For Hindus: Why is it forbidden to eat beef for hindus?

Question

WILL YOU PLEASE GIVE SCRIPTURAL QUOTES WHICH SAY SO

I have to telll someone, but i dont know which book tells so thanks and jai mata ki

I INVITED HINDUS TO REPLY NOT THE HATEFUL FANATIC RELIGION'S PEOPLE

Capt edib: i never said meat is banned in hinduism. I was my self non-veg till 2002. I am talking of beef eating

Jayaramanji can you please add to the spiritual text given by aum, the text saying beef is forbidden (beef not other meats),

Answer 1

Hindu dietary laws are not, properly speaking, a part of religion, and there is nothing in Vedanta philosophy that favors one kind of food over another. Hindu social custom, however, has banned beef for centuries, considering the cow a pet animal more useful alive than dead. Just as most Americans would consider eating their pet dogs a horrible idea, even though dogs are perfectly edible as some east asian culture know, most Hindus raised in a traditional way in India consider eating beef a horrible idea.

In Vedic times Hindus did eat beef. It was considered mandatory for kings to serve beef to their most honored guests. Beef eating was also thought to stimulate sexual passion, so eating beef was advised for those wishing to conceive children.

Non-ethnic Hindus, or Hindus by choice, often retain the dietary customs of their home country, so many American Hindus eat beef as their parents did before them. As a parent you might consider how other ethnic Hindus might view beef eating on the part of your children, but you do not lose your religion by eating or not eating any given food. You and your children would likely be banned from entering some orthodox Vaishnava temples if it were known to the priests that you eat meat of any kind, what to speak of beef.

Swami Vivekananda criticized Hindus for what he called "kitchen religion," obsessive concern with what to eat and not to eat and with whom and in what setting. Real religion is about realizing God/Self through meditation, prayer, worship, reason, and dedicated action. If eating beef gives you the energy to do spiritual practice, more power to you.

There are many temples for Cows and Bulls in India, as the bull is a revered mythological vehicle of Divine Lord Shiva. There are many famous temples with Cows, and Bulls(called Nandi, etc) as deities. LORD KRISHNA was a cow herd in the stories about Krishna.They are:
http://www.cultural-heritage-india.com/temples-in-india/brihadisvara-temple.html
http://hinduism.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.templenet.com/Karnataka/nandnand.html

Bull Temples
Nandi Bull, the vehicle of Lord Shiva is considered the symbol of respect for all male cattle. The Nandi Bull holy site at Madurai and the Shiva temple at Mahabalipuram are the most venerated bovine shrines. Even non-Hindus are allowed to enter the the 16th century Bull Temple in Bangalore. The Vishwanath Temple of Jhansi, believed to have been built in 1002, also has a large statue of the Nandi Bull.

History
---------
The cow was venerated as the mother goddess in the early Mediterranean civilizations. The cow became important in India, first in the Vedic period (1500 - 900 BCE), but only as a symbol of wealth. For the Vedic man cows were 'the "real life" substratum of the goods of life', writes JC Heesterman in The Encyclopedia Of Religion, vol. 5.

Symbol of Sacrifice
---------------------------
Cows form the core of religious sacrifices, for without ghee or butter, which is produced from cow's milk, no sacrifice can be performed.

In the Mahabharata, we have Bhishma saying: "Cows represent sacrifice. Without them, there can be no sacrifice…Cows are guileless in their behaviour and from them flow sacrifices…and milk and curds and butter. Hence cows are sacred..."

ANOTHER MAIN REASON:
--------------------------------------
Bhishma also observes that the cow acts as a surrogate mother by providing milk to human beings for the whole life. So the cow is truly the mother of the world.

Answer 2

I cant quote any scriptures because I have not read any in detail. I feel that the rule has more to do with practical aspects of life and environment rather than anything strictly religious. See, apart from fruits, vegetables and cereals, the last thing available to vegetarians is milk and milk products. Since the Hindu way of life and philosphy is in favour of vegetarianism, killing and eating any animal for food is bad. It is another matter that our religion is now so corrupt due to bad people like unscrupulous priests and ignorant followers, that animal sacrifice has come to be a part of rituals in so many places. But originally we were not sacrificing animals to please any God. When our religion says that God is present in all forms of life, how can killing one advanced form of life be sanctified by our religion.

Secondly, milk is a very important source of wholesome food and since cow is the source cow was given the status of mother. Just as mother's milk gives us life, similarly cow's milk gives us life. So killing cow or our mother was banned. To enforce that ban eating cow meat i.e. beef was made taboo.

Answer 3

Hinduism does not forbid the flesh of animal ,poultry or Fish to be eaten as food.In fact it is encouraged to offer animals in
sacrifice to satisfy their gods.The hindus of India have very little knowledge of their scriptures .The concept of God in the vedas and other religious books is completely different from the practices of the hindus,Idol worship and worshiping god in the form of animals and created things is forbidden in Hinduism and goes against the teachings of the vedas.
The Hindus have begun following the concepts of Jainism that
forbids any flesh to be eaten.The Manusmiti is the law book of
the Hindus which clearly states that some animals ate made
to eat and some to be eaten and the eater of the flesh does
not do anything wrong if he eats the flesh of animals to be
eaten.

Answer 4

Hindu should not eat beef because we consider cow as our own mother. Rishis since vedic periods never ate beef.
What you eat so what you will be is mentioned in the Hindu Scriptures.

If one is so much bothered about if beef eating is forbidden for Hindus then there are so many things mentioned about what to do or not to do in the scriptures. Why not go for this also.

Don't look for the scriptures as an excuse for eating beef.

