Re: do you have to be vegetarian to be hindu ?
Pranam all
We may do and say anything we want, that does not stop us Being Hindu but is it according to dharma, that is the question to ask, is it in line with Yam and Niyam of yoga.
What does Shastra say? our Shastra says in no uncertain terms that jivo jivasya jivanam meaning one living entity is food for another, but that all mighty God has given us power to discriminate, that is what separate us from other animals.
I certainly think meat eating is detrimental in our quest for spiritual life, but don’t take my word for it. what does Shastra say?
Ahimsa and even more potent is daya or Karuna (compassion) are part of Niyam or pillars of Hindu dharma. On this we have to draw our on conclusion how to imbibe these law in our life,to rely on mind or mind levels then there is a danger a real danger because mind has a habit of finding an excuse for just about anything.
What does Shastra say?
Satvik rajsik and tamsik are three gunas we are all bound by. Suppress the rajsik and tamsik Satvik will dominate and so on, for those who are interested can read Gita chapter 17, here food is described in three different mode meat would certainly fall in Tamsik mode.
And that action performed in ignorance and delusion without consideration of future bondage or consequences, which inflicts injury and is impractical, is said to be action in the mode of ignorance. 18.25BG
We pray.
Peaceful be the earth, peaceful the ether, peaceful heaven, peaceful the waters, peaceful the herbs, peaceful the trees. May all Gods bring me peace. May there be peace through these invocations of peace. With these invocations of peace which appease everything, I render peaceful whatever here is terrible, whatever here is cruel, whatever here is sinful. Let it become auspicious, let everything be beneficial to us.
Atharva Veda Samhita 10. 191. 4
Those noble souls who practice meditation and other yogic ways, who are ever careful about all beings, who protect all animals, are the ones who are actually serious about spiritual practices.
Atharva Veda Samhita 19.48.5. FS, 90
Now the actual prohibition,
Hindu scripture speaks clearly and forcefully on no killing and vegetarianism. In the ancient Rig Veda, we read: "O vegetable, be succulent, wholesome, strengthening; and thus, body, be fully grown." The Yajur Veda summarily dictates: "Do not injure the beings living on the earth, in the air and in the water Tirukural, a widely-read 2,000-year-old masterpiece of ethics, speaks of conscience: EM already spoke on it. There are many verses in the shastra if interested, I pick three.
One who partakes of human flesh, the flesh of a horse or of another animal, and deprives others of milk by slaughtering cows, O King, if such a fiend does not desist by other means, then you should not hesitate to punish such a person.
Rig Veda Samhita, 10.87.16, FS 90
Manu samhita
51. He who permits (the slaughter of an animal), he who cuts it up, he who kills it, he who buys or sells (meat), he who cooks it, he who serves it up, and he who eats it, (must all be considered as) the slayers (of the animal).
52. There is no greater sinner than that (man) who, though not worshipping the gods or the manes, seeks to increase (the bulk of) his own flesh by the flesh of other (beings).
Jai Shree Krishna
Rig Veda list only 33 devas, they are all propitiated, worthy off our worship, all other names of gods are derivative from this 33 originals,
Bhagvat Gita; Shree Krishna says Chapter 3.11 devan bhavayatanena te deva bhavayantu vah parasparam bhavayantah sreyah param avapsyatha Chapter 17.4 yajante sattvika devan yaksa-raksamsi rajasah pretan bhuta-ganams canye yajante tamasa janah
The world disappears in him. He is the peaceful, the good, the one without a second.
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