Eat, Drink and Evolve - Part II

satchitananda · Aug 24, 2012

Hi Young@heart,

I can imagine how tough that must be, especially it is on a regular basis. Have you been vegetarian all along?

vjbunny · Aug 24, 2012

Dear Satchi
Preference of food is believed to mould a persons character for that reason Indians had this kind of obsession over what we eat... In fact I have observed it need not be so for Valmiki himself was a hunter who later on become a sage So it shows to prove that food has nothing to do than our thoughts and actions.. As long as our actions and thoughts are good who cares what we eat...where we eat....

satchitananda · Aug 24, 2012

Very well said VJ. I guess life tests us at every point. We are told from childhood that something has to be avoided. It gets deeply ingrained in us. What is taught to us has a very good rationale and intention to it. But when faced with situations where we have a choice to stick to our dogma or bend to accommodate the sentiments of others, it is a real test that we are put to and we are invariably left in a quandary. Unfortunately this is like one of those surprise tests where there is no scope for preparing oneself in advance.

Viswamitra · Aug 25, 2012

Dear Satchi,

I happened to read a teaching about why vegetarianism is taught by Buddhism, Jainism & Hinduism. If it was about hurting animals, then, most people can argue that they are part of the food chain and they hunt other animals to sustain themselves. I always thought there should be something more to it than hurting the animals and finally I found an important answer in that teaching. The animals have different instincts than the human beings and when we eat them, we inherit some of their qualities as it is traditionally believed that we become what we eat. If we assume the evolution is from mineral to plant to animal to human and human is supposed to achieve the next level which is considered as God head, he needs to sustain using the food that is lowest in the food chain. Even as a human, we do have some animal instincts and we are supposed to get rid of those instincts by pursuing our Satwic qualities and one of the ways we can pursue these qualities is to eat food that promotes such Satwic qualities. The other way is to have a strong will power to promote our Satwic qualities despite what we eat. In the present world, that kind of determination is hard to find.

All fruits, vegetables and pulses are safe bet for developing Satwic qualities. In addition, this teaching also states that all of them need to be acquired from legal sources or from farms. If we buy from someone who stole those vegetables, the effect of that will be felt by those who are eating it. Even there is a suggestion that someone who is preparing the food should prepare it with a lot of love thinking of welfare of everyone who are supposed to eat that food. That is why it is important we eat food at places where we are cordially invited. I thought of this thing a lot when I read Balajee's post about his experiences whenever he was invited by others. Finally, we need to say "Brahmarpanam" before eating food as if by mistake, if we missed any of the above, at least that prayer will stop ill effects in our body.

This is the best explanation I had read so far about why we need to be a vegetarian. I am willing to listen other views either supporting or opposing the above view.

Viswa

vjbunny · Aug 25, 2012

Dear Viswa Sir
Thats interesting to note...

satchitananda · Aug 25, 2012

Dear Viswa,

Viswamitra said: ↑

Dear Satchi,

I happened to read a teaching about why vegetarianism is taught by Buddhism, Jainism & Hinduism. If it was about hurting animals, then, most people can argue that they are part of the food chain and they hunt other animals to sustain themselves. I always thought there should be something more to it than hurting the animals and finally I found an important answer in that teaching. The animals have different instincts than the human beings and when we eat them, we inherit some of their qualities as it is traditionally believed that we become what we eat. If we assume the evolution is from mineral to plant to animal to human and human is supposed to achieve the next level which is considered as God head, he needs to sustain using the food that is lowest in the food chain. Even as a human, we do have some animal instincts and we are supposed to get rid of those instincts by pursuing our Satwic qualities and one of the ways we can pursue these qualities is to eat food that promotes such Satwic qualities. The other way is to have a strong will power to promote our Satwic qualities despite what we eat. In the present world, that kind of determination is hard to find.

All fruits, vegetables and pulses are safe bet for developing Satwic qualities. In addition, this teaching also states that all of them need to be acquired from legal sources or from farms. If we buy from someone who stole those vegetables, the effect of that will be felt by those who are eating it. Even there is a suggestion that someone who is preparing the food should prepare it with a lot of love thinking of welfare of everyone who are supposed to eat that food. That is why it is important we eat food at places where we are cordially invited. I thought of this thing a lot when I read Balajee's post about his experiences whenever he was invited by others. Finally, we need to say "Brahmarpanam" before eating food as if by mistake, if we missed any of the above, at least that prayer will stop ill effects in our body.

This is the best explanation I had read so far about why we need to be a vegetarian. I am willing to listen other views either supporting or opposing the above view.

Viswa
Click to expand...

That is most interesting Viswa. My only concern is if we are not supposed to eat food stolen from the cultivator, then most of us are in serious problems, because we usually buy our vegetables from super markets or from middle men who make their profit. So the farmer does not really benefit fully from his produce.

Viswamitra · Aug 26, 2012

Dear Satchi,

That is okay if the shops make profit by selling it at higher prices after buying at a low price from farmers. But we should not buy anything from Chor Bazaar or from Flea Market where the source from where the produces are sold is unknown.

Viswa