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14 Responses to “Survey: Vegetarianism & the “good Hindu””
Who practice vegetarianism? Brahmnis from the south (except the Saraswat brahmins who eat fish) and a few subcastes of Brahmins in the north. The vaishyas (Banias) are also vegetarian. Brahmins in Kashmir and east (Bengal, Assam etc) are nonveg. Rest of the Hindus are nonvegetarian and they form the majority. Therefore the question does not arise since most Hindus are nonvegetarians. If vegetarianism is esential for Hinduism then most of the people in India are not hindus at all (Aryans of Mahabharata and earlier times were meat eaters as is seen from the scriptures. )
By the same arguments, if an Eskimo wants to be Hundu he cannot and an Eskimo has to be a nonvegetarian because it ia a geographical requirement. Are we narrowing the scope of Hinduism instead of broadening it? May God save us from such self destructive people.
Sanathan Dharma requires us to see and revere the same Divine Brahman in all living entities from the human being to the smallest ant. The same atman in me and you resides in every other living entity too. Killing animals to consume its flesh for our selfish desires is cruel and barbaric and goes completely against the tenets of Hindu Dharma. It also prevents spiitual progression. The shaastras state “non-violence is the highest Truth”. now I don’t beleive in absolute non-violence, but killing helpless animals and turning our stomachs into a graveyard is Adharmic, and unnecessary in a country like UK where there is sufficient alternatives available to fill our stomachs. In the Mahabharata, it is stated that “one who augments their self through the flesh of animals lives in misery”. It can also safely be said that meat is a “tamasic” food that polutes our body and hence mind, and should be avoided. Eskimos have little choice, but in this country we have plenty so there isn’t a way we can justify our weaknesses and lack of self-control.
You are what you eat!!! Eat flesh you will become Flesh…….how does that sound…..? You will become meat yourself if you do not stop eating meat!!!!
You will be butchered in the next life …you will squeal like the pig in front of you …you will see the pig infront being slaughtered …then you will be pulled forward …you will see the stun gun ….or knife…..you will see the piles of other pigs in a heap on the side all laying there ……….you will be given no prayer or ceremony , you ARE THEN BUTCHERED !!!!!!!!
Sorry to be graphic but reality of slaughter house cannot be made nice……The pigs that see this are given this treatment for our benefit….
Following Vegetarianism is a quandry and has been for many thousand of years.
Before man had developed an agriculture based economy, he was a hunter gatherer, and needed to hunt and kill to feed the family. He was able to restrict his food to vegetarianism only becuase nature started to give him a good harvest.
In today’s world, meat eating does not make sense as it takes ten pounds of food to make one pound of meat, hence obviously there is a great wastage.
If Ahimsa is the primary tenet of Hinduism, then how can the people, in their true conscience overlook this very basic fact?
The human body is made so that certain proteins and other products can only be found in meat and fish, and this presents a real dilemma. One should take sea foods, and maybe some meat occasionally, but the primary principle remains paramount.
Our Hindus have heart attacks and strokes often, mainly because of inappropriate diet, podgy non-nourishing foods, over eating and no exercise Money making, and interbreeding seems to be the order of the day, rather then tackle the problems of humanity as they are now, and embrace the people and all the living creatures as part of God’s plan, and love them as our Mahatma Gandhi has shown in his unswerving way.
At leat that is what I think.
Govind
“You are what you eat!!! Eat flesh you will become Flesh…….how does that sound…..? You will become meat yourself if you do not stop eating meat!!!!”
Yeah and you eat vegetables, you will become a comatose vegetable in your next life.
Some of the people have responded in a very black and white perspective. The diets of different regions were developed due to their survival in those reigions. As mentioned, the Eskimos diet consists mainly of meat, as one cannot depend on agriculture in such a cold climate. Also from different sources I was told that the Kshatriya caste ate meat and use to go Hunting. However in Ancient India, animals were never domesticated simply to mass produce meat and that the meat consumed was mostly if not only, game meat.
