This is the question that I fear most. Whenever people talk about eating meat etc, the only thing on my mind is that let they not ask me why I do not meat. The simple and plain reason is that I do not know. I have accidentally eaten meat at times unknowingly and it had no special good or bad taste. So it is definitely not the case that my digestive system can’t process meat. Another peculiar thing is that I am okay with eating eggs. This makes the situation all the more complex.
Science only tells us that we should eat a healthy diet. It does not mention about not eating meats. Animal meat is actually a nice source of proteins. Then what restricts us? It is definitely the culture and the environment in which we grow in. I am very sure that if a small child is bred in an environment where people eat each other, he will have no grudges in eating human flesh even though his teeth structure might not be suitable for that but that is totally a separate issue. Hence I do not eat meat because I grew up not eating it. I only eat eggs because my mother let me eat eggs in my childhood. Now that I know why I am a vegetarian, the question is whether I want to change into a non vegetarian. Was my mother correct in not letting me eat meat? I think it’s not a question of individual choice but just about following the culture.
But does the Hindu culture forbid people from eating meat? There’s been a lot of debate on this issue and in my opinion that is mainly because ancient wise people thought that if we start killing animals they could become extinct at a very fast rate. While this is also true in case of the plants, but that is why they promoted agriculture to a large extent. One more reason is that the degree of life that is portrayed by animals is much more than the degree of life portrayed by plants. Thus when people thought to live in harmony with nature, they thought more about animals. We see that an animal is associated with each of our gods. Similar but not to that extent, certain plants having medicinal properties were also promoted for worship like Peepal and Tulsi. This explains one aspect of the culture. Thus it does not forbid us to eat meat but just has this rule for the general benefit of the society as a whole in the longer term. This is what culture is mostly about. It tries to move up from the level of individual betterment to the level at which the whole society can be improved.
So now the question is if I should follow the culture? That in itself brings the question of why is having a culture important. Is culture just a set of rules to bind people or is it something more? Does culture add anything to our life? Is religion a part of culture? Are gods a part of culture? I’ll try answering these questions some other time but I know why I am a vegetarian and finding answers to above questions will tell me why I should remain a vegetarian.
