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Vegetarian Diet Excerpts from the book "Healthy and Wise Choice" by Mahant Krsna Balaram Swami
Why Humans Around the World Eat Meat In most parts of the world, people have been eating meat since infancy, and are not told about the consequences of eating meat. Priests, heads of state, parents, friends, teachers, health programmers, the media, the desire to continue eating meat and the taste of meat itself have made people addicted to eating meat. Meat tastes good; therefore people do not bother to consider the ghastly acts of killing innocent animals that bring meat to the table. Thus, the result is that more and more people ignorantly have adopted the lifestyle of meat-eating. But in God's law, ignorance is no excuse. Therefore, it is wise to study and find the best foods to eat and remain free from the consequences and be healthy, happy and wise. Normally, those who are attached to eating meat think that vegetarian food has no taste, is not varied, has no protein or vitality, and that it is just boiled in water. Their mind-set is that people cannot survive if they don't eat meat. How is it, then, that the gorilla, elephant, horse and bull are so big and strong? They are all vegetarian creatures, yet each is very powerful. The idea that meat gives energy by supplying the body with large amounts of needed protein is propaganda. St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.) wrote in his "Free Choice of the Will," which was later translated and published in "Fathers of the Church's Services," saying that "Although the first men were undisciplined and brutish, they were vegetarians nonetheless." Largely due to Augustine's propaganda, our attitude and nature has been changed without thinking about the consequences of the present actions, which remove the value of animals from the minds of men. Until Augustine, practically everyone followed vegetarianism. Origen (A.D. 185? -254?), who was considered the founder of Christian philosophy, was also a vegetarian. Human beings are given a certain amount of free will to choose the right thing for the self; but when this power to choose is misused, it brings bad Karma (or reaction) to the person. Therefore, Origen considered that the fall of an individual is due to misuse of his or her free will. He believed in transmigration of the soul's rising and falling in the evolutionary scale. According to him, the individual soul, falling short of the ultimate goal, is reincarnated into this world again and again. Until Augustine came along, this idea of reincarnation prevailed, which kept people from eating meat. Therefore, the priesthood, heads of state, parents, teachers, health programmers and the media should see the real health value for people and introduce vegetarianism for their long and healthy life. Even though meat has been included in the diet since one's birth, it should be given up, because it implicates the person into sin. Therefore, it is wise for every intelligent person to be vegetarian to be happy and peaceful. Everyone needs proper guidance to take the right path to avoid doing the wrong things. The timeless Sanskrit texts known as the Vedas, which are the first written religious texts, provide this guidance. According to Vedic Sanskrit scholars, these books were either spoken or written by the Supreme Lord Himself. The Vedas tell us that the Supreme Lord, who lives in His Kingdom, created this world and filled it with every kind of living entity so that each could experience the consequences of their past deeds. The merciful Lord, knowing the problems of living entities, manifested these Vedas to give information about how to live incessantly happy in this problematic material world, and after death According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Vedas (written in Sanskrit), originated long before Christianity. Another name for the Sanskrit language is or the language of God or demigods, and it has existed since the time of creation. Even if we take the opinion of the College Dictionary, the Sanskrit language has been in use since about 1200 B.C., and all Vedic scriptures are written or spoken in this language. In these scriptures, and also in the other holy books of the world, it is stated that everything that we see is created by the Supreme Lord. In this variegated creation the Lord divided humans into two categories--divine and demoniac. This is confirmed by Lord Krsna in the Bhagavad-Gita (16.6), "There are two kinds of beings in this world--the divine and the demoniac." He further says that demoniac people do not know what is to be done and what is not to be done. They have neither cleanliness nor righteous conduct. Divine people always abide by the laws of God, whereas the demoniac people act impulsively, ignoring the laws of God. These two classes of men--divine and demoniac--have existed throughout history. Meat-eating has also existed a long time. In the beginning all humans were vegetarians but eventually some adopted meat-eating. Upon their need they would hunt and eat their prey. But now slaughterhouses have taken the place of the hunt and supply meat in packages so the people do not realize that meat comes from ghastly killing. Because people are kept in such ignorance, the meat-eating population has greatly increased. The Vedas also state that sacrificed animals could be eaten, but only under sacrifice restrictions. When a sacrificial animal was brought to the dais for sacrifice, it was told in its ear, "If you are not liberated, you come back and kill me in my next life." Such sacrifices were performed on the night of new moon, which comes once a month on the lunar calendar. In this sacrifice, a pure priest would chant perfected Mantras (spiritual hymns) so the killed animal would become liberated. Unless such rules were followed, meat eating was not allowed by the Vedas. These restrictions had to be followed by those who desired to eat meat in the Vedic civilization. Now, in this present age of disturbance, Vedic priests do not engage in any type of ghastly activities, such as chanting Mantras for animal sacrifices, because they know that such Mantras have lost their potency. That is why the Vedic scriptures have put a ban on every animal sacrifice for this age. As it is said in the Vedic scriptures: For these reasons, and many others, people around the world have eaten meat for many centuries. However, to improve one's health, happiness and inner peace, one should consider refraining from eating meat, and begin the journey to a vegetarian way of life.
