I am quite numb when asked by my friends, peers, relatives and inner circle acquaintances on this subject. However, this was not so a few decades ago. I would be quite flabbergasted when anyone asked this question.
It took me some years before I was able to give an answer to these people to my satisfaction, not theirs and in that process happy to articulate my choice of diet with jolly good sentiment.
I will not tire of giving them answers whenever they asked me,"Why I am a vegetarian?", again and again now!
Sometimes even your "part-time" vegetarian friends may find it difficult to understand your full-time choice to abstain animal, birds, fish tissues; completely removed from daily diet for lifelong. No regret about that either.
I don't preach to others to be a vegetarian following in my footsteps with an understanding that it is a personal choice, nobody to be forced to be one.
Religious reason or personal choice?
Don't you feel the crave seeing others eating all those non-vegetarian stuffs, right in front of you?
Wow! Almost 30 years without eating meat? How do you survive without getting enough protein in you diet?
Don't you get enough nutrition by only eating vegetables and plants?
You are missing so much of good food offered by the God, my friend!
Plants too are living species, then why did you say it's OK to eat plant but not meat?
These are typical questions I was frequently asked. I could visualize these questions being formed in the minds of my curious friends and strangers I meet whenever diet topic takes center stage.
To my fellow vegetarian friends, whether you are vegan or lacto-ovo, don't worry. We're normal people who just eat slightly different from other people.
There could be three main reasons why be a vegetarian: spiritual reason, health reason and or combination of both reasons. My choice is largely spiritual reason and partly due to health motivation.
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WARNING NOTE: EXPLICIT GORY DESCRIPTION, MAY NOT SUITABLE TO SOME READERS.
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It was quite common in those days, during my younger years, the boys were taught to slaughter fowl/rooster for meals. I despise this one task and will avoid at any cost to kill a living creature. I had seen on a number of occasions how this was done by mum and dad. Seeing the oozing blood would send shivers into my spine. I would sprint out of the kitchen, screaming all the way till they come and comfort me.
On one fateful day, D-Day. Mum forced me to "do it". Sharp knife was given to me and she showed the right position to hold that knife, right across the bare skin of rooster's neck where patch of feathers had been removed. My heart pounded hard. I grimaced, but mum doesn't seem perturbed at all.
Her command was clear,"Just use your hand and apply pressure while cutting. Don't feel, jut do it at one go."
I felt cornered and helpless. My palm sweats profusely. Fingers trembles as I looked at the pair of eyes of the rooster. I thought if the rooster had a voice and able to talk, it would be screaming in full of fear to die in a horrible way.
"Have mercy on me, you animals." I felt the poor guy's feeling! I thought I should run as fast as I could, escaping this ordeal, but mum had another plan. She stood right behind me this time around, leaving me no room to bolt away!
She showed me to the way to hold the roosters legs with feet and placing a bowl (glass or silver) to collect fresh blood once the "slaughter process begins.
I use to wonder how awful it must be to be a "killer" of an innocent creature whenever mum or dad do it. I knew only the "wonderful chicken curry" taste mum cooked for us, but then I was not involved in the butchery act. No qualms when it was not done by me.
Oh my gosh, it's me now! When I pressed the knife and pulled it forward, I could feel the shearing of the outer skin of the rooster and knife's blade entering the flesh. Its like cutting my finger with a razor blade. I felt it! The pain travelled to my body, and I sensed the warm blood dripping slowly into the bowl beneath.
Mum encouraged me to go faster with movement of the knife till the end of the other side of the neck. That's it, I could not take it anymore. I threw the knife away, leaving the rooster with open slithered neck on the ground gasping for air, moving violently. Blood was all over the ground and on my hands as well. I ran as fast as I could, screaming to my mum not to asked me to do it again.
My first and last experience, and from that day onwards, mum and dad never asked me this action ever again. I realized at that tender age that the animals have feeling of pain too.
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It took me many months to recover from that ordeal. though I do consume meat for few more years. The craving to eat meat had diminished slowly and by that age of 17, I started to go meatless and become a vegetarian the following year.
