ANNA YOGA – VEGETARIANISM
A ‘vegetarian’ is a person who believes in and practices vegetarianism. ‘Vegetarianism’ is the theory and practice of living on a vegetarian diet. ‘Veganism’ is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products. In common parlance, vegetarianism encompasses the practice of following plant-based diets, fruits, and vegetables, with or without the inclusion of dairy products or eggs. Semi-vegetarian diets consist largely of vegetarian foods but may include fish or poultry.
In Hinduism, vegetarianism is more a way of life and a deep-rooted tradition. It is realized as a daily ‘sadhana’ or spiritual practice. However, it is not a mandatory sanction. It appears that there is a compromise in Manusmriti 5.56: ‘There is no sin in eating meat….but abstention brings great rewards.’ Hinduism has never practiced compulsion. Thus, the mode of food is an individual preference based on one’s knowledge and spiritual orientation. The Upanishads provide that food is vital and considered to be part of God or Brahman.
Taittiriya Upanishad II-i-1: The knower of Brahman attains the highest. Here is a verse uttering that very fact: “Brahman is truth, knowledge, and infinite. He who knows that Brahman as existing in the intellect, lodged in the supreme space in the heart, enjoys, as identified with the all-knowing Brahman, all desirable things simultaneously……..From that Brahman, which is the Self, was produced space. From space emerged air. From air was born fire. From fire was created water. From water sprang up the earth. From earth were born the herbs. From the herbs was producing food. From food was born a man. That man, such as he is, is a product of the essence of food. Of him this indeed is the head, this is the southern side; this is the northern side; this is the Self; this is the stabilizing tail”.
Vegetarianism is propagated by the Yajurveda and is highly recommended for a sattvic or purifying lifestyle. It has been a dominant principle of heath and spiritualism among Hindus. Despite foreign intrusion that undermined this ideal, it still remains a cardinal ethic of Hindu thoughts and practice. Principles of ‘bhojana’ or that which is enjoyed’ can be traced back to Hindu Dharmasastras. The Dharmasastras is a branch of learning pertaining to Hindu dharma, religious and legal duty. Appearing to be linked with the law and rules, it is slanted towards religious life. In general, it summates Hindu knowledge about religion, law and ethics. All Dharmasastras derive their authority from the Vedas. They are basically divided into three major topics: (i) ‘acara’ – rules pertaining to daily rituals (ii) ‘vyavahara’ – rules pertaining to dharma procedures and (iii) ‘prayascitta’ – penance for violation of dharma. Thus Hindu food etiquette has a Vedic origin.
Principles of anna yoga, amongst its other restraints, increased the guilt feeling of slaughtering bird and animal life. Many become vegetarians to uphold dharma and respect God’s creations as defined by Vedic literature. This implies that abjuring meat-eating is due to one’s karmic consequence. Underlying all this is the spiritual consciousness. Ayurvedic and medical studies, then and now, have shown the negative aspects of ingesting the grosser chemistries of animal food and the dangers it introduced into the body-mind mechanism.
Devout Hindus believe that all of God’s creatures are worthy of respect and compassion. This applies to humans, birds and animals. Hindu dietary code encourages vegetarian food in varying degrees and strictness. It recommends sattvic diet and eating moderately. In Sanskrit ‘saka’ means vegetable. ‘Mansa’ means meat or flesh. ‘Sakahara’ means vegetarianism. Sakahari is one following a vegetarian diet. Mansahara is consuming meat. Meat eaters are ‘mansahari.’ Some of the major motivational factors can be summarised as follows:
PRASAD: Food offered to the Gods is returned to humans in the form of Prasad. It is hardly unlikely to envisage that Prasad is comprised of non-vegetarian food.
DHARMIC LAW: It is a Hindu’s first duty in fulfilling religious obligations to God and God’s creations as per Vedic mandates by no causing injury. This is the principle of ahimsa – or the law of non-injury.
KARMA: Karma is a cycle. Inflicting injury, pain, and death, directly or indirectly adds to one’s karma. One must therefore experience in equal measure the suffering caused.
SPIRITUALISM: What we consume affects our consciousness, emotions, and state of mind. One who desires to live in higher consciousness, peace, and harmony avoids non-vegetarian food.
HEALTH: There are various medical and health reasons supporting vegetarian food. Generally, vegetarians have fewer physical complaints. They are said to have more refined skin textures and a better immune system.
SAUCA: Sauca means purity which is the natural heritage of man. Changing to purer life can be simple if one puts his or her mind to it. The spirit of purity calls for a search for a better life – the search for sauca. From tamasic eating one may go to rajasic eating and because sattvic food tastes better and makes us feel better, we also leave much of the rajasic food behind. It is the same with stimulants and depressants. Giving up non-sattvic food is spiritual maturity.
