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Shri Chaitanya Sridhara Sangha
Vegetarianism
Eating is one of the most important actions we perform during our day. What to eat is a question that affects every one of our days. The quality of our life depends on what we allow to enter our body and sustain it, and therefore on our thoughts, our feelings, our emotions, our health, and that of those around us.
The choice of what to eat is the basis of every other choice. There are men or entire peoples who, due to their destiny (karma), have no possibility of choosing what to eat, but those who are fortunate enough to do so must make this choice with the utmost love and intelligence!
In this material plane, every living being is food for another being.
The human being has been endowed with intelligence superior to that of animals, and therefore has a greater responsibility and must show mercy and compassion towards his younger brothers.
Man has been designated to follow ethical and religious principles and to refrain from unnecessary violence just for the satisfaction of his own palate. This principle is defined in the Vedas with the term "Ahimsa" which means “non-violence” but also includes the concepts of “forgiveness”, “sacrifice”, "absence of enmity", "truth" and "strength".
Nature has arranged that human beings can lead a healthy life by nourishing themselves completely and abundantly with grains, milk, fruit, and vegetables. A vegetarian diet is a compassionate diet. It involves less suffering for other living creatures.
One of the pillars common to all religions on Earth is compassion towards every being ("Do not do to others what you would not want done to yourself."), which therefore leads to the prohibition of killing and committing acts of unnecessary violence.
Even in the Christian religion, the famous fifth commandment ("Thou shalt not kill!") cannot be subject to interpretations or exceptions: its literal translation from Hebrew is: "Do not commit any kind of killing!".
The Vedas explain in detail that according to the law of “Karma”, which governs the entire material universe, those who kill animals directly and all those who participate in the activities necessary to make their remains palatable, as well as those who finally buy and eat them, will have to suffer the same pains they have inflicted on innocent creatures.
Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada points out that the widespread violence among men is a karmic reaction to the slaughter of animals: "Today mercy no longer exists and as a result men continue to fight in numerous wars, without realizing that, by killing so many animals with impunity, they too are condemned to be killed in war like animals.”
Violence breeds violence!
The law of karma is an inescapable law! It applies to everyone, whether they are aware of it or not!
It is like fire, which burns anyone who comes into contact with it! Those who use their intelligence properly do not put their hand in it!
The greatest sages in history recommend that those who follow a path of inner evolution do not eat meat because killing an animal means interrupting its evolution towards higher species.
Those who kill animals, conclude the Vedas, cannot find pleasure in the message of the Absolute Truth. It is not possible to live in deep harmony with everything around us, to develop love for God and therefore for all, if at the same time death, pain, suffering, terror, and disease enter our body! Those who feed their body with these vibrations cannot obtain peace and lasting balance!
We live in an age of hypocrisy and discord, and the agri-food policy of today's society is not immune to this degradation. In the mass media, it is never shown how a steak or a ham is produced! We have never seen a documentary or a news report on slaughterhouses, chicken coops, or other places where suffering, pain, and fear reign.
Have you ever wondered why? The answer is simple: if such images were broadcast, many would stop eating meat.
Think about the feeling we get when admiring an orchard or a vegetable garden and picking a fruit or a vegetable, and instead the feeling we get when seeing the activities of a slaughterhouse or when directly slaughtering a chicken or a rabbit or larger animals, or seeing a fish writhing in terror hanging from a hook!
The cruelty, apathy, insensitivity, aggressiveness, and anger that these actions produce affect the consciousness of those who perform them and of those who then eat the result!
Depression is also a consequence because, on a more subtle and profound level, the soul cannot be at peace if one is the perpetrator or accomplice of such ferocity! Think of the reactions of children when they see an animal being killed or eaten, similar to the one they are naturally attached to because they have it at home or read about it or see its stories!
Those who adopt a vegetarian diet find it easier to become calm, serene, productive, and altruistic, are more aware of their body's needs, and more willing to practice Yoga.
God has given us freedom and asks us to choose! Every choice must be a choice of love, in the awareness that every action produces a reaction for us and for others! And every choice should allow us to progress and reach the solution to the problems of this life!
Man has an irrepressible tendency to evolve psychologically and spiritually, and the means he has at his disposal for this growth are his thoughts and actions.
Our spiritual quest is aimed at rediscovering our intrinsic and immutable nature (Sanathana-dharma), whose characteristics are eternity, knowledge, and happiness, and the first step in this quest must be “Ahimsa” “Non-violence”!
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PRASADA
(Spiritual food)
Abstaining from unnecessary violence against those who have a less developed conscience and intelligence (such as animals) is not enough to avoid the universal law of karma.
Each of us, in contact with wonderful nature, trees, flowers, and fruits, feels at ease. We perceive and verify that what surrounds us is alive and interacts with us. The Vedas clarify to us that even trees, plants, and grass have a soul that gives them vital energy. Plants have a very underdeveloped consciousness and are therefore not very aware of suffering, but to some extent they also suffer, and even killing a plant for food produces a precise reaction.
The only solution to transform this suffering into a benefit for both the one who inflicts it and the one who suffers it, as explained by the Bhagavad-gita, is to offer everything in sacrifice to the Supreme Lord. By sacrifice is meant the attitude of doing something for the pleasure of someone else, and this attitude is the basis of love. Krishna, the Supreme Personality of God, is the Creator and the rightful Owner of everything, so if we offer Him a fruit or a flower or a vegetable, with love and devotion, without selfishness and greed, we will obtain a benefit because we have performed the primordial activity of every living being: serving the Supreme (Sanatana-dharma).
The food thus offered becomes "spiritual," calms the mind and elevates the state of consciousness, giving energy and vitality because it is free from karmic reactions. This food is called Prasada, which means "Mercy."
Health and ecological motivations.
Here we will not go into the health and ecological reasons for the vegetarian choice, although they are very valid, as it is proven that those who eat meat and fish are much more exposed to diseases of the cardiovascular system, to tumors, hypertension, diabetes, and other pathologies.
The greed and selfishness of unscrupulous industrialists mean that the livestock that arrives in stores is stuffed with harmful substances, steroids, growth hormones, and antibiotics that certainly do not have beneficial effects on the human body!
Even from an ecological point of view, it is evident that intensive "slaughter livestock" farming requires enormous resources (water, cereals, pastures) that could instead be used to feed other human beings.
Furthermore, we must observe that humans have physiological characteristics more similar to those of monkeys and very different from those of carnivorous animals; humans are not omnivores but frugivores, that is, predisposed to a diet based on fruits and seeds rather than killing with their own hands and biting into their prey.
The millenary knowledge contained in the Vedas has handed down to us a healthy, simple, and complete lifestyle, based on a vegetarian diet that gives strength and balance to the body, allowing the prevention of many diseases and facilitating the rediscovery of the eternal relationship with the Supreme Soul.