No matter how much I try and explain the benefits of a vegetarian diet, there are always people who, while nodding their heads in agreement with everything I say -- will conclude our dialogue by saying, "but...I love my meat."
I know how difficult it is to give up eating meat, as I ate it for over 20 years of my young adult life. It took me almost a whole year to wean myself off of it. It had become something like an addiction. I was vegetarian until the age of seven, while growing up in India, but soon after we moved to the U.S., it was burgers and fries and everything else I could get my hands on. For some reason, I can still remember very clearly the first time I ever bit into a burger, sitting at Wendy's. I was too young to think about it philosophically, but something about the experience is lodged into my head.
The main reason I became a vegetarian, about 14 years ago, was for the reason of compassion. I had started exploring the spiritual direction I wanted to take for my life and the teachings of the Gita and the meditation practice I had adopted inspired me to incorporate a more compassionate diet, where others wouldn't have to get brutalized simply for the satisfaction of my tongue.
I had never seen animals as sentient beings. Television advertisements do such a good job of making them look simply like a food product, like cereal or candy bars. Companies do such an amazing job of hiding how animals spend most of their lives in cages, unable to move or turn around, or living knee-deep in their own fecal matter.
Most of us would puke and might even get traumatized if we saw how animals actually get killed in a slaughterhouse. Here's a mild video from PETA giving us a glimpse of reality that we ignore. Don't worry, it's milder than a lot of the video games out there today.
I learned from the Hindu scriptures, and our teachers of the past and present, of the karmic implications for one who causes, directly or indirectly, physical, financial, or emotional harm and suffering to others. This not only refers to actions directed towards other humans, but also to animals and the environment.
The law of karma records everything we do. "Karma" literally means "activity," so a karmic reaction would be a result of one's activities. In this case, even if we don't directly hurt a human or animal, but if we partake of something that caused suffering, we will have to undergo some pain and suffering as a reaction to that activity. That reaction may come in this life or a future life. It's like making a credit card purchase and getting the bill 30 days later. The Manu Samhita and the Mahabharata, respectively, further expound on this point.
"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..." (Manu Samhita 5.51-52)
"The sins generated by violence curtail the life of the perpetrator. Therefore, even those who are anxious for their own welfare should abstain from meat-eating." (Mahabharata, Anushasana Parva 115.33)People always ask the question, "What about killing plants? Doesn't that create bad karma?" Abstaining from killing is one of the foundational teachings of Hinduism. Yes, killing plants does involve some violence, but since plants lack a central nervous system and a brain to process pain, they don't experience pain the same way humans and animals do, and thus the violence is minimized. Moreover, a lot of fruits and vegetables will fall off the tree when ripe. A cow or pig will never just drop a part of its body and grow another.
A simple question I'd like to pose: If you had to show your child where his or her food came from, where are you more likely to take them, a farm where fruits and vegetables are harvested or a slaughterhouse?
Animals live and care for each other as much as humans do. They will do whatever they can to defend their family members. They suffer emotionally when their offspring are taken away from them. How is it that we can be so callous towards these creatures of God? The goal of Hinduism is to love God. However, in order to love God, we need to love all of God's creatures, which means the two-legged, the four-legged, the winged and the gilled.
In America alone, the largest meat consuming nation on the planet, over 10 billion animals are killed for food each year. This number doesn't include fish. We really need to ask ourselves if all this violence is really necessary? There is no shortage of food, especially in this country. And, according to the USDA, there is no shortage of protein in vegetarian foods.
There is also enough evidence that indicates that a vegetarian lifestyle will not only be better for our health, but also for the planet. Here's a great article from Mark Bittman called "Rethinking the Meat Guzzler" in which he describes in great detail the damage that's done to our planet as a result of raising and killing so many animals. So, with all these reasons, ranging from freeing ourselves of karmic debt, living a healthier life and preserving the planet, is it enough for us to just say "but...I love my meat?"
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Gadadhara Pandit Dasa: Karma: What Goes Around Comes Around
And if you are a vegetarian who eats and drinks dairy products, what would you do with the calves? If there are 10 million dairy cows in the country, that means that 10 million calves are produced every year. A few are kept to replace old cows and bulls (which are slaughtered) but the rest are fed till they are big enough to provide sellable carcasses and then slaughtered. If you eat yogurt or drink milk, the calf whose mother provided that milk will most likely be killed for meat.
We do need to move to better ways of raising meat animals and less painful ways of slaughtering animals for food, but the idea of converting all humans to vegetarianism is futile idealism. The reality is that the more money people have the more meat they eat. Meat consumption is one of the most reliable ways of judging the prosperity of a nation.
Actually they are deniable and a vegetarian diet is not healthy ipso facto.
People in most of the poor parts of the world could benefit from a higher protein diet. Meat is the easiest way to get protein. However, domestic plants can contribute enough protein to make up for the absence of meat. If synthetic vitamins are supplied even vegans can life a healthy life.
It was meat that made us human, without a high protein diet we could not afford our high-maintenance brains. If we lived on a wild plant diet, we could not support our brains and we would be as dumb as gorillas. Personally I love meat and I don't believe that any great number of people will ever convert to vegetarianism. Even if countries that have a high number of vegetarians they are usually doing so for religious reasons. In India ascetics gave up "meat, wine, music, women, and gambling".
As many vegetarian Hindus are now open to egg and some Hindus go a further ahead with limiting non-veg to chicken.
For Hindus from eastern India(like orrisa, assam, bengal) fish has some how been vegetarian all long.
As the author stated, compassion is one of the biggest. If we treated dogs, cats, and horses, tame or wild, the way we can legally treat cows, chickens, pigs, and their young, we'd be in jail.
There are plenty of farmers out there who treat there farm animals well.
All in all, a vegetarian diet has physical, spiritual, social, and economic implications. From a medical perspective, there are positive health benefits. Spiritual adherence to non-violence supports vegetarianism, pledging to show compassion to all living being. Moreover, the present day agricultural industry clearly mistreats animals even before they are slaughtered and put on the grocery shelf. Finally, in terms of globalization, the industry itself perpetuates world hunger by siphoning raw materials from developing countries
The ethical foundation called ahimsa, or non-violence, is a principle that can be traced back to the incantations of the Vedas (ancient Hindu scriptures). On the spiritual path of Hinduism, a pinnacle that aspirants strive towards is God-realization, or the ability to recognize the divinity residing within all beings.
To be frank, quite a few of the vegans and vegetarians I have met here act as if their dietary preferences ARE their religion. I was a cook for many years and I had to cook for the whole spectrum of eaters, from Jews and Muslims to vegans and vegetarians to people on the all-meat diet that was a fad awhile back. And that doesn't even count the people with allergies. (What DO you feed a vegan who is allergic to soy?!)
The fact Hindus don't eat Beef has to do with religious superstition - no compassion. Peole equating their religion with their dietary preference and vice versa changes nothing - the percentage remains the same.
The fad is not all-meat diet; it is people swtiching to vegetarianism on a misguided notion it is heatlhier. It is not what you eat it is how you eat it. A grilled chicken or fish is perhaps the best diet you can have - with all the nutrients and no unwanted fat - as compared to a deep fried Samosa - which may be completely meatless but a heart attack waiting to happen.
More bacon for us!