Meat is Tamsik, not conducive to Physical or spiritual growth

[Ganeshprasad]

Pranam all

I thought I start a new thread.
What does Shastra say about what we eat? How does it impact our sadhana? is what we eat detrimental to our physical as well as spiritual health? Yam and Niyam are integral part of our dharma our spiritual growth or lack there off is directly related how strictly one adheres to it.

Ahar is closely related to our behaviour we can clearly see that in a child who is fed on junk food becomes hyperactive.

One may argue Shastra do not prohibit meat eating some would even find a verse out of context to prove a point. Off course there are verses explicitly prohibit eating meat I shell try provide that in due course.
SD dharma is unique because it places a lot of responsibility on an individual to make its own judgement as to where his journey will take him/her.

Bhagvat Gita speaks off Ahar in chapter 17 they come in three different modes Satvik rajsik and tamsik
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
　
Dharma enjoy us to be in mode of goodness and rise above it, getting stuck in the mode of Tamas will certainly not lead us out off it.

One of the leg the dharma stands on is Ahimsa, from which flows daya or Karuna (compassion), it behoves us to have mercy on those creatures, they are not created for our pleasure, we do not need to eat them to survive.

Jai Shree Krishna

[Kumar_Das]

Injury is also inflicted on vegetables.

[Ganeshprasad]

Pranam

What does Shastra say?
　
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,
1) May I be dear to all animals (Atharva 16.71.4)

2) May you eat rice (Vrihi); may you eat barley (Yava), also black
beans (Mdsa) and Sesamum (Tila). This is the share aloted to both
of you for happy results, 0 you two teeth (dantau), may you not
injure the father and mother. (Atharva - 6-140-2)

3) Do not kill any of the Creatures. (Yaju. L 1)

4) Do not kill the horse. (Yaju. 13.42)

5) May you be illumined by the mighty rags of knowledge and may
you not kill the cow, the aditi (Yaju.13.43)

6) Do not kill a cow but treat her as Mother. (Yaju.12.32)

7)You must not use your God-given body for killing God's creatures, whether they are human, animal or whatever.
Yajur Veda Samhita 12.32. FS, 90

Protect both our species, two-legged and four-legged. Both food and water for their needs supply. May they with us increase in stature and strength. Save us from hurt all our days, O Powers!Rig Veda Samhita 10.37.11. VE, 319

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

[Ganeshprasad]

Pranam

Injury is also inflicted on vegetables.

Sure but we do not witness the pain that is associated with killing an animal besides Lord Krishna asks us to offer him a fruit a flower a leaf and water in devotion and he would accept that.
so it is up to you

Jai Shree Krishna

[Kumar_Das]

I'm a veggie myself. And in my family if I ever brought home meat to our house, rest assured the elders will skin and then roast me and be real non-veg with their punishment towards me. In my tradition, its purely disgusting to eat meat. It's seen as obnoxious and vomit inducing.

Some of the verses you quote says do not eat creatures (which include plants and that means vegetables). And others do not say "do not eat the flesh of animals, only eat plants". It says "protect all animals", protecting animals does not exclude you from eating them for food. Just like protecting my wife does not mean I can't have sex with her - (of all means of violence and abuse towards women it is sexual one that is the worst aka rape).

Vegetarianism is a cultural phenomenon. Spirituality is also genetic and a expression of our genes(culture). I don't believe that by eating meat as food one cannot realize God or is comitting sin. What matters is how the animal was prepared as food and what sort or parts on an animal you eat.

I don't need to overact and start making non-vegetarians feel guilty.

The people who do this were once non-vegetarian themselves. They either do this because they have some twisted morality crusade to act or because they are upset they cannot taste flesh.

Brahmins will actually tell you that meat is a luxury and it infact tastes good.

They just realized that abstaining from meat eating and consciously choosing vegetarian based diet makes the mind sharper, the body lighter, increases physical beauty and sexual performance as well as reduces dullness, fatigue and lots of other health issues.

The only difference is that we vegetarian Hindus are pro-vegetarianism and don't condone publicizing / propagating non-vegetarianism. Meat eating is not strictly prohibited and its nothing to get upset about, you just do it on your own if you want to and don't talk too much about it.

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam: From the Tirukkural

251 - How can he practice true compassion who eats the flesh of an animal to fatten his own flesh?

252 - Riches cannot be found in the hands of the thriftless, nor can compassion be ound in the hearts of those who eat meat.

253 - He who feasts on a creature's flesh is like he who weilds a weapon. Goodness is never one with the minds of these two.

254 - If you ask, What is kindness and what is unkindness?" Is is not-killing and killing. Thus, eating flesh is never virtuous.

255 - Life is perpetuated by not eating meat. The jaws of Hell close on those who do.

256 - If the world did not purchase and consume meat, no one would slaughter and offer meat for sale.

257 - When a man realixes that meat is butchered flesh of another creature, he will abstain from eating it.

258 - Insightful souls who have abandoned the passion to hurt others will not feed on flesh that life has abandoned.

259 - Greater than a thousand ghee offerings consumed in sacrificial fires is to not sacrifice and consume any living creature.

260 - All life will press palms together in prayerful adoration of those who refuse to slaughter or savor meat.

Aum Namasivaya

[Kumar_Das]

Sure but we do not witness the pain that is associated with killing an animal

So its all about our ownselves? Science/common sense makes it obvious that plants do not suffer as much as animals since they do not have a nervous system and cannot bleed. But that doesn't mean that you cannot injure them.

besides Lord Krishna asks us to offer him a fruit a flower a leaf and water in devotion and he would accept that.

Yes. And that could mean plant a flower as a form of worship towards Him.

Father says "sons, I have given you this land to walk upon and live in, but know that this land belongs to Me". Means that even though Father is not hurt when we spoil the land. Still we can try and live with certain moral standards and keep Father's land as beautiful as possible.

Which do you think is better? Plucking a flower or growing a flower in remembrance of Krishna?

Does the verse say "pluck a flower and offer it to a murti?"

[TheOne]

I am a vegetarian but I am also somewhat confused. What is the deal with certain parts of epics Ramayana for example when Rama kills a deer.

If I could I would become a vegan because animals still suffer when we pump hormones into them to make them produce milk and sheep suffer when they are sheared for wool.

Modern society is based on the inflicting of pain on animals. And THAT is what I think the main difference between the Kali Yuga and other ages is.

[Ganeshprasad]

Pranam

I am a vegetarian but I am also somewhat confused. What is the deal with certain parts of epics Ramayana for example when Rama kills a deer.

If you read the Ramayan, you then also would know who that deer was?
Laxman certainly knew that it was Marich a Raksas, the same Marich whom Ram had hit with blunt arrow and sent him a far distance away. this was the time for Marich Moksa Lord Ram killed no deer.

Jai Shree Krishna

[TheOne]

I don't mean that part. I mean when they first enter the forest they create and ashrama and Rama kills a deer to sacrifice to the heavens.

I wonder why?