Today's question comes from Stefano, a yoga teacher in Spain who happens to be a devoted
student of Advaita Vedanta.
Stefano asks, "Eating animals is considered to be against the principle of ahimsa, so
why is eating plants not considered the same, since plants are also living beings?
Plants are killed when they're ripped from the soil, just like animals are killed in
the slaughterhouse."
That's a really good question.
Stefano correctly understands that following a vegetarian diet is a practice of ahimsa,
non-injury, by not contributing to the slaughter of animals.
Many people wrongly believe that the Hindu prohibition against eating meat is a religious
dietary rule, like the Islamic and Jewish rules that prohibit eating pork and certain
other foods.
But in Hinduism, maintaining a vegetarian diet is simply one of many ways to practice
ahimsa.
Scriptures say, ahimsa paramo dharmah, ahimsa is the essence or foundation of dharma, righteousness.
To steadfastly follow dharma, you have to avoid causing himsa, harm or injury, to any
living being.
Of course, you should not only avoid harming cows, chickens and goats, but you should also
avoid causing harm to fellow human beings, starting with your own immediate family and
extending to people living on distant continents.
Sometimes, this point gets overlooked.
I once met a man who proudly told me, "I come from a very pious and orthodox Hindu family.
Never in my entire life has meat ever touched my lips."
His wife had earlier told me that he was extremely harsh at home.
He often shouted at her and at their young children, scolding them for their tiniest
mistakes and reducing them to tears.
Since dharma is based on ahimsa, non-injury, his claim to be a pious Hindu, just because
he never ate meat, seems really hypocritical.
Even though his mouth never caused injury to animals, it certainly inflicted terrible
harm on his wife and children.
Of course, I couldn't tell him that because my own words would have hurt him deeply.
The practice of ahimsa applies not only to people and animals, but it also extends to
other living things, including plants, as Stefano correctly observed.
But here's the problem.
If you don't eat animals or plants, then what will you eat?
Obviously, the practice of ahimsa also extends to your own body.
To follow dharma, you have to take care of your physical and emotional health.
Now, you can live without eating animals.
And since animals seem to suffer much more than plants, following a vegetarian diet will
result in less harm and suffering.
The fact is, it's impossible to sustain your body without causing any harm whatsoever.
But even though you can't completely avoid causing harm, you can certainly minimize it.
That's why ahimsa is best understood as the principle of least harm.
In Sanskrit grammar, the a of ahimsa actually has six different meanings, one of which is
alpatva, smallness.
So a-himsa does not necessarily mean the complete absence of injury, it also means minimal injury,
that is, least harm.
You might have noticed that the word ahimsa is often translated as non-violence.
But the fact is, that translation might not be suitable in the context of religious and
spiritual life.
For instance, if I hurt you, but not in a violent manner, is that OK?
Or, if animals are anesthetized before being slaughtered, then is it OK to eat meat?
Ahimsa is translated as non-violence largely due to Mahatma Gandhi's use of ahimsa as a
tactic or political strategy.
He used ahimsa to help win India's independence from Britain without fighting a bloody war.
Gandhiji taught his followers to resist the British in non-violent ways, like boycotts,
labor strikes, and peaceful protests.
His strategy of non-violent resistance was surprisingly effective, and that perhaps,
led the word ahimsa to be associated with non-violence.
Now, even though adhering to a vegetarian diet is based on the principle of ahimsa,
some Hindus wrongly believe that you shouldn't eat meat because it's religiously impure.
But that can't be correct, because if meat truly is impure, then animals would never
have been in offered in sacrificial rituals, rituals that were ordained by the sacred Vedas.
In ancient times, the ritual sacrifice of animals was fully accepted, but later scriptures
prohibited this practice.
The Bhagavata Purana and other texts declared that animal sacrifice is unsuitable in the
current era, the kali yuga.
Even though meat is not religiously impure, eating meat does have other negative consequences
in addition to causing the unnecessary slaughter of animals.
For example, medical research shows that eating meat increases your risk of developing certain
illnesses, like coronary heart disease, stroke and cancer.
Also, the mass consumption of meat has many damaging economic and ecological consequences,
like food insufficiency and damage to the environment.
The food you eat not only affects your body, but it can affect your mind as well.
In the Bhagavad Gita and elsewhere, eating meat is said to increase the prevalence of
tamas in your mind.
Tamas generally produces dullness, apathy, and lethargy.
It can also weaken your ability to study, learn and understand.
In my youth, I learned this the hard way.
Because I was not raised in a Hindu family, I ate meat almost every day.
