Vedanta did not hesitate to destroy men, even the nearest and dearest relatives of Arjuna, who were his preceptors, his uncles, his brothers and others. Vedanta says that by killing, Arjuna was not tainted. Then how can Vedanta hesitate in killing goats or sheep, oxen or any animals? Yet Vedanta tells you to abstain from meat entirely on other grounds.
Meat-eating puts you in a state or condition where you are not able to concentrate the mind easily. If you cannot abstain from meat-eating, if you cannot overcome the habit, then Vedanta says, “Have it; don’t give it up”. Different kinds of food produce different effects.
If a man drinks wine, he becomes intoxicated; if a man takes opium, does it not produce a particular kind of effect; a man takes arsenic and it produces a particular kind of effect; so a particular kind of food produces a particular effect, and so does meat.
The effect which meat produces on the body is not the effect which the students of Religion require. If you are a warrior or a person whose duties are active, then Vedanta says that you must eat meat as you require it and you must not live entirely on vegetable diet. As to other vocations, Rama says that you must try it on your own systems. Some can do better, others worse, without it.
The plan of nature is that the fittest must survive. Here we see big whales advance; they survive, and in order to make them survive, nature wishes them to live on small fish. Thousands upon thousands of small fish must perish but the big type must live on; it is the plan of nature.
Thus we see in the mineral kingdom, that the earth, the soil perishes, and the vegetable kingdom survives; the vegetables feed upon the soil. Again, in order that animals should survive, vegetables must perish, must be consumed; animals must feed upon vegetables, it is the plan of Nature.
It is the plan of Nature that man, the highest type, must live on animals which must serve his purpose: it is the plan of Nature. Rama does not mean to eat animals but to use them; animals must serve man; then we see in the ordinary man of the world, the higher naturally go on advancing.
When widespread wars and diseases come, the lower and weaker natures die for the sake of the higher ones; that is the plan of Nature. This Law governs the universe. Thus Rama says, if by eating meat you can serve the cause of the world better, then eat it; if by abstaining from it, you can advance the higher truth, then abstain from it.
If it becomes necessary for your body to be lubricated with meat, as it is necessary for certain wheels in a factory to be lubricated with oil, then do not shrink from eating it. But it becomes a sin when you want to eat meat to enjoy its relish. It will become a sin, as everything else, if you do it with the idea of gratifying your desires.
Excerpted from in ‘In Woods of God Realization’. The 142nd birth anniversary of Swami Rama Tirtha was observed on October 22.
Swami Rama Tirtha