It's not worth to kill and consume animals meats to fatten our own flesh. Every living thing in this world has its right to live an die a natural cause. To cause and inflict pain is not dharmic way of living, I learned from the books of Sanathana Dharma. In Hinduism, Ahimsa, the Sanskrit word meaning non- violent is the highest virtue. Thou shall not kill except in a certain condition, like self-protection, harming creatures that come our way and etc.
Killing with intention is a major transgression in all the Dharmic based religions of the world. Spiritual maturity comes when we learn to be human enough to include all the living creatures a part of God's manifestation. We have to protect their rights to live as we do.
We may not be involved in the killing process when consuming meat but when there are supply and demand cycle, we become part of that chain process to trigger more killings in the name of taste desire fulfillment. We participate in this endless horrific act of killing.
Knowing that it was not easy to let go meat eating, I am not against meat eaters or promote vegetarian way of life because this involve heart and sensitivity of individual who makes the choice.
Its a must for those who are on the spiritual path but it was not forced to be one.
I am proud to be a vegetarian and have no regrets about it at all. I made a wise choice to respect the rights of all living species to live.
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Now, fast-forward the continuation of the above story, few years back from now, about 10 years ago. I had a severe throat infection. The chronic cough caused such a strain to my vocal cord as well as blocking of the breathing passageway, bronchial tube. I had a sudden stoppage of breathing when the airway cavity to lung spasmed. I felt a painful strangulation pressure. I could hardly breath and my only thought at that moment was I am going to die!
Quickly recalled, first aid procedure for this type of cases, I coughed hard enough to release the pressure, and within a minute, breathing was back to normal. Air rushed into my lungs and brain rejuvenated with oxygen. Death was moment away but not meant to be.
I recalled the day I slithered the rooster's neck and felt how it endured the pain before it died. I saw the fear and anguish recoiling into its flesh and spirit of the dead animal. I felt the same effect and trauma when death was mere seconds away. Law of cause and effect returns to teach me a lesson I will not forget for millions of births to come!
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Let me share verses from Tirukkural ( Weavers Wisdom, published by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami) which was written by great saint, Thiruvalluvar thousands of years ago, Mahabharata and quotes from Saints and Sages relating to vegetarianism.
Abstaining From Eating Meat
(Weavers Wisdom)
"How can He practice true compassion who eats the flesh of an animal to fatten his own flesh? Kural 251
"Riches cannot be found in the hands of the thriftless, nor can compassion be found in the heart of those who eat meat." Kural 251
"He who feast on creature's flesh is like he who wields a weapon. Goodness is never one with the minds of these two" Kural 253
"If you ask,"What is kindness and what is unkindness?" It is not-killing and killing. Thus eating flesh is never virtuous" Kural 254
"Life is perpetuated by not eating meat. The jaws of Hell close to those who do" Kural 255
"If the world did not purchase and consume meat, no one will slaughter and offer meat for sale" Kural 256
"When a man realizes that meat is the butchered flesh of another creature, he will abstain from eating it." Kural 257
"Insightful souls who have abandoned the passion to hurt others will not feed on the flesh that life has abandoned." Kural 258
"Greater than a thousand ghees offerings consumed in the sacrificial fire is to not sacrifice and consume any living creature." Kural 259
"All life will press palms together in prayerful adoration of those who refuse to slaughter or savor meat." Kural 260
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The “Mahabharata” states:
"The purchaser of flesh performs himsa by his wealth; he who eats flesh does so by enjoying its taste the killer does himsa by actually tying and killing the animal. Thus, there are three forms of killing. He who brings flesh or sends for it, he who cuts off the limbs of an animal, and he who purchases, sells, or cooks flesh and eats it-all of these are to be considered meat-eaters." ~ Mahabharata(115:40)
Swami Dayananda in his " The values of the values", connect himsa (opposite of ahimsa) to "treat others as you would like to be treated."
Ahimsa and vegetarianism are linked: we should not think of "somebody" being our dinner if we don't want to be somebody's else dinner
Satguru Sivaya Subraminiyaswami," Man's appetite for meat inflicts devastating harm on the earth itself, stripping its precious forests to make way for pastures"
