Karthik's musings

To veg, or not to veg?

I subscribe to the PETA e-news mailing list. Though I'm not a great fan of their no-holds-barred and Page 3 type approach to the issue, one must agree that PETA has done a lot to create awareness about vegetarianism, and also expose the cruelty of large restaurant chains and in their supply chain. Happened to see this video of the way chickens are treated in KFC's supply chain. Of course, PETA TV has lots of such videos. Watching this video, and some conversations in the last few days, made me think more deeply on this.

To be a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian is quite an interesting choice, especially in a country like India where vegetarianism is quite wide-spread thanks to the religious sentiments. The non-vegetarian school of thought has quite a few valid arguments - presence of life in plants, maintaining the eco-balance, higher physical endurance, etc.

Here I'm trying to list three of the most convincing arguments for vegetarianism...arguments that have kept me a vegetarian!

1. Law of Karma: As Swami Vimalananda says in Aghora III: The Law Of Karma, we develop rnanubandas with every action we do, whether it is stepping on the ground, breathing the air or using the wash basin! It is hence important that actions that we associate with create such amount of good karma so as to clear these rnas. Similarly, we develop rnanubanda with each and every bit of food that we eat. Just like it is a bigger crime to kill a elephant as against killing a fly, the amount of rnas that we accumulate when we consume meat is more than in case of plants/leaves/vegetables. Itz perfectly fine to eat non-vegetarian food if we do enough good karma to compensate for it. For example, Javagal Srinath can better explain turning non-vegetarian than say a common man like me! And I can vouch for the fact in case of most of us, the most visible output of eating non-vegetarian food is increased diameter!

2. Quality of food: Ayurveda divides food into 3 basic types: Sattvic, Rajasic and Tamasic , which are the three basic gunas of any matter. It goes without saying that for the spiritual upliftment, one should have more of sattvic food.

3. Compassion: I consider compassion to be one of the most important behaviors to be displayed by a human. Although I will be wrong in saying that all non-vegetarians are uncompassionate, I would personally find it tough to teach my kid the significance of compassion if I were to be a non-vegetarian.

You fail only when you do not strive sufficiently to manifest infinite power.
-Swami Vivekananda