Еssay on Vegetarianism and Spiritual Goals

Ahimpsa, or non-violence, is one of fundamental principles of Hinduism. Causing no violence to living creatures is also an important principle in many religions.  Eating meat and fish product assumes killing living creatures.  This way eating non-vegetarian food contrasts to the fundamental religious principles and this definitely can become a problem for spiritual seekers.  There is another reason which proves that eating meet products can become an obstacle in the spiritual practice. Latest researches prove that food we eat has an extremely strong influence on our emotional state (Adams, 2000). Ancient Indian science called Aurveda, which is described in Vedas ”“ sacred scripts of Hinduism, describes the qualities of all products and their influence on our physical and emotional state. The knowledge of ancient wise men finally gets proofs from modern science. Meet or any killed creatures has negative impact on our feelings and emotions. All animals suffer before they are killed and they die in pain. Even if we believe that they do not experience any negative feelings before their death this information is passed to them genetically.

When we eat meet of these animals we get a portion of this negative information and thus partially get negative information contained there.  It is evident that negative feelings, such as greed, fear, envy, anger become serious obstacle on the spiritual practice. Eating meet can provoke the development of the negative feelings and emotions mentioned above. Vegetarianism can help spiritual seekers to clean their bodies and minds from different kinds of dirt. So, vegetarianism is important from the theoretical and practical perspective. From the one side vegetarianism becomes a mean to manifest love and compassion to all living creatures including animals. From the other side it helps to overcome negative emotions and to make thoughts calmer and kinder.