Are humans supposed to eat meat?

Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan explains that to practice non-violence, one must exercise great control over the sense of taste that is on the tongue. Those who wish to follow the path of non-violence should not eat meat or eggs.

He also says that one should not get irritated by those who consume meat. It is not our intention to object to the dietary habits of those for whom meat is food. This guidance is meant only for those who have the inner intent to practice non-violence; for them, the right understanding is available here.

Eating two-to-five sensed beings is meat-eating

Consuming any living being with two to five senses is considered non-vegetarianism. When these beings are killed, they experience tras (pain and fear); therefore, they are called traskaya beings. Mussels, conch shells, ants, beetles, caterpillars, chickens, pigs, cows, all of these are traskaya beings. Only five-sensed beings lay eggs and these beings have ear-holes rather than external ears. Therefore, eating eggs involves violence toward five-sensed beings. Using such beings as food is called meat-eating. Some people do not consider fish or eggs as meat; for them, this classification can be helpful.

Secondly, when you go to catch a chicken or its chicks, they run to save their lives. Because they have a desire to live and a fear of dying. But when we cook wheat or rice or cut fruits and vegetables, they do not run away. When animals are harmed, the more suffering they experience, the greater karmic fault of violence is bound. Since all beings from two-sensed to five-sensed experience suffering when killed, violence is inevitably involved when you eat meat.

Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan says that, “First of all, you should not hurt any living being that feels tormented by you; do not torment it. And you can eat wheat, millet, rice; there is no objection to that. They do not feel tormented by you; they prevail in an unconscious state; whereas the small ants and large black ants flee from you. So, you should not kill them. You should not trouble living beings that are mobile, such as the two-sensed oysters and mollusks that live inside conch shells, all the way up to five-sensed living beings.”

Before eating meat, one should go and see the slaughterhouse where animals are killed. Nowadays, its videos are also available on the internet. When a chicken is being slaughtered and its cries are heard, any compassionate human heart feels so much emotion that it becomes unbearable. Seeing how animals are kept, what methods are used to increase their population, and how a hen that does not lay eggs or a cow that does not give milk is slaughtered, after seeing all this, restraint may arise in those who eat meat merely for pleasure or for show.

If seeing the blood when five-sensed animals like chickens, pigs, or cows are slaughtered causes fear, and if watching their suffering creates distress, then that same anguish should be remembered at the time of eating their meat. If one does not have the courage to cut an animal while it is alive, then one should not eat its meat.

Greater fault for the meat-eater than the Butcher

People who eat meat often argue that they themselves do not kill the animals, the butcher does, so how can they be at fault? For such individuals, Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan provides the correct understanding here.

A butcher once came to Param Pujya Dadashri. He had taken Gnan from Param Pujya Dadashri, yet he continued his butcher’s business. Someone asked Param Pujya Dadashri, “What will be the fate of this butcher?” In reply, He revealed the following fact.

Dadashri: But is the status as a butcher wrong? What offense has the butcher committed? You should at least ask the butcher, “Sir, why are you in this kind of a business?” He would reply, “Dear fellow, my forefathers had been doing this and that is why I am doing this. I do it to feed my stomach, to provide for my children.” If you were to ask him, “But do you enjoy this?” Then he would reply, “No, I do not enjoy it.” So, in comparison to the butcher, the person who eats the non-vegetarian food binds more demerit karma. As far as the butcher is concerned, it is just the poor fellow’s occupation.

A greater fault than that of the butcher falls upon the meat-eater, because of whom this work has to be done. Even though so many vegetarian food options are available, those who eat meat for the taste of the tongue or for pleasure carry greater danger.

Here, the butcher has no personal desire for violence, he is compelled by the need to earn money. The meat-eater approves of this violence, and therefore he binds the karmic fault.

