The goal of Hinduism is Moksha. To obtain Moksha one has to behave morally. Vegetarianism would be a good way that could contribute towards your good Karma.
The Rig Veda reads:
Don't kill any being. The evil person who kills or eats the meat of a horse or a cow deserves to be terminated.
The Yajur Veda reads:
Do not injure the beings living on the Earth, in the air and in the water.
The Atharva Veda clarifies the literal confusion of the Vedic words and tells that in the Vedic Samhita the names of materials used for actual fire ceremony in yagnas are sometimes named as the name of an animal.
For example: 'Rice' is named as 'cow' and 'sesame' is named as 'calf'. The
Purva Mimamsa reads:
In the Vedic yagya, killing of an animal or eating meat is totally prohibited. Just like the cows are given as charity in the yagna, horses are also given as charity. Horses and cows are used only for the purpose of giving them in charity, they are never used for eating.
The Mahabharata "Shanti Parva" reads:
It is only the evil-minded hypocrites who started telling that Vedic yagnas involve intoxicants and meat eating; it is not in the Vedas.
The Mahabharata "Anushasan Parva" reads:
The one who himself doesn't eat meat but even if he gives his consent to eat meat or to kill an animal, he becomes equally sinful as them. The meat eater who kills an animal in the name of yagna or tells that it is a requirement of the yagna is a sinner and he will go to hell. The one who brings an animal to be killed, the one who buys the animal to be killed, the one who kills the animal, the one who sells the animal, and the one who sells, buys, cooks and eats the meat are all sinners.
The Srimad Bhagavatam reads:
In the shradh feast pure vegetarian food, after offering to God, should be given to Brahmanas. It satisfies the pitra gods (or ancestors) for ever. It is dharm (even for chatriya) that in shradh feast, he should neither offer meat nor he himself should eat meat. Only vegetarian food must be offered because meat is obtained by killing an animal. This is the best dharm to observe for everyone that one should not hurt other beings even in his thoughts.
Scholar Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami writes in of vegetarianism in his text, Living with Siva Pocketbook Edition (P. 315-6).
The Manu Samhita reads:
Having well considered the origin of the flesh and the cruelty of fettering and slaying corporal beings , let one entirely abstain from eating flesh. When the diet is pure, the mind and heart are pure. The Tirukural reads:
When a man realized that meat is the butchered flesh of another creature, he will abstain from eating it (257). How can he practice compassion who eats the flesh of an animal to fatten his own flesh?
The Tirumantiram reads:
The ignoble ones who eat flesh, death's agents bind them fast and push them quickly into the fiery jaws of the lower world (199).
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Originally Posted by PrimeDirectives
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