Hindu faith question?

Question

I have a lot of hindu friends, and know mos of them are vegetarians or vegans. Some eat all emat except beef, rather discreetly. I am going to entertain some hindu guests and was goig to make a vegetarian entree, but then thought of this:

I understand cows are sacred so no beef; but why no chicken or other meats, and why no eggs?

Answer 1

Because they used to be living creatures, and Hindus believe in reincarnation. So odds are, you might be eating someone's relative, or even your own. Which is bad karma, which means that when you die, you'll be reincarnated at a lower level.

Answer 2

Well, I dunno where you are located but I live in India. I'm a Hindu but I never ate meat. Its like eating any kind of meat was against some old family tradition or something in family. Now with the current generation, my cousins all eat meat but I cannot. Its no more a religious thing but rather a matter of choice. I can't imagine myself eating a slaughtered animal, that's all.

Then again, I know something like 20-25 people in my circle, Hindus (including Brahmins) who would heartily eat any kind of meat, beef included.

So like I said, a lot will depend on where you are from, what kind of society are you asking from and all that.

Answer 3

This is wrong to say that hindus dont eat meat.

Beef is religiously banned for hindus but other meats not. Meat is not eaten by Brahmins the higher castes (hypothetically)

Most of the hindus eat meat, be it chicken, pork, fish or eggs.

So you can make all non-veg dishes..but dont forget to keep them on different table,and dont use same spoons etc. for veg & non-veg dishes.

Answer 4

Hinduism does not ban anything. Only there is no encouragement of practices that cause suffering to any living being.

We need to see the spiritual nature, divinity within all living beings, and that includes the animals and other creatures as well. Universal brotherhood means nonviolence to both humans and animals. We should all understand that animals also have souls. They are alive, conscious, and feel pain. And these are the indications of the presence of consciousness, which is the symptom of the soul. Those who eat meat, however, because of their desires to eat animals or see them as a source of food for one's stomach, are not so easily able to understand the spiritual nature of all beings. If one realizes that all living entities are spiritual in essence, and that all living beings that are conscious show the symptoms of the soul within, then I don't think that any person would kill them unnecessarily. Any living creature is a part of the same Supreme Being. I think that the killing of animals shows nothing but a great lack in spiritual awareness. To be kind and spiritual toward humans and be a killer or enemy toward
animals is not a balanced philosophy, and exhibits one's spiritual
ignorance.

Animals go through unimaginable amount of fear and suffering in the slaughter industry. There are countless stories of how in fear cows cry, scream, and sometimes fall down dead while inside or even before they are taken into the slaughter house. Or how the veins of dead pigs are so big that it shows they have practically exploded from the fear the pig felt and the adrenalin that was produced while it was being led to slaughter. This certainly causes an immense amount of violence to permeate the atmosphere, which goes out and falls back on us in some form. The adrenalin and fear in the animal also produces toxins which then permeate the body of these animals, which meat-eaters
ingest. People who consume such things cannot help but be effected by it. It causes tensions within them individually, which then spreads in their relations with others.

All the religious scriptures of the world, including manu samhita,
bhagavad gita, bible, talmud, Sutta-Nipata, Mahaparinirvana Sutra, prohibit and discourage eating meat. St. Basil taught,"The steam of meat darkens the light of the spirit. One can hardly have virtue if one enjoys meat meals and feasts."We should find alternatives to killing animals to satisfy our appetites, especially when there are plenty of other healthy foods available. We cannot expect peace in the world if we go on unnecessarily killing so many millions of animals for meat consumption or through abuse.

A famous law states that: for every action, there must be an equal and opposite reaction. This basically is the law of Karma. What goes around, comes around. This affects each and every individual. As you sow, so shall you reap. If so much violence is produced by the killing of animals, where do you think the reactions to this violence goes? It comes back to us in so many ways, such as the form of neighborhood and community crime, and on up to world wars. Violence breeds violence. Therefore, this will continue unless we know how to change.

Isaac Bashevis Singer, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature, asked, "How can we pray to God for mercy if we ourselves have no mercy? How can we speak of rights and justice if we take an innocent creature and shed its blood?" He went on to say, "I personally believe that as long as human beings will go shedding the blood of animals, there will never be any peace."

In quite an old issue of L'Osservatore della Domenica, the Vatican weekly newspaper,(1966) Ferdinando Lambruschini wrote: "Man's conduct with regard to animals should be regulated by right reason, which prohibits the infliction of purposeless pain and suffering on them. To ill treat them, and make them suffer without reason, is an act of deplorable cruelty to be condemned from a Christian point of view. To make them suffer for one's own pleasure is an exhibition of sadism which every moralist must denounce." Eating animals for the pleasure of one's tongue when there are plenty of other foods available certainly fits into this form of sadism. It stands to reason that this is counterproductive to any peace and unity or spiritual progress we wish to make. It is one of the things we need to consider seriously if we want to improve ourselves or the world. So here were a few reasons
why a genuinely spiritual person will choose to be vegetarian.

Following are quotes from famous personalities about Non Veg /
Vegetarianism

Mahatma Gandhi said "I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants."
"It is necessary to correct the error that vegetarianism has made us weak in mind, or passive or inert in action. I do not regard
flesh-food as necessary at any stage"

Albert Einstein said, "It is my view that the vegetarian manner of
living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind."

Pythagoras says, "As long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seeds of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love."

George Bernard Shaw said, "When a man wants to murder a tiger, he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him, he calls it ferocity."

The Dalai Lama says "I do not see any reason why animals should be slaughtered to serve as human diet when there are so many substitutes. After all, man can live without meat..."

Alexander Pope said, "How do we know that we have a right to kill
creatures that we are so little above, as dogs, for our curiosity or
even for some use to us?"

Benjamin Franklin said, "Vegetarianism is a greater progress. From the greater clearness of head and quicker apprehension motivated him to become a vegetarian. Flesh-eating is an unprovoked murder."

Leo Tolstoy, "he be really and seriously seeking to live a good life,
the first thing from which he will abstain will always be the use of
animal food, because ...its use is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to the moral feeling -- killing."

Thomas More, "The Utopians feel that slaughtering our fellow creatures gradually destroys the sense of compassion, which is the finest sentiment of which our human nature is capable."


George Bernard Shaw once said,

We are living graves of murdered beasts
Slaughtered to satisfy our appetites.
We never pause to wonder at our feasts,
If animals like men could possibly have rights.

We pray on Sunday that we may have light,
To guide our footsteps on the paths we tread.
We are sick of war, we do not want to fight,
And we gorge ourselves upon the dead.

Like Carrion Crows we live and feed on meat,
Regardless of the suffering and pain
We cause by doing so, in this we treat,
Defenseless animals for sport or gain -

How can we hope in this world to attain
The peace we say we are so anxious for,
We pray for it o'er hetacomba of slain,
To God while outraging the moral law,
Thus cruelty begets the offspring --- WAR !