Re: Big issue...Help Please
namaste everyone.
Many Hindus are non-vegetarians and yet advanced in devotional worship, but the point is that Hindus don't eat beef--many cannot even think about it. NV Hindus generally consume mutton, chicken and eggs (no pork). In South India, since people do eat rice at least once daily, the favourite NV dish is the briyANi, which is vegetable fried rice, mixed with mutton or chicken meat pieces.
Of course I understand that it is totally a different thing when a NV wants to become a vegetarian. I think this can be done progressively, but a Hindu IMO should avoid consumption of beef.
Being a NV is likely to be a hindrance to spiritual sAdhana by meditation (jnAna yoga), but most Hindus at the starter level start with bhakti yoga. Although ahimsA is a key principle, it is largely about not resorting personally and deliberately to causing violence to harmless beings and people. In fact there is a proverb in Tamizh which says, 'konRAl pAvam tinRAl pochchu'--'It's sin to kill but that sin is gone with eating (what is killed).' Of course, this proverb does not mean or encourage eating meat--only that if it is a must one needn't be uneasy over it, although one would do better to avoid it in the long run.
रत्नाकरधौतपदां हिमालयकिरीटिनीम् ।
ब्रह्मराजर्षिररत्नाढ्यां वन्दे भारतमातरम् ॥
To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.
--viShNu purANam
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