A few thoughts on Yoga and Vegetarianism
Vegetarianism is one of these topics that always appear in relation to Yoga.
And there are many different views and explanations.
If we look at Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra and the Eight Limbed Path of Ashtanga yoga we soon come across the concept of ‘ahimsa’ or ‘non-violence’.
I have talked briefly about ‘sattvic’ food in one of my previous posts which also means non-violent food.
Of course the preparation of food always entails some sort of ‘violence’ if it is understood as interfering with the growth or existence of living entities.
However there are obvious stages and levels. Cutting off fruit or vegetable usually does not entail the death of the entire plant. We take some of it- which otherwise would be naturally ‘discarded’ by the plant itself to ensure further growth and production.
This is not possible with meat, we can’t chop of a pig’s leg and the next day his ear or trunk and then the pig magically reproduces these parts.
It will die.
The degree of violence imposed is clearly of a different kind.
Essentially I find that eating meat is in opposition with living a yogic life. The more one adheres to the guidelines portrayed in the yogic scriptures the more a love grows in the heart that rejects all forms of violence and ‘unnecessary noise’.
Is it perhaps that the heart becomes pure, through asana and mind control and that blood and slaughter is unthinkable in such a purified temple?
We have so much choice, each day. We are spoiled with choice of food, organic, fresh and simple. There is absolutely no need to kill and buying meat at the supermarket to let someone else do the job is simply an illusion.
Yoga also takes away illusion. It gradually strips off all the layers of superficial matter and brings us right to the source of the self. This is with everything in life: food, body, mind, relationship, ‘purpose’, breath and the subtle layers.
To live a yogic life means to live a simple, pure and truthful life.
Scientists have shown that the human body is not even made for eating meat. The
American Hygiene Society has come up with a very interesting study showing that the nature of our teeth and digestive system for example is similar to those of herbivores, simply not equipped to the processing of meat. This is just one of the fascinating results of their study.
It has also been shown by environmental studies how eating meat negatively impacts the eco- system to the extent of destroying it as well as is prime cause of starvation and poverty in the world.
As the consciousness and awareness grow, these connections and consequences become more and more evident. A little child gradually discovers a sense of self and sense of others and much later how these two are related with each other.
As we get older, we learn that our actions have consequences, nothing is lost (good or bad) and that we reap what we sow.
Having said all this, my approach to yoga is always from the heart.
Rather than conceptualizing about things or reading about them, truth is to be felt, it is to be experienced.
Looking at a piece of meat in the super market stirs feeling in me similar to watching a mother smack a child or a robber snatching a handbag off an elderly woman or a killer torturing an innocent person.
And why is it that most people feel like this? A minority would actually go out into the forest and hunt down an innocent dear or pig or lamb. Conveniently the job has been taken care of by someone else but even a piece of raw meat is not the most attractive sight for most people. In fact, there are many who don’t like sushi for that reason.
There is something that intuitively feels wrong about it.
So why do so many people eat meat? I believe it is conditioning. Growing up in societies that have meat as main ingredient to make ‘a proper meal’. (While most children in fact have to be reprimanded to go near it, because they need it to become 'strong and healthy').
All of this is conditioning. Most of mankind for most of human’s history has ‘survived’ on a vegetarian diet and it is a known fact that eating meat, especially red meat is unhealthy and can lead to high levels of cholesterol and other fat related conditions. In terms of being strong and healthy, just think of the fact that cows, gorillas, elephants and rhinoceroses are all vegetarians (herbivores) but look at how tough these animals are and they also have a longer life span compared to the carnivores (meat eating animals).
It is also conditioning to think that meat is needed to make a ‘proper meal’. Most of us remember things we didn’t consider ‘real food’ some years ago and then grew to like it due to exposure and then appreciation of its taste.
Taste and cravings are all down to conditioning, to what we are ‘used’ to eat. It can easily be changed.
I have a quite intense yoga practice six days a week and live on a fully vegetarian diet as do most yogis and yoginis all over the world who do all these amazing things like standing on their head, balancing on forearms and bending and twisting their bodies into all sorts of shapes. Yoga requires internal strength that is different to superficial muscle bulk, established over time through purification of body mind and soul, through the unity of movement and breath and the one-pointedness of attention.
Some say that eating meat is the course of nature and even wild animals in the forest do it. This is however exactly what I mean with spiritual growth. Since we are not living in the wild forest (and even there are plenty of other options…) and we are born as a human being we have that unique opportunity of making conscious decisions.
We are not ruled by instincts, we can make conscious decisions.
I feel that following the eight limbed path of Ashtanga yoga- which is in fact our true nature- people become more sensitive and conscious. They realize that everything is connected and that the light that shines in your heart is the same that shines in everyone else’s heart including the animals