There are many Hindus who would love to say that Rishis ate beef etc .There will be many to mis interpretate the Hinduism asking for the proofs of the existence of Hindu Gods/esses.
It does not matter to the Gods if any egoistic persons want to misinterpretate. If any hindus ate in the past then that must been a low caste person.

I have to say to them do not worry. In next birth Shree Krishna will make you take birth in that family in where their religion allows them to eat beef. So they can eat beef whole time in their next life.

Any Hindus who eat beef knowingly is not a Hindu. He / She will have to purify oneself.
Iam a mordern female but I believe in Hinduism.
I want to say that if you do not have knowledge about one's religion then you are just a living death person.
Some Hindus are expert in mocking in their own religion. This is all what they know about religion.

This is the reason why Shree Krishna protected Cows to give us the meaning that cows are to be treated as our mother.

This is the living proof for the Hindus.

Answer 5

Cow is an animal created for the needs of man not to worship it.
Firstly we should not be cruel to animals.
But the purpose of its creation is to fulfill the needs of man through milk,flesh and other usages.
IF for instance when a cow is brought by means of buying and selling for what purpose, obusively not for worshipping, she will provide milk-butter-ghee, if it does not then you will keep it, no because u r not gaining any thing.
if it is a mother than if she gives no milk u will sell it and re sell it and lastly it goes to slaughter house.
If we do not eat it will multiply and we do not have enough fodder.
IN cow shelters, when she dies they are skinned for there skin.
Many points are there how can a man buy-sell-resell last to slaughter house his mother.
IF a cow dies on the road or if hitted by a vehicle, how many the so called hindus stop and do treatments or bury them.

Answer 6

The cow is a sacred anmal according to the Hindus .not only that . any living being is nt to be killed as the soul of eerybeing is god .but some aming he hindus eat flesh and they do not slaughter the cows .thre is one refernce to the ow in the Bhagavad -gita .It is specifically about the the wish-ganting cow ( Kamadhenu)But still kamadhenu is a cow , the cows ae generally considerd to e sacred.
Krsin=hna says :
I am the thunderolt among weapons,
among cattle , the magical wish-grnting cow ;
I am the procreatie god of love ,
the king of the snakes "...vrse 28of the 19Th teaching .
Ther must be other references in the other scriptures like the Rig veda or others .too.people having a knowledge abot hem might quote it ,

Answer 7

In down south we have a custom of bringing in a Cow inside the newly build house immediately after the pooja before the house owner occupies the house. it is said that once a cow enters the house the house is blessed by dhevas. In many ways we feel cow is a sacred animal and this should be the reason. I will check if i can provide you with any proof or quote.

Answer 8

For Hindus, cows are considered as mother and no one can eat own mothers flesh. This is simple reason for not eating beef.
As a matter of fct, it is simple belief only. If one believes in Hinduism, one should believe in this too and should refrain from eating all non-veg food in general and beef in particular.

Answer 9

with no hate to anybody I reproduce few SCRIPTURAL QUOTES to establish that beef eating was not prohibited in ancient times.

I would like to tell you that 'cow' slaughter was common in vedic periods.

Paraskar grahasutra says......" samanso madhupark ityaminyaya bahumanya mana shrotriyabhyagtaya vatsari mahokshan mahajan da nirvapanti grehmeghin , tahin dharmasutrakara samamnanti ."
.....meaning thereby that 'Madhupark' should be served with meat.

As per 'Apastamb'..." Samwatsaran GAVYEN preeti, bhuyansmato mahishen, eten gramyaranyana PASHUNA MANS medhyavyakhyatam. khadgopastarane khadagmansenanantya kalam tatha shatbalemartsayasya mansen vadhrinasasya cha.."[ AA.DHA. sutra 2/7, 16/25 & 2/7/17/3]

Meaning thereby that by serving 'COW MEAT' during 'SHRADH' the 'pitras' get satisfied for one year.

'Manu' has stated........." Niyuktastu yathanyaya yo mans nati manava sa pretya pashunta yaati. sambhavanekvishantim.."

i.e. one who doesnt eat the meat served during madhupark and shradh, remains an animal for 21 births.

There are plenty of evidences which suggest that animal meat was very popular during vedic period.

Plz read Vishnudharmotterpuran, Kurmapuran, Mhabharata, Meghdoot of Kalidasa ,branardiya etc etc.... for reference.

Plz note that this should in no way be construed as disgracing the great Vedas. I just quoted them to show you that meat eating was very much prevalent in ancient times.

Moreover why should it be banned .


Scientifically both plants and animals are having one basic unit common i.e. cell.

It contents are remarkably common except few like chlorophyl, centrosome, plastids, vacuoles etc.These cell constitute the whole body of an animal or a plant.

Now basic difference being its unability to create sound [ cry ] when broken /eaten /plucked, a plant or vegitable, can not make it eatable ethically and logically.

People eat vegitables just becoz they dont scream or cry. People drink milk which was actually meant for the calf and not for any other purpose. Where is their ethics ?


There may be a reason that blood of the killed animal makes them to have a guilty feeling, which is red and like ours becoz of hoemoglobin. But then the blood of plants, incidently not red, is as important as red blood.

We love to kill kockroaches just becoz they don't have red blood.


The canines are the teeth which are not found in Herbivorous
animals. The fact that canines are present in humen beings make it clear that humen are Omnivorous as the God meant us to be.

However for health point of view one should prefer vegitables
though there are some protiens which can only be found in meat.

Hope you are satisfied.

Answer 10

It is not forbidden to eat beef for us hindus but forbidden to kill any animal and its forbidden to kill cows cause the supreme lord when he came to earth 5000 years ago he was a son of milkmaid and a lot of stuff