Vegetarian Lifestyle

For thousands of years the ancient Yogis of India espoused a vegetarian diet as a natural expression of their understanding of Ahimsa or non-violence. Realizing as they did that a violent life created disharmony within their minds and bodies thus preventing them from maintaining harmony with the universe. It is from the testimony of these ancient and modern Rishis that we embrace the vegetarian lifestyle firstly to find out for ourselves then finally as our own natural expression of peace and unity.

History
The word ‘vegetarian’ coined from the Latin word ‘vegetus’, which means active or vigorous was first used by Pythagoras who along with other famous Greeks such as Porphyry, Diogenes, Plato, Epicurus, and Plutarch encouraged a vegetarian diet as they believed that animals have souls. For several hundred years many parts of the world refered to a vegetarian diet as a Pythagorean diet.

“Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh? For 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 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 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.”
-Plutarch

Many of the world greatest minds have advocated a vegetarian lifestyle and while there have been many famous vegetarians throughout history such as Leo Tolstoy, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Vincent Van Gogh, there are today more and more celebrities speaking out about consciously choosing vegetarianism for health and morality reasons. Many famous entertainers such as Richard Gere, Moby, Shania Twain, Alicia Silverstone, Josh Hartnett, Orlando Bloom, Oprah Winfrey, John Denver, Ali MacGraw, Paul McCartney, K.D. Lang, Kim Basinger, Dwight Yoakam, Clint Eastwood, Woody Harrelson promote the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle.

“I have from an early age adjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look uponthe murder of men.”
- Leonardo de Vinci

A human can be healthy without killing animals for food. Therefore if he eats meat he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite.
-Leo Tolstoy

I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals.
-Henry David Thoreau

If man is not to stifle his human feelings, he must practice kindness towards animals, for he who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.
-Immanuel Kant

Religious and Spiritual Aspects
A number of religions and spiritual beliefs have lent support to vegetarianism. Brahmanism, Buddhism, Jainism and Zoroastrianism all advocated an abstention from flesh foods. More recently, the Seventh Day Adventists and The Order of the Cross have advocated a vegetarian diet and many Hindus and some Roman Catholic groups adhere to a vegetarian diet. Vegetarianism is a way of life that ultimately facilitates greater consciousness leading to liberation, if we consider that a vegetarian lifestyle creates a more peaceful and centered emotional and mental state thereby supporting deeper levels of meditation, we can easily understand the benefits when pursuing the spiritual life.

To Become vegetarian is to step into the stream which leads to nirvana
-Buddha

One is dearest to God who has no enemies among the living beings,
who is nonviolent to all creatures.
-Bhagavad Gita

He that slayeth an ox is as he that killeth a human
-Isaiah

He who harms animals has not understood or renounced deeds of sin ...
Those whose minds are at peace and who are free from passions
do not desire to live at the expense of others.
-Acharanga Sutra

This is the sum of duty:
Do naught to others which if done to thee, would cause thee pain.
-Mahabharata

Health
In Yoga we consider the body to be our temple that we cleanse, purify, strengthen and master to pursue the spiritual life. As such, we respect our bodies cultivating physical, mental and emotional health which requires that we do no harm to others in the process.
A vegetarian diet, has been proven to decrease the risk of strokes, kidney stones, asthma, heart disease, cancer, and hypertension and promote peace of mind, vitality, endurance and general well-being. Studies have linked meat eating diets with a 3.6 times greater incidence of prostate cancer, a reduction in sperm count and an increase in sterility in males; and 3 times higher incidence of breast cancer and ovarian cancer in females, and of course the obvious - mad cow disease. Ingesting vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, ensures plenty of vitamins A, C and E, beta-carotene, magnesium and fiber, and limits cholesterol and saturated fat intake. Many Hospitals advocate a vegetarian diet for heart attack survivors and for general weight loss. Many feel that performance in sports is limited for those maintaining a vegetarian diet, consider the following athletes and their remarkable achievements.
• Edwin Moses (undefeated in 8 years, 400 meter hurdles)
• Stan Price (World record-bench press)
• Robert Sweetgall (World's premier ultra-distance walker)
• Paavo Nurmi (20 World's records in distance running, 9 Olympic medals)
• Bill Pickering (World record - swimming English Channel)
• Murray Rose (World records - 400 and 1500 meter freestyles)
• Andreas Cahling (Winner - Mr. International body-building championships)
• Roy Hilligan (Winner - Mr. America body-building championships)
• Dave Scott (6 time Ironman Triathalon winner)
• Pierro Verot (World's record for downhill endurance skiing)
• Estelle Gray and Cheryl Marek (World's record for cross-country tandem cycling)
• James and Johnathon deDonato (World's record for distance butterfly stroke swimming)
• Ridgely Abele (Winner of 8 national championships in Karate, including U.S. Karate Association World Championships)

I abhor vivisection. It should at least be curbed. Better, it should be abolished. I know of no achievement through vivisection, no scientific discovery, that could not have been obtained without such barbarism and cruelty. The whole thing is evil.
-Charles Mayo (founder of the Mayo Clinic)

Sustainability
A vegetarian diet minimizes the wasteful and inefficient use of natural resources for producing food. The breeding and slaughter of animals, and the processing and packaging of meat, requires a tremendous amount of land, water, energy and raw materials. By changing to a vegetarian diet one can make a personal contribution to the preservation of our fragile ecosystem.. The vegetarian way of life greatly minimizes the environmental impact we have on our planet and minimizes starvation and poverty. 60 million human deaths every year could be stopped if meat-consuming societies would limit (or end) their demand for meat and free-up grazing land for feeding people directly, global suffering from malnutrition would cease. 1. In 1994 it was approximated that 1% of North Americans were vegetarians, an interesting statistic given that the majority of the world is vegetarian. For both ethical and economic reasons, countless millions of people throughout the world live on a vegetarian diet. In 2003 a poll found that 2.8% of North Americans are now vegetarian. We have a long way to go!

Lets consider the following statistics;
Human population of United States: 243,000,000
Number of Human beings who could be fed by the grain and soybeans eaten by U. S. livestock: 1,300,000,000
Percentage of oats grown in United States eaten by livestock: 95
Percentage of protein wasted by cycling grain through livestock: 90
Percentage of carbohydrate wasted by cycling grain through livestock: 99
How frequently a child dies of starvation: Every 2 seconds
Pounds of potatoes that can be grown on 1 acre of land: 20,000
Pounds of beef that can be produced on 1 acre of land: 165
Percentage of U.S. agricultural land used to produce beef: 56
Pounds of grain and soybeans needed to produce 1 pound of feedlot beef: 16
Pounds of protein fed to chickens to produce 1 pound of protein as chicken flesh: 5 pounds
Pounds of protein fed to hogs to produce 1 pound of protein as hog flesh: 7.5 pounds
Number of children who starve to death every day: 40,000
Number of pure vegetarians who can be fed on the amount of land needed to feed 1 person consuming meat-based diet: 20
Number of people who will starve to death this year: 60,000,000
Number of people who could be adequately fed by the grain saved if Americans reduced their intake of meat by 10%: 60,000,000


The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged
by the way its animals are treated.
-Mohandas Gandhi

People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times.
-Isaac Singer

In all the round world there is no meat. There used to be.
But now we cannot stand the thought of slaughterhouses.
-H.G. Wells from Utopia

Animals are my friends-and I don't eat my friends.
-George Bernard Shaw

References
1. www.bkwsu.com website; Author: Sunny S. Mathews
2. www.vrg.org/nutshell/faq.htm
3. "Diet for a New America" by John Robbins


By Yogacharya Gowrishankarananda, Copyright© 2006