Happiness through right consciousness The Vedas describe how to have a clean body and consciousness, and how to act purely to have permanent peace, which is the root of happiness. Such lasting peace can be had by choosing foods from the vegetable kingdom as the Lord commands, instead of from the moving entities. This is the real solution to world peace. The Vedas and most scriptures of the world command us to have respect for others, thus the Golden Rule. In today's modern world, people hold large scholarly gatherings to propose ways to obtain world peace. Even though they spend fortunes, peace still remains beyond their grasp. Peace cannot be created by men, as some imaginative and idealistic people think. Peace lies only in living in accordance with the instructions of the Supreme Lord. Unless we follow the laws in the ancient scriptures, we can only dream about having peace. Those with a little common sense will reach the root cause of their problems, and carefully follow the God-written scriptures step by step and quickly obtain lasting peace. The basic system of peace is explained in the Taitiriya Upanisad in the following way: Some Shocking Facts Number of People worldwide
who will die of starvation this year: 60 million Number of people who could be adequately fed with the grain saved if Americans reduced meat intake by 10%: 60 million Human beings in America: 243 million Number of people who could be fed with grain and soybeans now eaten by US livestock: 1.3 billion Percentage of corn grown in US eaten by people: 20% Percentage of corn grown in US eaten by livestock: 80% Percentage of protein wasted by cycling grain through livestock: 90% Percentage of oats grown in US eaten by livestock: 95% How frequently a child starves to death: every 2 seconds Pounds of potatoes that can be grown on an acre: 20,000 lbs Pounds of beef produced on an acre: 165 lbs Percentage of US farmland devoted to beef production: 56% Pounds of grain and soybeans needed to produce 1 pound of feedlot beef: 16 lbs. Fossil fuels needed to produce a meat-centered diet vs. a meat-free diet: 50 times more Percentage of US topsoil lost to date: 75% Percentage of US topsoil loss directly related to livestock raising: 85% Number of acres of US forest cleared for cropland to produce meat-centered diet: 260 million acres Amount of meat US imports annually from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama: 200,000,000 pounds Average per capita meat consumption in Costa Rica, El Salveador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama: Less than eaten by average US house cat Area of tropical rainforest consumed in every quarter-pounder hamburger: 55 sq. ft. Current rate of species extinction due to destruction of tropical rainforests for meat grazing and other uses: 1,000 species extinct per year User of more than half of all water used for all purposes in the US: Livestock production Amount of water to produce a pound of wheat: 25 gallons Amount of water to produce a pound of meat: 2,500 gallons Cost of common hamburger if water used by meat industry was not subsidized by US taxpayer: $35/pound Current cost of pound of protein from beefsteak, if water was no longer subsidized: $89 Years the world's known oil reserves will last if every human ate a meat-centered diet: 13 years Years the world's known oil reserves will last if human beings no longer ate meat: 260 years Barrels of oil imported into US daily: 6.8 million Percentage of fossil fuel energy returned as food energy by most efficient factory farming of meat: 34.5 percent Percentage returned as food energy from least efficient plant food: 328% Percentage of raw materials consumed by US to produce present meat-centered diet: 33% www.krsna.org |
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Famous Quotes "Vegetarian food leaves a deep impression on our nature. If the whole world adopts vegetarianism, it can change the destiny of humankind." "There is just no reason why animals should be slaughtered to serve as human diet when there are so many substitutes. Man can live without meat." "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat butter and honey, so that he may know the evil from the good." "If man wants freedom why keep birds and animals in cages? Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places! I have since an early age abjured the use of meat." Leonardo-da-Vinci "I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants." "Flesh eating is unprovoked murder." "We pray on Sundays that we may have light/To guide our footsteps on the path we tread;/We are sick of war, we don't want to fight,/And yet we gorge ourselves upon the dead." A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other. "He who has renounced all violence towards all living beings, weak or strong, who neither kills nor causes others to kill - him I do call a holy man." If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. "For the sake of love of purity, let the Bodhisattva refrain from eating flesh, which is born of semen, blood etc. To avoid causing terror to living beings, let the disciple, who is disciplining himself to attain compassion, refrain from eating meat...It is not true that meat is proper food and permissible when the animal was not killed by himself, when he did not order to kill it, when it was not especially meant for him. There may be some people in the future who, being under the influence of taste for meat will string together in various ways sophisticated arguments to defend meat eating. But meat eating in any form, in any manner and in any place is unconditionally and once and for all prohibited. "Meat eating I have not permitted to anyone, I do not permit and will not permit..." |