Most of us today have a wide abundance of vegetarian options! Lets for a moment put aside all these issues of Karma, next life, etc aside, most of you dont know what will happen tommorow, how do you know what your next life will be? Meat is generally unhealthy, and most of the time meat is consumed mostly for taste, or it has just been a habit for most families who have not tried to venture to alternative sources of food consisting of proteins and carbohydrates without the source bleeding before being consumed.
Meat can increase the risk of different cancers, heart disease and cholesterol. A diet consisting purely of protein causes imbalance in the body and results in ketosis. This is dangerous for the heart, kidneys and the brain. There are many ways to look at it, you can avoid meat for health reasons, you can avoid meat for Karmic reasons (its not for me, I cant determine my Karma), or you can consume meat to increase your bulk, you can eat meat because you like the taste, you can eat meat for survival or you can eat meat because you dont consider the lives of others.
The choice is yours.
-Muski
Vig …what scriptures do you read……i am not talking of my own words …
vegetables are healthy and nutirtoius ,.eat them and you will clean your body out…
No you will become vegetable if you are lazy in this life………
Eating veg you will become better person nxt life.
veggie criminal ….. what type ..not a murderer….
meat eat eater …you contribute to murder…you may not kill the animal yourself but take part in the cyle of murder, killing and consuming.
a vegetarian criminal will pay for his/ her actions as well….the meat eater is although polluting the body now….the mind is not pure from blood , flesh in the body.
you drink blood, eat flesh , eat the intestines……. Gita says ‘dog eaters can even be saved through bhakti , devotion to krishna’
dog eaters are meat eaters , i’m afraid there is no distinction if you eat a nice clean fillet of chicken without skin or if you eat a dog from the street.
dog eaters , are mentioned in gits, yes people have always eaten meat, lower classes have even eaten beef…..but they too can be saved through pure devotion , bhakti , yoga, and spriritual life.
you think that you are enjoying this flesh…no you are not…..chant, dance before our lord….worship our lord through music and song , then you will receive the real enjoying ………real happiness , no meat can come close to this devotion.
“.but they too can be saved through pure devotion , bhakti , yoga, and spriritual life.”
Being saved? Now you’re sounding like a rabid minister, espousing of ideas and beliefs that are usually representative of equally rabid and intolerant semitic faiths.
“chant, dance…….”
No, I’m not the bhajan singing hare krishna type. I think Hinduism is more than that and putting down people who eat meat.
The live molecule was created in side the jelly like substance in the water and thereafter the formation of the ameba taken place on this earth. The theory of evaluation of life is the subsequent process.
The vital question for consideration for our human being is to the effect as to whether the same process is a mere co-incident at the time of the birth of an individual. There is the generating of the heat in the process of life when the idea is exchanged. These ideas ultimately become the process of reproduction. There is the combination of the molecule again in the similar process. Thereafter the creation of the zygote inside the ovary of the female. Thus if we consider the life being originated from the ocean, whether the penetration of the sperm in the egg is also the starting point of the theory of reproduction. Ultimately the life is converted into a reality when the living organism took place in the process. We forget that the existence of our life is similar to the creation of the universe.
exeuse me, do you believe anything a scientist tells you…..
Brahma came from vishnu,s navel……both being male form …..shiva’s sperm landed on the ground after a batttle of beauty and their second son is born kartikkya…….. kartikkya is non gender ……
that my theory disprove that one. this is my evolution disprove my theory i challenge you.
Look at your hands. How many animals would have a problem fending off your pudgy, clawless limbs?
It is a myth that we were hunters. Until we invented tools we would have lost any attempt at capturing any animal. Tools come very late in our evolution. Thus most likely when we evolved we were vegetarians and it is the luxury brought on by social structures (domestication of food - animals and vegies) and tools that allowed us to eat meat.
Like all luxuries, there is a cost. If you are willing to bear a cost, do so.
