From the grass to bushes, trees and worms to humans – the greatest creation of the Creator- cannot survive without partaking of food. But far from being beneficial to the body, it is greatly possible that some kinds of foods can destroy the mental balance of the partaker of such foods. Those which contribute to the nourishment of the mental and bodily health as well as the spiritual betterment are considered to be the True food, and those which harm the body thus ending the life of the eater of such food too soon are called forbidden food. The Vedic literatures and the sages have evaluated the merits and demerits of foods and separated them into vegetarian and non-vegetarian categories, a separation that science has accepted entirely. Humans, unlike tigers, lions and dogs, are not carnivorous, meaning not created for eating animal flesh, thus it is not appropriate that human beings can eat meat cum any non-vegetarian food. However, if humans are considered as carnivores then it becomes unnecessary for them to eat vegetarian foods such as grains, vegetables and fruits. In reality, humans are vegetarians; God has created their organs accordingly. This phenomenon becomes apparent by discussing the biographies of many famous and prominent scientists, philosophers, literary personalities, playwrights, poets, artists and also the lessons given in various scriptures.
Among the greatest learned men of the world, Pythagoras, Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, the world renowned scientist Albert Einstein, Leo Tolstoy, George Bernard Shaw, Milton, Shelly, Socrates, Aristotle, the Sankhya philosopher Kapil, Panini and Chanakya, the author of Yoga shastras Patanjali, Shankaracharya, the Buddha, Mahabir, Guru Nanak, the Astrologer Aryabhatta, Bhaskaracharya, the Mathematician Bodhayana, Brahmagupta and many more were totally against non vegetarian food. These man used to believe that eating vegetarian food is the only way to build one’s mind and character and these foods are the source of tolerance, mercy and non-violence.
Chanakya had even gone beyond everything and said that those who eat animal flesh cum non-vegetarian food and drink alcohol might look like humans but were actually beasts.
Nobel Prize winner Physicist Albert Einstein believe that eating vegetarian food may have the power to change the future of the human race. Most of the citizens of the ancient Greece and Rome were accustomed to eat vegetarian food.
Pythagoras, the world famous mathematician from Greece, had said, “Oh, my fellow men, do not defile your bodies with sinful foods. We have corn, we have apples bending down the branches with their weight, and grapes swelling on the vines. There are sweet flavoured herbs, and vegetables which can be cooked and softened over the fire, nor are you denied milk or thyme-scented honey. The earth affords a lavish supply of riches, of innocent foods, and offers you banquets that involve no bloodshed or slaughter; only beasts satisfy their hunger with flesh, and not even all of those, because horses, cattle, and sheep live on grass.”
Saneka, the disciple of Pythagoras, had said after becoming vegetarian that now his mind is more powerful than before, he had beautiful experiences after turning to vegetarianism.
The famous biographer Diogens has informed us that Pythagoras used to take bread and honey in the morning and dried vegetables and greens in the night. He used to buy fishes from fishermen only to throw them back into the sea.
The Roman author Plutarch had written in his ‘On Eating Flesh’ essay, “Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh? From my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or mind the first man did so, touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale bodies and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had a little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived. How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds? … It is certainly not lions and wolves that we eat out of self-defense; on the contrary, we ignore these and slaughter harmless, tame creatures without stings or teeth to harm us, creatures that, I swear, Nature appears to have produced for the sake of their beauty and grace. But nothing abashed us, not the flower-like tinting of the flesh, not the persuasiveness of the harmonious voice, not the cleanliness of their habits or the unusual intelligence that may be found in the poor wretches. No, for the sake of a little flesh we deprive them of sun, of light, of the duration of life to which they are entitled by birth and being.”
To put importance on vegetarian food, the famous Renaissance painter, inventor, sculptor and poet Leonardo da Vinci had said, “He who does not value life, does not value vegetarianism.” Leonardo da Vinci used to spend an enormous amount of his own money to buy caged birds to set them free.
The French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau had observed that carnivorous animals were more violent than herbivorous animals. He believed that compassionate beings can be created only through vegetarianism.
Benjamin Franklin had become a vegetarian when he was only 16 years old. In his autobiography, he had determined eating of flesh as ‘unprovoked murder.’
The economist Adams Smith, the author of Wealth of Nations, while describing vegetarian foods, has said, “It may indeed be doubted whether butchers’ meet is anywhere a necessary of life. Grain and other vegetables, with the help of milk, cheese, and butter, or oil where butter is not to be had, afford the most plentiful, the most wholesome, the most nourishing, and the most invigorating diet. Decency nowhere requires that any man should eat butchers’ meat.”
