The diet of Hindus usually does not include eggs, fish or
meat. However, if included, Hindus often favor jhatka (quick
death) style preparation of meat since Hindus believe that this method
minimizes trauma and suffering to the animal.
Ancient Hindu texts describe the whole of creation as a vast
food chain, and the cosmos as a giant food cycle.
Hindu mendicants (sannyasin)
avoid preparing their own food, relying either on begging for leftovers or
harvesting seeds and fruits from forests, as this minimizes the likely harm to
other life forms and nature.
The Vedic texts have
conflicting verses, which scholars have interpreted to mean support or
opposition to meat-based food. A group states that some Vedic hymns mention
animal sacrifice and therefore support non-vegetarianism. According to Marvin
Harris, the Vedic literature is contradictory, with some suggesting ritual
slaughter and meat consumption, while others suggesting a taboo on meat eating.
The Upanishads and
Sutra texts of Hinduism discuss moderate diet and proper nutrition, as well as Aharatattva (dietetics).The Upanishads and Sutra
texts invoke the concept of virtuous self-restraint in matters of food, while
the Samhitas discuss what and when certain foods are suitable.
A few Hindu texts such as Hathayoga Pradipika combine both.
The Bhagavad
Gita includes verses on diet and moderation in food in Chapter 6. It
states in verse 6.16 that a Yogi must neither eat too much nor too little,
neither sleep too much nor too little.Understanding and regulating one’s
established habits about eating, sleeping and recreation is suggested as
essential to the practice of yoga in verse 6.17.
The Manusmriti discusses
diet in chapter 5, where like other Hindu texts, it includes verses that
strongly discourage meat eating, as well as verses where meat eating is
declared appropriate in times of adversity and various circumstances,
recommending that the meat in such circumstances be produced with minimal harm
and suffering to the animal. The
verses 5.48-5.52 of Manusmriti explain the reason for avoiding
meat as follows (abridged),
One can never obtain meat without
causing injury to living beings... he should therefore abstain from meat.
Reflecting on how meat is obtained and on how embodied creatures are tied up
and killed, he should quit eating any kind of meat... The man who authorizes,
the man who butchers, the man who slaughters, the man who buys or sells, the
man who cooks, the man who serves, and the man who eats – these are all
killers. There is no greater sinner than a man who, outside of an offering to
gods or ancestors, wants to make his own flesh thrive at the expense of someone
else's.
Vegetarianism is the key to good health and
happiness. The Hindu view is multidimensional, including the ecological,
medical and spiritual, as is evident in the following excerpts from Hinduism
Today: Besides being an expression of compassion for animals, vegetarianism is
followed for ecological and health rationales Reasons In the past fifty years,
millions of meat-eaters -- Hindus and non-Hindus -- have made the personal
decision to stop eating the flesh of other creatures. There are five major
motivations for such a decision:
1.
The
Dharmic Law Reason
2.
The Karmic Consequences Reason
3.
The
Spiritual Reason
4.
The
Health Reason
5.
The
Ecological Reason
History
The book Food for the Spirit, Vegetarianism
and the World Religions, observes, "Despite popular knowledge of
meat-eating's adverse effects, the non-vegetarian diet became increasingly
widespread among Hindus after the two major invasions by foreign powers, first
the Muslims and later the British. With them came the desire to be `civilized,'
to eat as did the Sahib. Those actually trained in Vedic knowledge, however,
never adopted a meat-oriented diet, and the pious Hindu still observes
vegetarian principles as a matter of religious duty. "That vegetarianism
has always been widespread in India is clear from the earliest Vedic texts.
This was observed by the ancient traveler Megasthenes and also by Fa-Hsien, a
Chinese Buddhist monk who, in the fifth century, traveled to India in order to
obtain authentic copies of the scriptures. "These scriptures unambiguously
support the meatless way of life. In the Mahabharat, for instance, the great
warrior Bheesma explains to Yuddhishtira, eldest of the Paandav princes, that
the meat of animals is like the flesh of one's own son. Similarly, the
Manusmriti declares that one should `refrain from eating all kinds of meat,'
for such eating involves killing and leads to Karmic bondage (Bandh) [5.49].
Elsewhere in the Vedic literature, the last of the great Vedic kings, Maharaja
Parikshit, is quoted as saying that `only the animal-killer cannot relish the
message of the Absolute Truth [Shrimad Bhagvatam 10.1.4].'"
Scientific Logic
In nature, if we
observe the teeth arrangement of carnivorous animals they have extra pair of canine
teeth. Without this set of teeth, they cannot tear and eat meat but somehow in
human case nature decided not to give it to you.
Furthermore, if we look
at jaw moment of herbivorous animals they have cutting and grinding action and
all the carnivorous animals they only have cutting action and human have
cutting and grinding action.
Why the design
difference between animals?
When you eat starchy
foods, the starches are broken down into sugars, including glucose, maltotriose
and maltose, by an enzyme called amylase found in your
saliva and small intestine. All the herbivorous animals have this enzyme
in their mouth where the digestion starts itself. Carnivors donot have such
enzyme and they donot need to break foods into smaller pieces so they just tear
and swallow it.
Let’s go deeper into elementary cannel , if you look at the
length of elementary cannel of carnivorous animal, it is 3 times the length of
body whereas in herbivorous and humans it is nearly 6 times the length of
body. Why this design difference?
Meat always travels through body very slowly and vegetables
matter travel fast so carnivors have small intestine. In your present system if
you put some cooked meat then it would take 48-50 hrs to pass through the
system. And science tells that rotten of meat takes faster in summer and it is
always summer inside our system. Rotten meat indicates heavy bacterial attack
on it.
Because of these reasons, Hinduism sculptures doesnot suggest
us to eat meat.
YV Nitesh
25th Aug, 2018
