Can I get Enlightened if I'm NOT Vegetarian? (Surprise Answer!)

Yoga, meditation, and Vedantic self-inquiry are practices that emerged in a Hindu religious culture that prohibits eating meat - because killing is against dharma. So, how did some Hindu saints and sages get enlightened in spite of their non-vegetarian diets? Q&A series #25

Today's question comes from Stefano, a yoga teacher in Spain who happens to be a devoted student of Advaita Vedanta. Stefano asks, "Eating animals is considered to be against the principle of ahimsa, so why is eating plants not considered the same, since plants are also living beings? Plants are killed when they're ripped from the soil, just like animals are killed in the slaughterhouse."

Many people wrongly believe that the Hindu prohibition against eating meat is a religious dietary rule, like the Islamic and Jewish rules that prohibit eating pork and certain other foods. But in Hinduism, maintaining a vegetarian diet is simply one of many ways to practice ahimsa. Scriptures say, ahimsa paramo dharmah, ahimsa is the essence or foundation of dharma, righteousness.

The practice of ahimsa applies not only to people and animals, but it also extends to other living things, including plants. But if you don't eat animals or plants, then what will you eat? Obviously, the practice of ahimsa also extends to your own body. To follow dharma, you have to take care of your physical and emotional health.

The fact is, it's impossible to sustain your body without causing any harm whatsoever, but you can certainly minimize it. That's why ahimsa is best understood as the principle of least harm. In Sanskrit grammar, the a of ahimsa actually has six different meanings, one of which is alpatva, smallness. So a-himsa does not necessarily mean the complete absence of injury, it also means minimal injury, that is, least harm.

The food you eat not only affects your body, but it can affect your mind as well. In the Bhagavad Gita and elsewhere, eating meat is said to increase the prevalence of tamas in your mind. Tamas generally produces dullness, apathy, and lethargy. Also, by eating meat, you become subject to the so-called bad karma that arises when you contribute to the slaughter of animals. Such karma can create huge obstacles that hinder your spiritual growth.

So, if eating meat creates bad karma and leads to mental impurities, then we have to ask, "Is it possible to attain enlightenment without strictly following a vegetarian diet?" Well, 2500 years ago, Buddha, who was not a vegetarian, became enlightened while meditating overnight at the foot of a tree. Swami Vivekananda, a famous Bengali monk who taught Vedanta, was not vegetarian. He thought that a strict vegetarian diet made Hindus weak. He also criticized religious leaders who insisted that vegetarians are somehow more holy than others. Swami Vivekananda once said, "Religion nowadays seems to be confined to the cooking pot alone." But he also said, "The desire for fish and meat disappears when the mind becomes pure."

Of course, animals can be harmed, not just by your choice of food, but also by your choice to use other animal products, like clothing made of leather, fur, or silk. Almost anything you use or consume can have unintended consequences that result in the injury or death of living beings. So, where do you draw the line, so to speak? Well, you can draw the line as low as possible, as long as your choices don't cause significant harm to yourself or others. It's entirely up to you where you draw the line. And deciding where to draw that line is itself an important spiritual practice, a practice helps you cultivate discernment and compassion.Every situation is different, but you can always respond by applying the principle of least harm.

Swami Tadatmananda is a traditionally-trained teacher of Advaita Vedanta, meditation, and Sanskrit. For more information, please see: https://www.arshabodha.org/