Are Non Vegetarians violent?
By vishwa on General
January 22, 2013
An often heard argument is that meat eaters are aggressive. Spiritual texts talk about practicing vegetarianism for spiritual progress—“satvic.” Non-vegetarian food is a hindrance for spiritual growth—“rajasik and tamasik.”
Satvic: essence(subtle), purity
Rajas: Activity, passion
Tamas: Inertia(gross), dull
However, my question is how many of you are imbibing ethical and noble (Satva) qualities to progress spiritually from the food you eat? Isn’t it also necessary to develop moral qualities by every other means?
On the contrary, the greatest genocide ever to be carried out was by Adolf Hitler—a vegetarian. Mother Teresa, one of the greatest saints was a non-vegetarian. When Swami Vivekananda was asked by a disciple that does not fish and meat increase Rajas in man, Swami says, “That is what I want you to have. More than ninety per cent of those whom you now take to be men with Sattva quality are only steeped in the deepest Tamas. What we want now is an immense awakening of Rajasika energy, for the whole country is wrapped in the shroud of Tamas. The people of this land must be fed and clothed–must be awakened—must be made more fully active. Otherwise they will become inert, as inert as tress and stones. So, I say eat large quantities of fish and meat, my boy.”
Brandishing non-vegetarians as violent is unjustified. Whether you eat meat or not you can be a demon or an angel. You can be a hero at times and vulnerable at times. You have the ability to reason and judge between the right and wrong. Whatsoever beware, for as John Updike says, “The mask eats the face.” You don’t want that to happen.
I don’t believe a piece of meat defines a non-vegetarian.
4 thoughts on “Are Non Vegetarians violent?”
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Hmm…. If I’m not mistaken the scriptures encourage you to eat satvic food while not mentioning if its vegetarian or non-veg. Food consumed should be “Rasa, snigdha, sthira, hrudhya” for saatvik as per Gita chapter 17.8
I feel the way a food is consumed is equally important. Even vegetarian food taken very spicy, oily, pungent will cause more of Rajasik and Tamasik gunas within you. While you can say that meat eaten well cooked with very little spice is Sattvik enough.
Going further some analysts say, any animal, when it knows its going to die, secretes a lot of enzymes due to struggle or fear. Thus the meat within the body does carry the vibration possessed by the animal. These subtle vibrations permeates to the consumer.
This is a highly debatable subject and one cannot justify either way.
Tamasa as a guna is not just about being lazy – its indulgent and pervert too.
Vivekananda did say another important thing – If vegetarianism leads to enlightenment then you should see many cows, sheep goats enlightened. Food is one of the means an not the only means to attain enlightenment 🙂
Hence I feel you are what you are violent or otherwise. Food may just add to it.
Anand, I know that this is a debatable topic. Nevertheless, I agree with your opinion. Thanks for sharing the information.
Not eating meat out of kindness towards animals is a virtue, a Nobel quality. Like us, when animals loose their loved ones get depressed, perhaps more depressed than humans since they cannot divert their attention towards artificial materials to forget their loss and suffering, so why detach an animal from its loved ones, The dead suffer once and the loved ones as long as they remember the loss, so it is better to stick to Vegetarianism. Being helpful to humans might get you attention, being as fair as possible to all things and living beings will gain you freedom from unconscious wickedness and guilt.
Hitler was non vegetarian through his life except during the end of his life for health reasons (from Wikipedia).
We can say Vivekananda is the black spot who if carefully observed was purely overrated just like many other Bengalis:- Subhas bose, Satyajit ray, sourav ganguly, name any, etc… [a debate needed to prove this point]>>> No doubt your article is propaganda bullshit simply because you eat meat and fish:)