Sri Ganeshprasad ji

I am a Hindu Kayastha. In my community taking meat is part of our cultural heritage since last thousands of years. We have also contributed to the Hindu society through prominent personalities like Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Amitabh Bachchan etc.

We have always been considered as a Shudra or more recently, an intermediate caste of Hindus.

Apart from us, the Kshatriyas as well as the Brahmins from Himalayan regions like Kumaon, Nepal, Assam, as well as Indonesia take meat as a component of their diet.

In my community, every child is taught to eat meat and then of course, it is his/her individual choice whether to eat meat or not but we do not discriminate on the basis of food choices.

Your argument that meat is not good for growth is pure nonsense. Meat is the source of protein and it builds muscles. That is why Kshatriya and Shudra communities have been taking meat as part of their diet since thousands of years and though some people have tried to paint the Kshatriyas and the Shudras as non-Hindus, they have not succeeded.

Vegetarianism has always been a political issue in Hinduism as vegetarian communities have always tried to prove their supremacy over those communities who take meat as a component of their diet.

Your thinking of meat as something bad and using the Shastras to prove that you are right is a result of your upbringing in a vegetarian community.

For your information, the measure of violence is also the state of the mind while committing of the act. Even if a person kills another person, he is not convicted of murder until the intention is proved.

In the case of the non-vegetarians, we take our meat as food supplement over our vegetarian diet and what you call as killing of an animal is basically the harvesting of the animal's body for our food.

For your information, vegetables also have life and they also resist when you pluck them for food. Mind you, vegetables are always plucked green i.e. when they are young. Old vegetables are no use as they dry up and wither away. Simply because you cannot feel their pain you cannot say that you are not a violent person because you are vegetarian.

Also, in my life, I know many simple, honest, straightforward and peace loving meat-eaters and equally many crooked, corrupt, violent, evil vegetarians. I am sure you would also be knowing but you choose to ignore what is evident over what has been taught to you as a belief system.

This is not a correct way of applying knowledge. Religious beliefs must be consistent with practical reality otherwise they become prone to superstitions.