Therefore, the greatest result of this violence falls upon the meat-eater. According to the eater’s karmic account, the killer has to kill, therefore the killer ends up incurring a fault. Besides these two, the following also share significant responsibility: those who raise the animals, those who make the weapons used to kill them, those who transport them, those who store the meat in cold storage, those who sell it, those who purchase it, those who cook it, and those who serve it. In short, in meat-eating, guilt is bound by doing the violence, causing it to be done, or supporting it.

Eating meat means enjoying at the cost of another’s suffering

When a person eats meat for personal pleasure, Param Pujya Dadashri has called this a severe form of raudradhyan (adverse internal state of being/meditation that hurts the self and others). Harming another is called raudradhyan. Moreover, harming another and feeling pleased about it is called hard raudradhyan. The result of such raudradhyan done for the sake of eating pleasure is a fall into the lower life-forms.

When the life leaves a chicken (a hen’s chick), only then does its meat become available to eat. Those who wish to practice non-violence should reflect that if someone killed our child for their own pleasure, how much suffering would cause? Would the chick of a chicken not feel the same?

Not only that from a spiritual standpoint, chickens, hens, goats, pigs, and fish are all beings who have either fallen from the human life-form into lower states or who possess the eligibility to attain the human life-form. Therefore, they are very close to the human stage. Killing them causes great harm.

Param Pujya Dadashri explains here what inner harm is caused by eating meat.

Questioner: It is said that by eating non-vegetarian food, one is subject to a life-form in hell.

Dadashri: That point is absolutely true. Furthermore, there are plenty of things to eat. Why are you slaughtering goats? When a chicken is slaughtered and eaten, wouldn’t it feel tortured? Wouldn’t its parents feel tortured? What would happen if someone were to eat your children? Consuming non-vegetarian food is something that has not been thought through. It is nothing but beastliness; it is a state in which things have not been thought through, whereas we are thinkers. By eating non-vegetarian food for a single day, a person’s mind gets destroyed, he becomes like a beast. So if you want to keep your mind virtuous, you must stop eating all non-vegetarian food, including eggs. [Eating] Anything ranging from eggs onwards is all beastliness.

In many households, non-vegetarian food (meat) is not prepared at all. But when such people go to restaurants or parties and see others eating non-veg, their mind becomes tempted. At that time, they should remember that for the taste of a tongue that is only two inches long, a taste that does not even last long, if harm is caused to a living being, how can happiness come to us from that?

For those who enjoy eating, many delicious dishes can be made within vegetarian food. Eating and serving such meals does not involve the great karmic fault that meat-eating carries.

Common beliefs behind meat-eating

Some people say, “We do not eat meat for pleasure. We eat it because the body needs protein and nutrients. What fault is there in that?” Some also say, “God created this world - goats, fish, and other animals were made only for the humans to eat.” Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan provides logical and scientific explanations against all such beliefs.

If meat were truly eaten for gaining strength, then one should know that powerful animals such as elephants, horses, and hippopotamuses are all completely vegetarian. Even if these animals become extremely hungry and meat is placed before them, they will not touch it.

If God had created the animals of this world for humans to eat, then why do people eat only pigs, goats, cows, or chickens? Why don’t humans kill and eat cats, dogs, or tigers? If the world had truly been created for the purpose of eating, then all creatures would have been made equally suitable for consumption. Along with the wheat plant, weeds also grow but we do not eat them.

Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan says that the human body is made not for eating meat, but for vegetarian food. Carnivorous animals have large teeth, with sharp tearing teeth protruding outward, and long curved claws with which they can tear apart their prey. Human teeth and nails are not like that. Secondly, carnivorous animals such as tigers or lions never eat grass in their entire life, and herbivorous animals such as cows, buffaloes, and goats never eat meat in their entire life.

Violent animals such as tigers and lions hunt animals like calves and eat them, they do so to satisfy hunger. They kill and eat only when hunger strikes and the body struggles for food. After a hunt, for many days they do not eat another animal. Only humans, despite having a body designed for vegetarian food, repeatedly eat meat for pleasure.

