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BY Rupanuga Dasa
The International Society For Krishna
Consciousness
Careful selection and combination of vegetarian foods easily provides the minimum daily requirement of protein, vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients. And when such meals are prepared for and offered to the Lord with devotion, they become prasada, (“the Lord’s mercy”), which is both healthy and spiritually purifying. When Lord Krishna speaks in Bhagavad-gita, he clarifies the ultimate purpose of vegetarianism: “If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water, I will accept it” (Bg 9.26). In itself, vegetarianism basically means nonviolence, protecting the animals — but offering vegetarian foods to Krishna and later accepting them as his mercy (prasada) means a lot more: bhakti-yoga or becoming conscious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When combined with the chanting of the Supreme Lord’s holy names —
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Strict vegetarianism becomes more than a mere ethical principle or rational, humane way of life; it becomes the simplest. most pleasant means in the world for spiritual realization. Krishna consciousness, the spiritual reason for vegetarianism. includes all the other reasons — ethical, aesthetic, nutritional, economic, medical — in the same way that a fifty-pound note contains all the potencies of a twenty or. ten or five or a one pound note. Only the freshest, most succulent, most nutritious, and most aesthetically pleasing kinds of foods are prepared and offered to Krishna. Still because we are scientifically minded, we should carefully analyse the many advantages of eating Krishna prasada — of being a strict, spiritually- minded vegetarian. We will also examine some of the more important objections to vegetarianism. We can define a “strict vegetarian” as someone who totally abstains from meat, fish, and eggs. Some vegetarians, called “vegans,” abstain not only from meat but also milk. Some are concerned that milk may contain pesticides and cholesterol. However, fruits, grains, and vegetables contain no cholesterol, so a vegetarian could drink a quart of milk and eat a few ounces of cheese every day without topping the maximum recommended allowance of cholesterol. Without taking milk, one is doomed to consume piles of algae, seaweed, sesame seeds, or pills to obtain essential vitamin B- 12 and calcium. As for pesticides, practically everything we eat has some, because of widespread use of chemical fertilizers. The so-called ovo-vegetarians cannot be accepted as strict vegetarians, because they eat eggs, which are, after all, simply calcium-covered flesh, artificially mass- produced under conditions not justifiable in view of the numerous other sources of protein. But the term lacto- (milk-drinking) vegetarian is acceptable. Taking milk of cows that they later be slaughtered does not in any way condone cow- milking, and if we had the opportunity, we would close the slaughterhouses immediately.
One of the objections nonvegetarians raise against vegetarianism is that Vegetarians still have to kill plants, and that this is also violence. But it is nonsensical to equate fully sentiment animals like cows with lowly vegtables. Besides we really have to eat plants, fruits, grains, and so on, because the vitamins and minerals found only in these vegetarian foods are essential to keep body and soul together. Certainly, plants are as alive as cows modern experiments prove that plants have feelings, and the Bhagvad-gita, the essence of all Vedic teachings, confirms that all life forms contain spirit souls qualitatively equal to one another. But still, we have.’ to eat something, and the Vedas also say, jivo jivasya, jivanam: one living entity is food for another in the struggle for existence. So from a humane standpoint, the problem in choosing a diet is not how to avoid killing altogether - an impossible proposal - but how to cause the least suffering while meeting the nutritional needs of the body. A well-balanced diet of fruits, grains, vegetables, and milk products meets these criteria, and this diet is recommended in such scriptures as the Bhagavad-gita as truly human. Another common objection to vegetarianism is, “Jesus Christ ate meat, so why shouldn’t we?” But vegetarian Christians point out that the ancient Greek, from which the New Testament was translated, does not support the contention that Christ ate meat. For example, Greek words like brosimos, prosphagion, and trophe, all of which mean simply “food” or “nourishment”, were loosely translated as “meat” (except in the New English Bible). And, Christians assert, where the Bible states that Christ was offered fish and a honeycomb and accepted “it” (singular), “it” means the honeycomb. In the Old Testament a verse predicts this of the youthful Christ: “He shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the evil and to choose the good” (Isaiah 7:5) The purport would seem to be that to behave otherwise would lead to a brutish mentality, which cannot be accepted in the character of Christ. When we look for reasons behind widespread meat-eating, we 4ind that many people have been conditioned to it from childhood (“Finish your plate, dear; there are people starving in India”), and they feel guilty if they don’t indulge. In addition, myths about the necessity of flesh-eating persist, even in the face of volumes of scientific evidence to the contrary. Instant Karma, Insane Waste The meat-rich European diet has been scientifically proven to cause disease. A few examples: Researchers have found that frying meat produces carcinogens, cancer-causing agents. The breast milk of non-vegetarian women contains ten times as much pesticide as that of vegetarians. Many Europeans, especially among the more well-to-do, eat almost twice as much protein as they need, and this often tends to leach calcium out of the bones into the bloodstream. This process can produce bone loss and brittleness around the age of forty. Evidence linking the American diet with cancer and other diseases prompted the U.S. Senate to call for an increase in vegetarian foodstuffs in the national diet. Sodium nitrate, hormones, and antibiotics, given to animals in huge amounts to fatten and calm them, are passed on to the consumer and are thought by many researches to be prime causes of disease. Yet all these factors are not the original causes of disease, but are themselves manifestations of subtler causes — violations of the laws of nature. Humans are meant to eat vegetarian foods, but when their uncontrollable appetites drive them to eat flesh, they must suffer karmic reactions, which are shared equally by all those who, participate in the slaughter — from cattle-men to butchers to shoppers to cooks to consumers. This is the real connection between diet and disease: instant karma! It may manifest immediately, as in the case of botulism, and often deadly poisoning, or later on, as in the case of bone loss; it may strike individually, as in the personal hell of cancer, or collectively, as in the mass slaughterhouse of the Bubonic Plague. But in any case, there is no escaping karmic reactions. We reap what we sow, in this life and the next, for nature has her justice above the state’s. The Bhagavad-gita reveals how strict vegetarianism, when integrated with bhakti-yoga, can counteract karma “Devotees are freed from karmic reactions because they first offer their food to the Lord, whereas others, who prepare food only for their personal sense gratification, eat only sin”. (Bg 3.13) In other words, anyone who dovetails his eating with the principles of bhakti-yoga becomes transcendental to all karmic reactions, while one who neglects to do so incurs bad karma. Moreover, one who acts without karma can dovetail his consciousness with God’s and become aware of his personal presence at every step. This is the true benefit of prasada. There are at least forty kinds of vegetables, nine kinds of grains, twenty kinds of beans and peas, and twelve kinds of nuts available in the market, in addition to the cow’s contribution. What, then, is the need for all the violence and disobedience to the higher laws of human-kind, nature, and God? Let us chant Hare Krishna, live as strict vegetarians, and be happy in this life and the next!
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