But, after I started practicing yoga and meditation, I noticed that every time I ate meat for dinner,
I found it difficult to meditate the next morning.
I soon stopped eating meat altogether.
Back then, I didn't understand that the purpose of following a vegetarian diet is not mere
physical and mental wellbeing.
Years later, I learned that traditional teachers of Vedanta, meditation and yoga consider the
role of vegetarian diet to be much more profound.
According to them, by eating meat, you become subject to the so-called bad karma that arises
when you contribute to the slaughter of animals.
Such karma can create huge obstacles that hinder your spiritual growth.
You can minimize those obstacles through the practice of ahimsa in general, and through
following a vegetarian diet in particular.
Also, by giving up tasty non-vegetarian dishes, you can train your mind to turn away from
the path of pleasure and remain firmly fixed on the path of spiritual growth.
In this way, a vegetarian diet gradually helps you overcome powerful desires and develop
antahkarana shuddhi, purity of mind.
So, if eating meat creates bad karma and leads to mental impurities, then we have to ask,
"Is it possible to attain enlightenment without strictly following a vegetarian diet?"
Well, 2500 years ago, Buddha, who was not a vegetarian, became enlightened while meditating
overnight at the foot of a tree.
Even today, many Buddhist monks eat meat.
In South Asia, some monks take a vow to eat only food they are given by pious householders
living nearby.
Not surprisingly, non-vegetarian householders often give meat to the monks, in addition
to rice and other foods.
Most Tibetan Buddhists also eat meat, especially those who live at high elevations in the Himalayas
where few vegetables can grow.
So then, what about Hindu monks, sannyasis like me?
Well, most sannyasis are strictly vegetarian.
But some happen to eat fish and mutton, mostly those living in West Bengal and Orissa.
Their diet is part of the traditional culture of those regions.
You might already know that Swami Vivekananda, a famous Bengali who taught Vedanta, was not
vegetarian.
He thought that a strict vegetarian diet made Hindus weak.
He also criticized religious leaders who insisted that vegetarians are somehow more holy than
others.
Swami Vivekananda once said, "Religion nowadays seems to be confined to the cooking pot alone."
But he also said, "The desire for fish and meat disappears when the mind becomes pure."
A popular teacher in Swami Vivekananda's lineage, Swami Sarvapriyananda, says, "Is food important?
Yes.
Is food all-important?
No."
In modern times, we face several new dietary issues that were never encountered in ancient
India.
For instance, most milk today is produced in factory farms which are huge industrial
facilities.
In those facilities, cows are subject to various kinds of abuse, including confinement, overcrowding,
diseases, and the excessive use of antibiotics.
Long ago, the consumption of milk caused little or no harm to cows.
But nowadays, that's no longer the case.
Milk and milk products are widely consumed by most vegetarians, but for the reasons we've
just discussed, such foods are rejected by those who are deeply committed to the practice
of ahimsa.
This same situation is true with reference to the consumption of eggs.
Some vegetarians eat eggs, arguing that an unfertilized egg is not a living thing.
But, it's an undeniable fact that chickens suffer terribly in the factory farms where
eggs are produced.
Of course, animals can be harmed, not just by your choice of food, but also by your choice
to use other animal products, like clothing made of leather, fur, or silk.
But, if you are devoted to the practice of ahimsa, where do you draw the line, so to
speak?
Do sheep suffer when their fleece is sheared to produce woolen clothes that you wear?
Does drinking coffee contribute to the abuse of migrant farm workers who harvest the beans?
And what about meat grown in commercial laboratories, artificial meat that's grown from real animal
cells?
Almost anything you use or consume can have unintended consequences that result in the
injury or death of living beings.
So, what can you do?
Well, you can only do your best, which means, you can draw the line as low as possible,
as long as your choices don't cause significant harm to yourself or others.
For example, you can avoid killing an insect crawling across the floor of your kitchen,
but on the other hand, if your kitchen pantry is infested with insects, those insects must
be killed immediately for the health of everyone in your household.
Every situation is different, but you can always respond by applying the principle of
least harm.
As we saw before, the practice of ahimsa is the foundation of dharma.
In the Hindu tradition, dharma is not defined by a list of commandments, nor is it dictated
by a pope, an imam, a rabbi, or a swami.
Instead, it's your responsibility to determine the course of action that leads to the least
harm in each and every situation.
It's entirely up to you where you draw the line.
And deciding where to draw that line is itself an important spiritual practice, a practice
helps you cultivate discernment
and compassion.