Acharya Shree, Do you have to be a Vegetarian to be spiritual?
That's a very good question.
I want to the message for the new year
All spiritual people
I always suggest
vegetarian is the first
step towards spirituality
Why?
You respect all living beings
Because you don't want to eat those
living beings which feel a lot pain
Like the animals, suppose
Animals have five senses
and they have a mind. If someone kills them
all these torture
the animal, they feel, they have very bad feelings
The whole system changes when somebody kills them
If somebody dies naturally, it is totally different
but if somebody kills someone, the whole system is shaken up
and it creates a lot of bad
things into the flesh and blood
and the person who eats it will get all
these things
if you kill, they have five senses
living being four senses
they don't have ears, but they have eyes, nose,
mouth, and touch
They still can feel a lot
of pain, so I will suggest not to eat
those things also, those living beings
in Thailand, in China, they are using a lot of those
four senses living being
and then there are three senses living beings, two senses
living being and one sense living being. One sense living being
they are still alive but they are in the vegetation state
vegetable state is totally different
They don't know what is going on
If somebody is cutting them or somebody is eating them
because they are like, if a person has a problem
and he needs an operation. The doctor gives them anesthesia
and then after that when the person
is unconscious, they can cut their bones or whatever
So, they don't feel any pain
One sense living being is the lowest category for food
to survive, because for survival we need to eat something
So you have to choose the lowest living being
which they don't feel anything
You take only what you need
you don't have to cut the whole tree
If you want to eat one apple, just eat one apple.
Pick one apple. You want to eat one
vegetable, just pick one vegetable
You don't destroy the whole thing,
but if someone eats a chicken, they have to kill the whole chicken
And a chicken is a five sense living being
It's a kind of torture. The people who eat lobster
the lobster, which is a living being
and has senses, almost five senses
and then they put the poor creature
in the boiling water. It is torturing
The people who eat
those kind of creatures. I would suggest
if they want to be really on the spiritual path
The first step the have to take
To eat the lowest category of living beings
Which is in a different state of consciousness
They don't feel pain, so they don't know
what is going on. So, yes. I always strongly suggest
Be Vegetarian.
You need to be vegetarian in order to be spiritual. Why?
The second reason I will give you
Because, to be vegetarian, when you eat fruit
and vegetables or grains
it is easily digestable
but, meat it takes 3 days to pass through your
intestines. Human intestines are very long
so vegetarian, whatever we eat
to be vegetarian, fruits, grains, and beans
or vegetables. It passes through in a maximum of twelve hours
Not more than that
but you can even choose light vegetables and it will pass through your intestines in eight hours
Six hours sometimes
So, light food is the light mind. And the mind will
cooperate for meditation
and you can go deep into the Samadhi state of consciousness
But the first condition
You try to respect living beings
that is more developed
You have to respect living beings. I am not saying that you destroy fruits and vegetables
You just pick them for your survival
only. Not to destroy them.
Destruction is bad anyway, but for survival
you have to eat something, so eat the lowest
category of living and those that are easily digestable.
And they are very healthy for the human being
People who think
that meat is good for the brain
they are wrong. More than ninety percent of the Indian population are vegetarian
And they are
most popular and most intelligent
even in America
forty three percent doctors are Indian doctors
and they are mostly vegetarian
I think they are getting the wrong concept that meat
is necessary for the human body. They are totally wrong
Vegetarian.
I will give you an example: Albert Einstein
he was
a genius on the earth and he was vegetarian
Mahatma Ghandi, he was vegetarian
You have to adopt
Vegetarianism is good for your health
and when your health is good, your mind is good
Your thoughts are good, you can concentrate more, you will feel
lighter, you don't become heavier
So you gain a lot of weight unless you don't know how to cook
so you need to learn a few things, not to have greasy vegetarian food
light food can make you very healthy
it is called Satvik means divine.
I consider people who are Vegetarian
their thoughts are pure
they can be very good if they have guidance
at the same time. If they have spiritual guidance
they can become really divine
because they are already on the path. They are already respecting living beings
not to torture them just for survival
choose the lightest food. The lightest food is Vegetarian
And Vegetarian food is coming
direct from the soil
so you are with the earth already. If you are an earthly person
it means you respect
your own mother, because the earth is our mother
It gives everything to us, it produces a lot
of food for us. So, you respect it.
The more you respect the Mother
the more you become divine
I suggest
If you want to be on the spiritual path
take the first step. The first step is to be Vegetarian
Vegetarian
will make you divine, it will make you peaceful
and bring something unique
into your consciousness, because you can begin to think
straight right and in the right
direction
Yes. The first step towards spirituality is Vegetarian
To be Vegetarian is the best.