to slow down
putrefaction in cured meat and meat products, including ham, bacon, bologna,
salami, frankfurters, and fish, also endanger health. These chemicals give meat
its bright red appearence by reacting with pigments in the blood and muscle.
Without them, the natural gray brown color of dead meat would turn off many
prospective consumers. Unfortunately, these chemicals do not distinguish between
the blood of a corpse and the blood of living human, and many persons
accidentally subjected to excessive amounts have died of poisoning. Even smaller
quantities can prove hazadous.
In addition to dangerous chemicals, meat often carries diseases from the animals
themselves. Crammed together in unclean conditions, force-fed, and inhumanely
treated, animals destined for slaughter contract many more diseases than they
ordinarily would. Meat inspectors attempt to filter out unacceptable meats, but
because of pressures from the industry and lack of sufficient time for
examination, much of what passes is far less wholesome than the meat purchaser
realizes.
In 1961, the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that 90
to 97% of heart disease, the cause of more than one half of the deaths can be
prevented by a vegetarian diet. The National Academy of Sciences reported in
1983 that "people may be able to prevent many common cancers by eating
vegetables and grains". In Notes on the Causation of Cancer, Rollo Russel
writes, "I have found of 25 nations eating flesh largely, 19 had a high cancer
rate and that of 35 nations eating no flesh, none had a high rate"
Both have life. But plant's nervous sytem is not developed much. But animal nervous
system was developed as much man. If we kill an animal, it suffers as much as a man
suffer. But plant doesn't suffer that much. There is a very large difference
between both. If an animal suffers, then even a tree can see that it is
suffering. But if a tree suffers, only costly equipment can recognize that.
If we compare the suffering of plant which can not be seen even by the man who
has highly developed consciousness and the suffering of an animal which can be
seen even by the plant which has very less consciousness,
the suffering of plant is very very less.
According to information compiled by the United States Department of
Agriculture, over 90% of all the grain produced in America is used for
feeding livestock - cows, pigs, lambs, and chickens - that wind up on dinner
tables. USDA's Economic Research Service shows that we get back only one pound
of beef for every 16 pounds of grain.
In the book Proteins: Their Chemistry and Politics, it notes that in
terms of calorie units per acre, a diet of grains, vegetables, and beans will
support 20 times more people than a diet of meat. As it stands now, about half
the harvested acreage in america is used to feed animals. If the earth's arable
land were used primarily for the production of vegetarian foods, the planet
could easily support a human population of 20 billion and more.
Facts such as these have led food experts to point out that the world hunger
problem is largely illusory. The myth of "Overpopulation" should not be used by
advocates of abortion to justify the killing of more than fifty million unborn
children worldwide each year. Even now, we are already producing enough food for
everyone on the planet, but unfortunately it is being allocated inefficiently.
The overconsumption of meat by the rich means hunger for the poor. This wasteful
agriculture must be changed - by the suppression of feedlots where beef are
fattened on grains, and even a massive reduction of beef cattle.
Another price we pay for meat eating is degradation of the environment.
America's thousands of slaughterhouses are major source of pollution of the
nation's rivers and streams. In the book Population, Resources, and
Environment, Paul and Anne Ehrlich found that to grow one pound of wheat
requires only 60 pounds of water, whereas production of a pound of meat requires
anywhere from 2,500 to 6,000 pounds of water. One large chicken
slaughtering plant in America was found to be using 100 million gallons of water
daily. This same volume would supply a city of 25,000 people.
Anyone may say that if we don't eat chickens then it's population increases lot.
But it is not actually the case. If its population is more then there is no need
for poultries. Few persons may have doubt that if we don't eat meat do we get
food for eating. Actually so much food and water is being wasted by the chickens
in poultries.
Planet Earth is suffereing. In large measure, the escalating loss of species,
destruction of ancient rainforests to create pasture lands for live stock, loss
of topsoils and the consequent increase of water impurities and air pollution have
all been traced to the single fact of meat in the human diet. No decision that we
can make as individuals or as a race can have such a dramatic effect on the
improvement of our planetary ecology as the decision not to eat meat.
