Is vegetarianism required?

[ShivaIsLord]

Namaste,

Is vegetarianism required in Santana Dharma to be considered a "good person" or to not stir up bad karma?

I ask this because I *love* meat. Unfortunately, beef is one of my favorites, but I will give up beef no questions asked. As long as I can have others :P

Also, what's the ruling on Pork? As a former-Muslim, Pork was absolutely forbidden always. But I wanna go out and eat bacon, just as a little act of myself to separate myself from Islam. Childish, I know.

[Ganeshprasad]

Pranam

If you like there are no rules, only suggestions in the shastras, you are what you eat. In the gita food is described as three kinds. Satvik food in the mode of goodness, Rajsik food in the mode of Passion, Tamsik food in the mood of Ignorance.

And then there is Ahimsa non violence, depends how far you want to take it, with Karuna compassion in mind.
Choice is yours really since the Karma is yours also.

Jai Shree Krishna

[Eastern Mind]

Namaste,

Is vegetarianism required in Santana Dharma to be considered a "good person" or to not stir up bad karma?

Vannakkam: There is an entire section of this forum dedicated to this topic. http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=7 I would suggest you browse that section, and then, if you any more questions, come back and offer up new questions or ideas.

Aum Namasivaya

[Seeker]

Mu'mineen Ji,

GaneshPrasad Ji has said it concisely.

Let me add my 2 cents too.

For me vegetarianism was an automatic by-product of my readings , meditations and associations.

I used to consume meat and loved it but after my return to sanatana dharma , I found myself to be a vegetarian. My wife tells me that I have gone to other extreme , since I refuse to set traps for mice or kill insects!

Hopefully the same will happen to you. Without forcing yourself , you may find yourself working toward it.

[devotee]

Namaste Mumineen,

There are no hard and fast rules in Sanatan Dharma. There are various paths and there are varying rules depending upon path you choose. It may be surprising to you as you have come from Islam which dictates everything rigidly to its followers. But it is true here. The vaishnavas and Shaivas are pure vegetarians but ShAktas are not. Even a major portion of Hindu community which is non-sectarian eats as per its own choice.

This is not the time for you to be bothered about all this. I would advise that first of all you let yourself have a feel of this vast dharma which is not comparable with any other religion on this earth. It will take time. Even the born Hindus has difficulties in understanding everything in this vast Dharma. So, keep asking questions, reading scriptures and when you feel that it appeals to you decide on one path that suits you better. One you decide a path, you can follow as it prescribes.

OM

[Shuddhasattva]

Namaste

There are not hard and fast dogmatic rules, but there are hard and fast principles - like ahimsa (non-harm, with connotations of reverence for life.)

It's left to you to figure out to what extent you apply ahimsa.

For me, I take the following view:
1. Eating meat causes great unnecessary suffering, especially in the modern industrial meat industry, for little more reason than gratifying the taste buds.
2. It's ecologically and industrially harmful; ecologically it causes massive damages to the environment, ultimately creating unsustainable production systems, and industrially it uses precious land, water and inputs that much more efficiently generate vegetable nutrition - whether measured by calorie, protein, or any other metric. Moreover, it means that large quantities of vegetable mass are transformed into paltry amounts of meat.
3. Emotions are physical feelings; they are physically generated through chemicals, and they reside in residual form in the body. I don't like the idea of eating flesh suffused, chemically and energetically, with suffering, confusion and fear - how will this affect my mind?

Namaste

[philosoraptor]

Yes, you should be vegetarian. Unless you are participating in a grand animal-sacrifice in any of the ages prior to the Kali-Yuga, one that is administered by qualified brahmins whose spiritual potency is such that their mantras can cause the soul of the animal to be elevated to the status of a human being or deva, then you should be on a 100% lacto-vegetarian or vegan diet. One cannot expect liberation when one ignores the rules and regulations of scripture (see gItA 16.23-24).