SANTOSHA: Santosa is contentment with not doing harm. Ahimsa is non-injury of any kind so that you can go to bed with santosha. Dharmic life invokes latent contentment and its natural expression is santosha. While life is meant to be lived joyously, it does not call for lives to suffer. One of santosha goals is to maintain a vegetarian diet for purity and clarity of mind.
VRATA: Vrata is the taking of sacred vows. It is a sacred trust with God. Vrata is a spiritual force that binds the external mind to the soul and the soul to the Divine. It reinforces control over one’s senses and earthly desires. It also guides the mind to be poised and be at peace. There is always a spiritual goal behind fasting. The inspiration of vrata can be traced to religious virtues or observances following principles of the Vedas and Hindu dharma. Vratas strengthen restraining temptations and give the digestive system a ‘holiday’. Hindus fast in various ways depending on the individual. Hindus practice vrata tradition by choosing auspicious days and maintaining a vegetarian diet is usually part of vrata austerity.
AHARA: In Sanskrit, ‘Ahara’ means food, implying whatever is taken in or ingested. This would include the mind as well as the body. It is a cliché that the mind is ten times hungrier than the body. The mind feeds just like the body so one has to discriminate what is being eaten. Similarly, the mind will feed on whatever sensations come its way through the senses. One’s company of friends could be degrading or uplifting. This is similar to rajasaic or tamasaic sensations but the mind can only be freed from sattvic sensations. Hence it is the mind that chooses harmonious friends and situations or activities. It is the Yoga shastras that renders help in organizing life efficiently to achieve the goals of yoga. In the end and in planning life, it is the individual assessment that counts on what to choose.
‘MITAHARA’ or moderate appetite is the tenth Yama. It is a restraint that we must obey when the body knows no wisdom of should and should not. For thousands of years, yogis and sadhus have eaten moderately. It is an ayurvedic doctrine that food restraint brings about a balanced happy mind. Healthy food also helps in sadhana and meditation. Over-eating repels one from spiritual sadhana because the body becomes slothful. Laziness also sets in as the body as to digest conspicuous consumption of food.
SCRIPTURES
Mahabaratha 11.47: He who desires to augment his own flesh by eating the flesh of other creatures lives in misery in whatever species he may take his birth.
Mahabaratha 18.115.8: Those high-souled persons who desire beauty, faultlessness of limbs, long life, understanding, mental and physical strength, and memory should abstain from acts of injury.
Mahabaratha Shantiparva 262.47: The very name of cow is Aghnya [“not to be killed”], indicating that they should never be slaughtered. Who, then could slay them? Surely, one who kills a cow or a bull commits a heinous crime.
Mahabaratha Anu 115.40: The purchaser of flesh performs Hinsa (violence) by his wealth; he who eats flesh does so by enjoying its taste; the killer does Hinsa 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.
Gita 13.27-28: He who sees that the Lord of all is ever the same in all that is — immortal in the field of mortality — he sees the truth. And when a man sees that the God in himself is the same God in all that is, he hurts not himself by hurting others. Then he goes, indeed, to the highest path.
Mahabaratha 18.116.37-41: Ahimsa is the highest Dharma. Ahimsa is the best Tapas. Ahimsa is the greatest gift. Ahimsa is the highest self-control. Ahimsa is the highest sacrifice. Ahimsa is the highest power. Ahimsa is the highest friend. Ahimsa is the highest truth. Ahimsa is the highest teaching.
GITA – SELF ASSESSMENT
How does one assess his own stage of development? The Gita provides the means for such assessment by requiring the individual what pleases his senses. This includes the SENSE OF TASTE. It is the individual who then decides what would make his life more joyful and in harmony with the goals of yoga. Lord Krishna’s discourse in Chapter 17 would be of note. The diet of tamasic food and pleasures indicates one who lives in ignorance. He is heedless of himself and others. The rajasaic diet person is loved by passion and is greatly attached to likes and dislikes. The sattvic diet is enjoyed by the harmonious and the serene, firmly in control of the mind and senses and free from attachments. Food is both desire and attachment. Lord Krishna warns of attachments and its consequents abundantly. In Gita 2.62-63 He states: “Man forms attachments to objects when he broods over them. From these attachments comes longing and from longing, anger grows (when we cannot have what we long for). From anger comes delusion and from delusion loss of memory. Through loss of memory comes the loss of discrimination and once discrimination is lost man perishes.”
This does not mean that the Yogi does not care or have any feelings. His love does not come from desire. By abandoning desire and longing, he becomes a channel for love that is not clogged by selfish grasping. Until the Self is realized it is impossible to escape the implications of the interaction of the three forces of Nature. Each one binds the Eternal Self to the body and mind in its own way: Gita 14.5-8.
Om