Should I become vegetarian?

[Spirit_Warrior]

I would say it depends on your goals.

If you are weak and emaciated, I would actually recommend eating meat to beef up a bit. In Ayurvedic texts, meats of various animals, especially goat are recommended for somebody who is weak.

If you are a solider who needs to fight in wars, I would again recommend eating meat. It gives you the bulk for sure, but it also gives you the aggressive energy you need when fighting war.

If you are a yogi, and your goal is to achieve higher states of consciousness, then I would not recommend eating meat, because, meat is heavy and inertia inducing. A yogi who is sensitive to different kind of energies, can tell this, hence they abstain from meat.

Generally, in Hinduism living a pure spiritual life requires vegetarianism.

 

[Kirran]

I would say quite strongly that yes, you should become a vegetarian. From a Hindu perspective, from a spiritual perspective and from a secular perspective it is the ethical choice. There is no ethical foundation to eating meat in the West. To eat meat is to cause suffering, or rather to support an industry which causes suffering. You do not need meat to survive and be healthy, and so to eat meat is to cause suffering for no other reason than your own sensual pleasure, essentially. Hindu traditions encourage us to refrain from causing suffering, to practice compassion and to control our minds and sensual desires.

This is before we get into the impacts which the meat industry has on global food shortages, on pollution, on greenhouse gas emission, on water shortages, on habitat destruction etc, and before we get into the effects of meat upon your body.