More to the point, one is supposed to eat only food offered in sacrifice (see gItA 3.13). Any other foodstuff, even vegetarian food stuff, will cause one to accrue sin.

We have lots of dharma-shAstras and other smRtis which spell out rules and regulations on things like marriage, eating, sex, sleeping, cleanliness, etc. This is Reality. Most orthodox Hindus will follow one set of rules or another, and each set of rules will differ slightly from one source to another. There are also differences of rules with regards to different varnas (castes) and different genders. However, the point is, the rules are clearly there, and they aren't put in place just so we can ignore them.

Following of rules is not an end in and of itself. It is how we follow the path of sense control and good living so that we can qualify ourselves for liberation. One has to understand that the self is the soul and not the body. As long as one identifies with the body, one cannot understand this. Without controlling the senses, there is no question of attaining self-realization. And as long as one has a body and material desires, one has got to follow rules to avoid behaviors which increase the tendency towards bodily identification.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of Hindus who advocate the neo-Hindu revisionist idea of "we have no rules and regulations." Mostly, I think this is a reaction to Christianity and Islam rather than an objective statement based on fact. It's similar to the claim that Hinduism supposedly accepts all other religions, also an idea based on inter-religious interaction and also not supported by fact.

[kallol]

This topic has been discussed n number of times in this forum.

There is no hard and fast rule. Human is omnivorous and there are tine in history and places on earth where no vegetables are there. So it is a misnomer that vegeterinian is the only way.

However said hinduism is mostly to do with the state of mind. Now it is a proven fact that non veg and other tamasic or rajasik items affect the hormone and enzyme systems of our body and thus the mind. Just like for study we need a suitable environment, for spiritual growth we need better condition of mind. Otherwise the target achievement will be delayed or in day to day terms we will remain bad students.

For the actions we do, we need to introspect, how the action will affect my mind. Whether it will reduce the frequency og mind i.e. it will calm down my mind or make it more turbulent. That is the basic.

[philosoraptor]

This topic has been discussed n number of times in this forum.

There is no hard and fast rule. Human is omnivorous and there are tine in history and places on earth where no vegetables are there. So it is a misnomer that vegeterinian is the only way.

Pranams,

This is utterly ridiculous logic. Plant life was always a part of the Earth's biosphere for as long as Earth has had a biosphere. Without plantlife, there would be no means to convert CO2 to oxygen.

Modern vegetables came about due to modern agricultural methods, that is true. But we don't have conclusive evidence of a purely carnivorous human society existing prior to recorded history. Actually, we don't have conclusive empirical evidence of the kind of society the Puraanas and Itihaasas tell us about - one in which the people received the various sciences pertaining to civilization from great sages and/or devas. But, that is the traditional Hindu (Puraanic) point of view.

However said hinduism is mostly to do with the state of mind. Now it is a proven fact that non veg and other tamasic or rajasik items affect the hormone and enzyme systems of our body and thus the mind. Just like for study we need a suitable environment, for spiritual growth we need better condition of mind. Otherwise the target achievement will be delayed or in day to day terms we will remain bad students.

For the actions we do, we need to introspect, how the action will affect my mind. Whether it will reduce the frequency og mind i.e. it will calm down my mind or make it more turbulent. That is the basic.

I don't know why we have so much difficulty saying that "yes you should be vegetarian" and "meat-eating is generally considered sinful." These points have come up again and again in my readings of shAstra.

Let's have a show of hands. How many people participating in this thread are 100% true, lacto-vegetarians or vegans?

I am.

[Jainarayan]

But we don't have conclusive evidence of a purely carnivorous human society existing prior to recorded history.

Sure we do... the Inuit, for much of the year, which has been their way for milennia, considering that they migrated from northeast Siberia prior to about 15,000 years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit#Diet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aborigi...Indians_period

Stefansson (1946) also observed that the Inuit were able to get the necessary vitamins they needed from their traditional winter diet, which did not contain any plant matter.