Vegetarian vs Non Vegetarian in Hinduism | You Become What You Eat

The Hindu religion doesn’t have this
forbidding tone. You do this or you will go to hell, you do this and you will go
to heaven. The Hindu religion just makes you aware of the consequences of actions,
so it doesn’t forbid you from meat-eating where it tells you the
consequences of what you eat. The bhagavad-gita talks about three kinds of
foods, there are foods in the mode of goodness, foods in the mode of passion
and foods in the mode of ignorance Foods in the mode of goodness are those,
the natural stuff that God has created for humans, the vegetables, the fruits, the
milk of the cow, the grains. When you eat these your body becomes healthy your
mind becomes calm and peaceful and your inner being becomes conducive to
enlightenment So you experience peace contentment and
satisfaction through the mode of goodness and then these same foods when
they are cooked with the idea of gratifying the palate in other words too
much of chili, too much of salt, too much of sugar, too hot, too cold – extreme. Now
the intention has changed, I wish to enjoy my food it comes into the mode of
passion when you eat foods in the mode of passion this inflames the material
desires sends the mind into a spin I want this I need this I have to do that,
so the person becomes agitated and then the bhagavad-gita says there are foods
in the mode of ignorance these are dry food
these are stale putrefied foods intoxicating foods and all the non
vegetarian foods, when we take this it increases our anger, the inclination to
violence, laziness, imbalance the darkness that envelopes our soul. So the
bhagavad-gita and the Scriptures tell us look this is the consequence of what you
eat now you choose but remember whatever “Aahara Suddhau Sattva Shuddhi” [CHANDOGYA UPANISHAD 7.26.2]
whatever you eat will have a consequence upon the mind and the body,
that’s the proper way of doing it isn’t it! Now interestingly many people are
unaware but the early Christians were vegetarians the history of Christianity
informs us that the early Christians were vegetarians. When Christianity first
spread into the Roman Empire if a Christian was caught they would take meat
and push it down their throat just to annoy them however when it got adopted
as the official religion of the Roman Empire and that time meat-eating became
allowed by the law. Yet noble thinkers even in the Western world have naturally
gravitated to vegetarianism the age of enlightenment philosophers in America
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau they were vegetarians, Benjamin Franklin
was a vegetarian, George Bernard Shaw Bertrand Russell, Leonardo da Vinci whose
IQ was estimated at 230 one of the highest ever they were all vegetarians. The early
Buddhist the primary teaching of the Buddha was vegetarianism, right! Now you don’t find too many Buddhists following it but
that is the pure teaching’s of their scriptures, so Hinduism is not the only
scripture or only religious tradition that talks about vegetarianism it has
been practiced around the world and slowly slowly the Western world is also
coming to this realization that Wow vegetarianism is such a boon and they
are linking it to good health. It’s a medical fact that meat eaters have a 200%
chance of catching cancer compared to non meat-eaters and why is
that meat putrefy so rapidly so it needs to be expelled quickly that is why the
carnivores animals have very small intestines. It comes in and quickly it
goes out. The human intestines are ten times the body length
when meat remains in the system for so long it causes disease. This human body
was made herbivorous it was not made carnivorous if you see our teeth
structure we got molars all the way for grinding, the carnivores they’ve got
incision teeth you know for cutting the flesh they don’t have molars and humans
have got molars all the way the carnivores only do linear motion of
their jaws and the herbivorous they can do bi-directional and grind their food
so if you see biologically as well we humans were made to be herbivores
nevertheless the Vedas say that it is a choice that you make based upon what
your goals and aspirations are.