I understand the economy well enough to understand that paying taxes subsidizes the slaughter of animals but I do not stop paying taxes - I accept slaughter in my name for a supposed greater good. But I must also understand that we are all flesh eaters, that we all participate in a system of harm to achieve a greater good. If billions of rats were not killed by scientists most of us would not survive beyond 40. If billions of v. cholera were not killed millions of children would die from diarrhea. If mosquitos were not largely exterminated from the developed world (at least substantially reduced in number, those nasty bugs) then millions of people would die of malaria before they could even contemplate their parents let alone truth.
I do not believe that we must simply accept it. You’ll find studies that as the IQ rises the rate of vegetarianism rises. I see this as a social good - the less resources I consume, the more likely that my balance will be for the positive in the world - something I aspire to; not as a spiritual calling but simply one based in ahimsa. I find it amazing that swamis roam around the world talking of self discipline, detachment, and renunciation while their stomach bulges out like a pregnant woman (men usually). They are clearly overconsuming; they are participating in himsa (i don’t mean that they should be sticks either). At that point I really don’t care if they are overconsuming meat or vegies. They are clearly demonstrating a failure to renounce, detach, and self control - sorry all you obese people out there; if you think its your genes go to africa and you’ll see the power of genes.
I do eat meat. It is an overconsumption that I am working on reducing - pretty much down to seafood only. And there are many other ways that I overconsume - I am american after all. I’ll do my best to reduce what I take out of the world as a social attempt to live life better. But I do not kid myself into thinking that Brahman/Krishna is not at my side because of my faults - Tat is always by our side and within us. Tat is the actor and the field. It is the food, and the consumer. It offers (yagya) itself to us as food and we offer (yagya) ourselves to It and become the consumed.
April 30th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Who practice vegetarianism? Brahmnis from the south (except the Saraswat brahmins who eat fish) and a few subcastes of Brahmins in the north. The vaishyas (Banias) are also vegetarian. Brahmins in Kashmir and east (Bengal, Assam etc) are nonveg. Rest of the Hindus are nonvegetarian and they form the majority. Therefore the question does not arise since most Hindus are nonvegetarians. If vegetarianism is esential for Hinduism then most of the people in India are not hindus at all (Aryans of Mahabharata and earlier times were meat eaters as is seen from the scriptures. )
By the same arguments, if an Eskimo wants to be Hundu he cannot and an Eskimo has to be a nonvegetarian because it ia a geographical requirement. Are we narrowing the scope of Hinduism instead of broadening it? May God save us from such self destructive people.
April 30th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Sanathan Dharma requires us to see and revere the same Divine Brahman in all living entities from the human being to the smallest ant. The same atman in me and you resides in every other living entity too. Killing animals to consume its flesh for our selfish desires is cruel and barbaric and goes completely against the tenets of Hindu Dharma. It also prevents spiitual progression. The shaastras state “non-violence is the highest Truth”. now I don’t beleive in absolute non-violence, but killing helpless animals and turning our stomachs into a graveyard is Adharmic, and unnecessary in a country like UK where there is sufficient alternatives available to fill our stomachs. In the Mahabharata, it is stated that “one who augments their self through the flesh of animals lives in misery”. It can also safely be said that meat is a “tamasic” food that polutes our body and hence mind, and should be avoided. Eskimos have little choice, but in this country we have plenty so there isn’t a way we can justify our weaknesses and lack of self-control.
May 1st, 2007 at 3:51 am
Why Hindus Don’t Eat Meat
http://tinyurl.com/e52sz
May 1st, 2007 at 8:58 am
You are what you eat!!! Eat flesh you will become Flesh…….how does that sound…..? You will become meat yourself if you do not stop eating meat!!!!
You will be butchered in the next life …you will squeal like the pig in front of you …you will see the pig infront being slaughtered …then you will be pulled forward …you will see the stun gun ….or knife…..you will see the piles of other pigs in a heap on the side all laying there ……….you will be given no prayer or ceremony , you ARE THEN BUTCHERED !!!!!!!!
Sorry to be graphic but reality of slaughter house cannot be made nice……The pigs that see this are given this treatment for our benefit….