The poet Shelly had expressed wish to eat vegetarian foods while he was a student of the Oxford University and even after his marriage he and his wife Harriet became complete vegetarians. In a letter dated 14th March, 1882, Harriet had written to one of her friends, “We have forsworn meat and adopted the Pythagorean system.” The poet Shelly, in his essay titled ‘A Vindication of Natural Diet’ had written, “Let the advocate of animal food, force himself to a decisive experiment on its fitness, and as Plutarch recommends, tear a living lamb with his teeth, and plunging his head into its vitals, slake his thirst with the steaming blood; when fresh from the deed of horror let him revert to the irresistible instincts of nature that would rise in judgment against it, and say, Nature formed me for such work as this. Then, and then only, would he be consistent.” In his famous poem titled ‘Queen Mab’ he has described the words ‘utopian world’ as a place where no man would kill animals for food. “…No longer now He slays the lamb that looks him in the face, And horribly devours his mangled flesh, Which, still avenging Nature’s broken law, Kindled all putrid humors in his frame, All evil passions and all vain belief, Hatred, despair and loathing in his mind, The germs of misery, death, disease and crime.”
In 1885, the famous Russian author Leo Tolstoy turned to vegetarianism. He did not even kill the smallest ant, let alone cows and lambs. In his essay titled ‘The First Step’, he mentioned eating meat cum non-vegetarian food as ‘simply immoral.’ He believed, “Man suppresses in himself, unnecessarily, the highest spiritual capacity… that of sympathy and pity towards living creatures like himself – and by violating his own feelings becomes cruel.” The composer truly believed that each life is pure and only vegetarian food can save humans from violent tendencies and take him to the ‘long-lost paradise.’
The vegetarian Henri David Thoreau had written in his essay titled ‘In walden, “Is it not a reproach that man is a carnivorous animal? True, he can and does live, in a great measure, by preying on other animals; but this is a miserable way – as anyone who will go to snaring rabbits, or slaughtering lambs, may learn – and he shall be regarded as a benefactor of his race who shall teach man to confine himself to a more innocent and wholesome diet. Whatever my own practice may be, I have no doubt that it is part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized.”
The famous playwright of 20th century, George Bernard Shaw became a vegetarian when he was just 25. He had written in his autobiography, ‘It was Shelly, he who first opened my eyes to the savagery of my diet.” One time doctors told Bernard Shaw that he would die if he did not eat meat. Shaw answered, “It is better to die than eat animal flesh.” Once some people, after seeing Shaw looking youthful even at old age asked about the reason of his youthfulness. He answered, “I don’t look my age. It is the other people who look older than they are. What can you expect from people who eat corpses?” He has beautifully described the inseparable connection between eating of animal flesh and the tendency for violence. “We pray on Sunday that we may have light, to guide our footsteps on the paths we tread. We are sick of war, we do not want to fight, and yet we gorge ourselves upon the dead.”
Mahatma Gandhi refused to let his ailing son eat meat soup even risking his son’s death. However the son was cured even without the soup. Mahatma Gandhi was completely against killing of animals for food. He wrote, “I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants.”
According to H. G. wells, there would be a new world in the future that would be completely vegetarian. He has written in his book titled A Modern Utopia, ““In all the round world of Utopia there is no meat. There used to be. But now we cannot stand the thought of slaughter-houses. And, in a population that is all educated, and at about the same level of physical refinement, it is practically impossible to find anyone who will hew a dead ox or pig…I can still remember, as a boy, the rejoicings over the closing of the last slaughter-house.”
In 1962, the Nobel Prize winning author Isaac Bashevis became a vegetarian at the age of 58. He pointed out in sadness, “Naturally I am sorry now that I waited so long, but it is better late than never.” He has written, “We are all God’s creatures – that we pray to God for mercy and justice while we continue to eat the flesh of animals that are slaughtered on our account is not consistent. Various philosophers and religious leaders tried to convince their disciples and followers that animals are nothing more than machines without a soul, without feelings. However, anyone who has even lived with an animal – be it a dog, a dog or even a mouse – know that this theory is a brazen lie, invented to justify cruelty.”
The ancient Vedic texts have repeatedly prohibited eating and killing of animals. The purport of the Vedic shastras was, “Everyone is God’s creature, although in different bodies and dresses. God is considered the one Supreme Father. A father may have many children some maybe intelligent and others not very intelligent, but if an intelligent son tells his father, “My brother is not very intelligent, let me kill him” will the father agree? Similarly if God is the Supreme Father why, should he sanction the killing of animals who are also his sons?” The Old Testament (Genesis 1.29). God has directed to eat vegetarian foods instead of non-vegetarian. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. Here the word ‘meat’ has not been used as ‘flesh’. The word ‘phago’ – originally in Greek – has been used here as substituting the word ‘meat’. ‘Phago’ means ‘to eat’. The Gospel of Saint Luke (8:55) says, “Jesus raised a woman from the dead and commanded to give her meat.” In actuality Jesus had said, “Let her eat.” In the Old Testament (9:4) God has strongly rebuked those who eat animal flesh, “But flesh with the life thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require, at the hand of every beast will I require it.” God does not listen to the prayers of those who kill animals for food and God has told this in the Bible (Isaiah 1.5), “I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye spread forth your hands, I shall hide Mine eyes from you; Yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear, for your hands are full of blood.” The Story of Daniel from the Bible mentions that when Daniel was imprisoned in Babylon the guards wanted to bring meat for him to eat. But Daniel refused and asked for vegetarian foods from the prison guards.
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