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Vedic diet ( was Re: Hindu diet: Someone please explain
Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <rbalasub@ecn.purdue.edu> wrote:
>Non-stimulating food means food which is not excessively hot, sour, sweet etc.
>People have classified meat, eggs, spicy hot, very sour foods, onions etc as
>Rajasic.
Lord Krishna has classified meat and eggs as tamaasic:
yaata-yaamam' gata-rasam'
puuti paryuSitam' ca yat
ucchiSTam api caamedhyam'
bhojanam taamasa-priyam
"Food prepared mored than three hours before being eaten, food that is tasteless, decomposed and putrid, and food consisting of remn=
ants and untouchable things is dear to those in the mode of darkness." (Gita 17.10)
>Vegetarianism was not considered an absolute must, atleast in the Rigveda and
>Puranas.
That is incorrect. In the Vedas, animal sacrifices are prescribed for meat eaters to force them to *regulate* the meat eating habit.=
These sacrifices require that the animal be sacrificed by the person who wants to eat it, that it be sacrificed only on full moon n=
ights, that the sacrifice take place away from civilized areas, and that the meat-eater chants a mantra which confirms that in his n=
ext life the animal and he will switch places and he will be killed for food.
> Even in the Ramayana, Rama is described as eating meat. In fact most
I have previously challenged people who made such claims to back it up with evidence, but frankly no one did. The Lord does not part=
ake of meat according to scriptural tradition. I did once see reference to Rama eating meat in the forest in an *unauthorized* inter=
pretation of the Ramayanam, but even that one showed that He only did it for *survival.*
Meat eating for survival (i.e. - if you are stranded on a desert isle with no vegetables) is one thing. But meat eating for sense pl=
easure is sinful, as confirmed in Gita 3.13, the Mahabharata, and the Manu-Samhita. Please do not take verses out of context to supp=
ort your material desires. Meat eating is wrong. It's unhealthy, immoral, and inhumane. You don't have to be religious to realize th=
at; I know many atheists who have enough compassion to spare our friends in the animal kingdom.
yours,
-- HKS
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