Most of you who follow Baba Ramdev regularly are aware of his strong advocacy for vegetarianism in life. Vegetarianism is deeply rooted in the concept of nonviolence. Ancient rishi-parampara teaches us that in order to advance in spirituality, non-violence should be practiced at the highest possible extent.
It is not possible to be completely nonviolent. We kill thousands of bacteria when we breathe and also when we digest food in our stomach. However, our goal, as real Aryans, should be to commit as less violence as possible. This involves not killing innocent creatures for our own self-pleasure. God can forgive us when we happen to kill an animal unintentionally, such as while driving a car. However, killing an animal intentionally and deliberately is a sin which should be avoided. Anyone who has for once been to an animal slaughterhouse will agree to the fact that there is a VAST difference between chopping a tomato and slitting the throat of a cow or a pig.
One main reason why we should avoid eating meat is this: Any food that we consume directly or indirectly affects our mind. Food is classified into three categories, modes of nature: sattvic (mode of goodness), rajasic (mode of passion), and tamasic (mode of ignorance). Food such as meat, alcohol, and wine fall under the umbrella of tamasic mode. Such food is situated in ignorance and creates obstacles for us in our spiritual pursuit or yoga. Onions, garlic, chocolate, caffeine, etc. fall in the rajasic category because they make us passionate. They lead to an increase in passion, desire, anger and all the negative qualities. In addition, when an animal is killed, it dies in fear. The subtle vibrations it emits when it dies pass on to our body when we eat the dead. These vibrations makes us more violent, more impatient, and less peaceful. Therefore, such foods should be avoided at all possible costs if one desires to advance in yoga.
Baba Ramdev, as did all our ancestral rishis, gave special importance to cows. According to shastras, cows should be regarded as our second "mothers." While our biological mother may have breastfed us when we were in the cradle, mother cow provides us her milk everyday, perhaps until death. All cow-slaughterers should ask themselves a very simple question: Would you kill your mother who breastfed you when you were a child? NO. Then why would you kill cow, whose milk you drink almost everyday, until your death? There are thousands of reasons explaining why cow is our second mother. Those who want to learn further on this topic are encouraged to read Steven Rosen's (Satyaraja Dasa's) book Holy Cow.
Thus, we all should take intense care that we do not kill ANY creatures unnecessarily, except in the most dire circumstances. ALL creatures have an intrinsic right to live.
"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were created for us no more than the blacks were created for the white, or women created for men." -- Alice Walker in her book The Color Purple.
LET'S ALL REMEMBER THAT!
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