“VEG OR NON-VEG : "TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT !”

 

Food at a subtle level, it too is made up  of the sattva, rajas  and tamas  components. The proportions of these subtle components vary depending on the type of food. Sattva stands for purity and knowledge while tama denotes ignorance and inertia.  Anything that has a higher sattva component assists our spiritual journey and anything that is tama predominant has a tendency to diminish or obstruct our spiritual practice.

Vegetarian food has more sattvic qualities than Non-vegetarian food while Non-vegetarian food has more Tamasic qualities than Vegetarian food.

Question : Plants are also having life, so killing plants should also be a sin. Why is veg food better than non-veg in terms of killing or committing "sin"?

It is true that plants also have "life" and killing plants is also sin. So the best way to observe total non-violence is to take only those fruits which have naturally fallen from the trees or plants. In this way we are doing harm to no one. But everyone can not follow that vow. We have to take food in order to survive and sustain this body. It is a necessity of survival. But we need to take that path which is less sinful and does less harm to other jivas (living entities).

 

Now there are two reasons to say that vegetarian food is having insignificant sin. Many of the plants like rice, wheat, etc., are having life only for one crop time. Once their yield is over, they die naturally, even if we don't cut them. So by cutting those plants (which have already died) we are doing less sin or no sin at all. In many other plants, like mango, coconut, etc., by plucking the fruit, we are not killing the plants, and so we are doing very minimal sin or no sin at all. So vegetarian food is less sinful. More over, it is inevitable for our survival, but non-vegetarian food is a luxury to us and we can survive even if we avoid that.

Question : Don’t plants also experience pain when killed?

Yes, plants too experience pain when killed or parts of it are severed. The comprehension of pain however is less than animals. This is because the mind and intellect of a plant is rudimentary as compared to animals. However if a fruit or vegetable is plucked when it is fully ripe or has fallen from a tree there is relatively no pain to the plant.

PLEASE STOP BEING THE REASON FOR SOMEBODY GETTING KILLED OR STOP CALLING YOURSELF AS  HUMAN .