All of our actions, including our choice of food, have Karmic consequences. By involving oneself in the cycle of inflicting injury, pain and death, even indirectly by eating other creatures, one must in the future experience in equal measure the suffering caused. In other words, If you eat meat in this life, you will be eaten in your next life.
Food is the source of the body's chemistry, and what we ingest affects our consciousnes, emotions and experiential patterns. If one wants to live in higher consciousness, in peace and happiness and love for all creatures, then he cannot eat meat, fish, shellfish, fowl or eggs. By ingesting the grosser chemistries of animal foods, one introduces into the body and mind anger, jealousy, anxiety, suspicion and a terrible fear of death, all of which are locked into the the flesh of the butchered creatures. For these reasons, vegetarians live in higher consciousness and meat-eaters abide in lower consciousness.
The book FOOD FOR THE SPIRIT, VEGETARIANISM AND THE WORLD RELIGIONS, observes,
Despite popular knowledge of meat-eating's adverse effects, the nonvegetarian diet
became increasingly widespread among the Hindus after the two major invasions by
foreign powers, first the Muslims and later the British. With them came the desire
to be `civilized,' to eat as did the Saheeb. Those actually trained in Vedic
knowledge, however, never adopted a meat-oriented diet, and the pious Hindu still
observes vegetarian principles as a matter of religious duty.
That vegetarianism has always been widespread in India is clear from the
earliest Vedic texts. This was observed by the ancient traveler Megasthenes and
also by Fa-Hsien, a Chinese Buddhist monk who, in the fifth century, traveled to
India in order to obtain authentic copies of the scriptures.
These scriptures unambiguously support the meatless way of life. In the
MAHABHARAT, for instance, the great warrior Bheeshma explains to Yuddhishtira,
eldest of the Paandav princes, that the meat of animals is like the flesh of one's
own son. Similarly, the MANUSMRITI declares that one should `refrain from eating
all kinds of meat,' for such eating involves killing and leads to Karmic
bondage (Bandh) [5.49]. Elsewhere in the Vedic literature, the last of the great
Vedic kings, Maharaja Parikshit, is quoted as saying that `only the animal- killer
cannot relish the message of the Absolute Truth [Shrimad Bhagvatam 10.1.4].'
He who desires to augment his own flesh by eating the flesh of other creatures
lives in misery in whatever species he may take his birth.
MAHABHARAT 115.47
Those high-souled persons who desire beauty, faultlessness of limbs, long
life, understanding, mental and physical strength and memory should abstain from acts
of injury.
MAHABHARAT 18.115.8
The very name of cow is Aghnya [not to be killed], indicating that they should
never be slaughtered. Who, then could slay them? Surely, one who kills a cow or a
bull commits a heinous crime.
MAHABHARAT, SHANTIPARV 262.47
The purchaser of flesh performs Himsa (violence) by his wealth; he who eats
flesh does so by enjoying its taste; the killer does Himsa by actually tying and
killing the animal. Thus, there are three forms of killing: he who brings flesh or
sends for it, he who cuts off the limbs of an animal, and he who purchases, sells
or cooks flesh and eats it -- all of these are to be considered meat-eaters.
MAHABHARAT, ANU 115.40
He who sees that the Lord of all is ever the same in all that is -- immortal
in the field of mortality -- he sees the truth. And when a man sees that the God
in himself is the same God in all that is, he hurts not himself by hurting others.
Then he goes, indeed, to the highest path.
BHAGVAD GEETA 13.27-28
Ahimsa is the highest Dharma. Ahimsa is the best Tapas. Ahimsa is the
greatest gift. Ahimsa is the highest self-control. Ahimsa is the highest
sacrifice. Ahimsa is the highest power. Ahimsa is the highest friend. Ahimsa is
the highest truth. Ahimsa is the highest teaching.
MAHABHARAT 18.116.37-41
What is the good way? It is the path that reflects on how it may avoid
killing any creature.
TIRUKURAL 324
All that lives will press palms together in prayerful adoration of those who
refuse to slaughter and savor meat.
TIRUKURAL 260
What is virtuous conduct? It is never destroting life, for killing leads to
every other sin.
TIRUKURAL 312, 321
Goodness is never one with the minds of these two: one who wields a weapon and
one who feasts on a creature's flesh.
TIRUKURAL 253
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