Hare Vishnu Padya
May 1st, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Following Vegetarianism is a quandry and has been for many thousand of years.
Before man had developed an agriculture based economy, he was a hunter gatherer, and needed to hunt and kill to feed the family. He was able to restrict his food to vegetarianism only becuase nature started to give him a good harvest.
In today’s world, meat eating does not make sense as it takes ten pounds of food to make one pound of meat, hence obviously there is a great wastage.
If Ahimsa is the primary tenet of Hinduism, then how can the people, in their true conscience overlook this very basic fact?
The human body is made so that certain proteins and other products can only be found in meat and fish, and this presents a real dilemma. One should take sea foods, and maybe some meat occasionally, but the primary principle remains paramount.
Our Hindus have heart attacks and strokes often, mainly because of inappropriate diet, podgy non-nourishing foods, over eating and no exercise Money making, and interbreeding seems to be the order of the day, rather then tackle the problems of humanity as they are now, and embrace the people and all the living creatures as part of God’s plan, and love them as our Mahatma Gandhi has shown in his unswerving way.
At leat that is what I think.
Govind
May 2nd, 2007 at 7:55 pm
“You are what you eat!!! Eat flesh you will become Flesh…….how does that sound…..? You will become meat yourself if you do not stop eating meat!!!!”
Yeah and you eat vegetables, you will become a comatose vegetable in your next life.
May 3rd, 2007 at 12:45 am
Some of the people have responded in a very black and white perspective. The diets of different regions were developed due to their survival in those reigions. As mentioned, the Eskimos diet consists mainly of meat, as one cannot depend on agriculture in such a cold climate. Also from different sources I was told that the Kshatriya caste ate meat and use to go Hunting. However in Ancient India, animals were never domesticated simply to mass produce meat and that the meat consumed was mostly if not only, game meat.
Most of us today have a wide abundance of vegetarian options! Lets for a moment put aside all these issues of Karma, next life, etc aside, most of you dont know what will happen tommorow, how do you know what your next life will be? Meat is generally unhealthy, and most of the time meat is consumed mostly for taste, or it has just been a habit for most families who have not tried to venture to alternative sources of food consisting of proteins and carbohydrates without the source bleeding before being consumed.
Meat can increase the risk of different cancers, heart disease and cholesterol. A diet consisting purely of protein causes imbalance in the body and results in ketosis. This is dangerous for the heart, kidneys and the brain. There are many ways to look at it, you can avoid meat for health reasons, you can avoid meat for Karmic reasons (its not for me, I cant determine my Karma), or you can consume meat to increase your bulk, you can eat meat because you like the taste, you can eat meat for survival or you can eat meat because you dont consider the lives of others.
The choice is yours.
-Muski
May 3rd, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Vig …what scriptures do you read……i am not talking of my own words …
vegetables are healthy and nutirtoius ,.eat them and you will clean your body out…
No you will become vegetable if you are lazy in this life………
Eating veg you will become better person nxt life.
eating meat you will be butchered in nxt life.
thats the rule sorry mate.
May 4th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
what rule is that? stupid rules from rulebook of ravi sharma?
you’re basically saying a meat-eater who does good things in life will become butchered, while some veggie criminal is going to get a better life.
grow the hell up.
May 11th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
veggie criminal ….. what type ..not a murderer….
meat eat eater …you contribute to murder…you may not kill the animal yourself but take part in the cyle of murder, killing and consuming.
a vegetarian criminal will pay for his/ her actions as well….the meat eater is although polluting the body now….the mind is not pure from blood , flesh in the body.
you drink blood, eat flesh , eat the intestines……. Gita says ‘dog eaters can even be saved through bhakti , devotion to krishna’
dog eaters are meat eaters , i’m afraid there is no distinction if you eat a nice clean fillet of chicken without skin or if you eat a dog from the street.
dog eaters , are mentioned in gits, yes people have always eaten meat, lower classes have even eaten beef…..but they too can be saved through pure devotion , bhakti , yoga, and spriritual life.
you think that you are enjoying this flesh…no you are not…..chant, dance before our lord….worship our lord through music and song , then you will receive the real enjoying ………real happiness , no meat can come close to this devotion.
ravi
hai vasudeva prabhu ji
May 16th, 2007 at 11:02 am
“.but they too can be saved through pure devotion , bhakti , yoga, and spriritual life.”