These days, children from Hindu or Jain families, where meat is traditionally not eaten, have begun eating meat. Giving them the right understanding, Param Pujya Dadashri says that if your parents or grandparents at home did not eat meat, then you should certainly not eat it either. If the mother never ate meat, then the child who drank her milk also should not eat meat. If meat has never entered one’s bloodstream, the body cannot digest it properly. Even if it seems digestible today, in the long run it will eventually cause harm and problems. Therefore for such individuals, avoiding eating meat is best. And even if one cannot quit meat immediately, one should at least keep the intent that “This is wrong, and it would be best if it stopped.”

There is no violence in drinking milk

Milk is also a food that comes from animals. Nowadays, the belief has become widespread that drinking milk involves violence. On this matter, Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan gives us the correct understanding.

Questioner: But nature intended that milk to be for the calves. It is not intended for us.

Dadashri: That point is completely false. That was the case for the wild cows and wild buffaloes, their calves would drink all of their mother’s milk. Whereas in this case, people nourish the cows by feeding them. That way, the calves also get milk and we can all take a share of that milk as well. And this has been the practice since time immemorial. And if a cow is nourished well, then it can produce up to fifteen liters of milk a day. This is because if you feed it well, it will produce more than the normal amount of milk that it requires. That is the way milk should be taken. And ensure that the calf is not starved.

Chakravartis (emperors of six continents) used to keep thousands, two thousand cows. This was called a gaushala. How would an emperor drink milk? From the thousand cows in the gaushala, the milk of one thousand cows would be taken and fed to one hundred cows. The milk of those one hundred cows would then be taken and fed to ten cows. The milk of those ten cows would be taken and fed to one cow. And the emperor would drink the milk of that one cow.

Thus, when milk and milk products are taken in the right measure, without causing distress to the animals, and after allowing the calf to drink first, there is no violence in it. Whether to drink milk or not for digestive reasons is each person’s own choice. But if enough milk is left for the calf and the remaining milk is consumed, it does not carry the kind of violent karmic fault that meat-eating does.

Progress in spirituality gets obstructed by eating meat

Eating meat reduces one’s capacity to grasp spirituality. Param Pujya Dadashri gives clarification on this here.

Questioner: Does eating non-vegetarian food affect one’s spiritual thinking?

Dadashri: Definitely. Non-vegetarian food is heavy, so it does not allow the development of the spiritually-inclined intellect. If one wants to progress spiritually, he should eat light food, the kind that does not give rise to intoxication and allows the awareness to increase.

He further explains the reason behind it, “Vegetarian food creates a comparatively thinner avaran (veil of ignorance over the Knowledge of the Self). So, vegetarians can understand this Gnan; they can see everything as it is; whereas, non-vegetarians have a thicker avaran.”

In meat-eating, the fault of killing living beings is certainly incurred, but an even greater harm occurs within, due to the veils forming over one’s own Soul. Because of this veil, obstacles arise in understanding subtle spiritual knowledge. Those who are vegetarian have greater grasping power, so they understand matters of worldly interaction or spirituality more quickly.

In this world, larger and stronger beings eat smaller and weaker beings, and those smaller beings eat even smaller ones. In this way, the entire food chain of the world continues. There is no crime in the violence that occurs among animals themselves. But only when one is born as a human being, it is beneficial to maintain discretion in one’s food.

Less fault in vegetarian food

A human being cannot live without taking food. And in this world, one cannot eat something that is completely lifeless. We take food that contains life, and from it the body receives nourishment. Therefore, humans are permitted to use one-sensed beings such as plants, fruits, flowers, and vegetables as food, because one-sensed beings do not have blood, marrow, or flesh.

Param Pujya Dadashri says that one should never eat meat or eggs. While showing the means of non-violence, He also says that, “What is the best food to eat? That which is composed of one-sensed living beings! Those who want to attain moksha do not have the right to eat food that is composed of living beings that have two or more senses. So, you should not incur the liability of [eating] living beings that have two or more senses. This is because the merit karma that is needed by a person is dependent upon the number of senses a living being [he consumes] has, that much merit karma of the person gets used up!”