Being saved? Now you’re sounding like a rabid minister, espousing of ideas and beliefs that are usually representative of equally rabid and intolerant semitic faiths.
“chant, dance…….”
No, I’m not the bhajan singing hare krishna type. I think Hinduism is more than that and putting down people who eat meat.
May 17th, 2007 at 10:56 am
The live molecule was created in side the jelly like substance in the water and thereafter the formation of the ameba taken place on this earth. The theory of evaluation of life is the subsequent process.
The vital question for consideration for our human being is to the effect as to whether the same process is a mere co-incident at the time of the birth of an individual. There is the generating of the heat in the process of life when the idea is exchanged. These ideas ultimately become the process of reproduction. There is the combination of the molecule again in the similar process. Thereafter the creation of the zygote inside the ovary of the female. Thus if we consider the life being originated from the ocean, whether the penetration of the sperm in the egg is also the starting point of the theory of reproduction. Ultimately the life is converted into a reality when the living organism took place in the process. We forget that the existence of our life is similar to the creation of the universe.
May 18th, 2007 at 11:19 am
exeuse me, do you believe anything a scientist tells you…..
Brahma came from vishnu,s navel……both being male form …..shiva’s sperm landed on the ground after a batttle of beauty and their second son is born kartikkya…….. kartikkya is non gender ……
that my theory disprove that one. this is my evolution disprove my theory i challenge you.
ravi sharma
May 23rd, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Look at your hands. How many animals would have a problem fending off your pudgy, clawless limbs?
It is a myth that we were hunters. Until we invented tools we would have lost any attempt at capturing any animal. Tools come very late in our evolution. Thus most likely when we evolved we were vegetarians and it is the luxury brought on by social structures (domestication of food - animals and vegies) and tools that allowed us to eat meat.
Like all luxuries, there is a cost. If you are willing to bear a cost, do so.
I understand the economy well enough to understand that paying taxes subsidizes the slaughter of animals but I do not stop paying taxes - I accept slaughter in my name for a supposed greater good. But I must also understand that we are all flesh eaters, that we all participate in a system of harm to achieve a greater good. If billions of rats were not killed by scientists most of us would not survive beyond 40. If billions of v. cholera were not killed millions of children would die from diarrhea. If mosquitos were not largely exterminated from the developed world (at least substantially reduced in number, those nasty bugs) then millions of people would die of malaria before they could even contemplate their parents let alone truth.
I do not believe that we must simply accept it. You’ll find studies that as the IQ rises the rate of vegetarianism rises. I see this as a social good - the less resources I consume, the more likely that my balance will be for the positive in the world - something I aspire to; not as a spiritual calling but simply one based in ahimsa. I find it amazing that swamis roam around the world talking of self discipline, detachment, and renunciation while their stomach bulges out like a pregnant woman (men usually). They are clearly overconsuming; they are participating in himsa (i don’t mean that they should be sticks either). At that point I really don’t care if they are overconsuming meat or vegies. They are clearly demonstrating a failure to renounce, detach, and self control - sorry all you obese people out there; if you think its your genes go to africa and you’ll see the power of genes.
I do eat meat. It is an overconsumption that I am working on reducing - pretty much down to seafood only. And there are many other ways that I overconsume - I am american after all. I’ll do my best to reduce what I take out of the world as a social attempt to live life better. But I do not kid myself into thinking that Brahman/Krishna is not at my side because of my faults - Tat is always by our side and within us. Tat is the actor and the field. It is the food, and the consumer. It offers (yagya) itself to us as food and we offer (yagya) ourselves to It and become the consumed.
hariaum