Why I became a vegetarian?

Why I became a vegetarian?

Like many people, I too loved a good party. Eat, drink and be merry was my motto. One day I turned vegetarian and gave up eating meat and poultry. My friends thought that I was suffering from a temporary bout of insanity and would become my old self again in a little while.

I had converted and I had to control myself to avoid the halo effect. Converts are more fanatical than the originals. When realisation dawns on them they start imposing themselves on everyone around them. Everyone detests a pesky convert. So I tried without success to keep my convictions to myself.

Many friends and relatives often ask me the reason why I became a vegetarian. So I thought that this is a good way to share some experiences and beliefs without imposing.

Often an action looks like it has suddenly occurred. In reality its causes build up slowly and softly before it erupts up forth. This is often the case when people make life changing decisions.

It began a few years ago when an friend in the United Arab Emirates invited to the inauguration of his new car rental business. As is their customs, he offered a lamb in sacrifice in front of his showroom and all of the guests. The poor animal was tied down and its throat slit. As the blood gushed out the animal struggled, violently at first and then it lay still as the blood made a large pool in front of the showroom. The sacrificer gathered some blood and splashed it on the glass front of the showroom.

Most of the local guests applauded and thanked God. I wanted to be polite and applaud but I stood still frozen, saddened and angered by what we human beings do.


Everyone looked around the showroom and congratulated Muhsein our friend. Then we were invited to have lunch. The normally tasty biryani didn't tempt us anymore and we bade a hasty farewell.

We may not be conducting acts of violence ourselves when we eat meat or poultry, but our craving gives rise to unnecessary slaughter. When I saw the life ebbing away from another creature to fulfil my lust for meat, it raised certain doubts. I asked was it necessary to kill? How would I have felt to be in the place of that helpless creature?

In today's world, we are surrounded by meat eaters. Love for meat is something not easy to give up. Within a week I was relishing tasty non vegetarian food once again, but now with each passing day and meal I felt increasingly guilty.

A few months later I came upon an article in the National Geographic magazine. The article was about the coming food shortage. The world is facing a looming crisis of gigantic proportions. The crisis is of acute food and water shortage.

The article discussed how mass breeding of cattle, pigs, lamb and chicken were consuming huge amounts of grain and water. The pollution created by the waste produced as a by product is so huge that it is having a devastating effect on our environment. Eating meat is incredibly inefficient way to get the same calories than from grain ranging from 3 times to 10 times more inefficient.


Scientific study shows that populations if unchecked double every 25 years while agricultural output is growing more slowly at approx 1 to 2% per year. Thomas Robert Malthus was the first person to highlight this theory soon after the French revolution and he was laughed at. People soon stopped laughing after 100 years as humanity is heading towards a biological trap from which it can never escape.

Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research is the group of world-renowned agricultural research centres that helped more than double the world's average yields of cereals between the mid-1950s & the mid-1990s, an achievement so staggering it was dubbed the green revolution. They are trying to repeat the green revolution, unfortunately they are not having much success nor do they have much confidence.

Eating meat leads to consumption of 5 to 10 times more grain which is fed to animals, than if it was consumed directly by humans.

As more and more land is being taken up for agriculture, rain forests and jungles are being chopped down at alarming rates and the continuous degradation of our environment spells doom for our planet.

That is why in 2008 & 2009 there were record food shortages and alarming price rise leading to riots despite of bumper crop outputs.

Interested readers can get more information on this topic at
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/06/cheap-food/bourne-text
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/aug97/livestock.hrs.html


Then an extraordinary meeting took place. About a couple of years ago I met Sant Baba Ishwar Singh ji in Mumbai where he was visiting. Babaji has a small ashram outside of Dheradun Uttarakhand, where he provides and cares for the material and spiritual needs of the local people as best as is possible for a Sadhu. I subsequently travelled to the ashram and spent a couple of days there.

The ashram is located at the very edge of a forest. Nestled in the Doon valley of the Shivalik mountain range and near the Rajaji National park. It is a beautiful and quiet place, perfect for meditation and prayer.

At the evening Satsang or gathering he spoke of the need for possessing Karuna (compassion). Compassion Babaji said was not only necessary towards our fellow humans but also for all things created by God. If you wish to worship God, then love and respect all living things, respect your environment for it too deserves the right to exist as pristine as it was created. Use, but do not abuse.

Compassion is different from charity or mercy. Charity creates a gap. In charity or mercy there is the rich versus the poor, the giver and the receiver, creating a rift between them and actually propagating further divisions.

Compassion also means, accepting the fact that I am not the provider or giver, I am merely a medium through which good things pass. It is our good fortune that we have the opportunity to be that medium.

Something stirred in me and I never wanted to leave Babaji and the ashram, but I had to return because of my responsibilities and the materialistic world. I asked him to accept me as a follower. Babaji refused to make me his follower. He said "you must not be a follower; you must be a student, a disciple".
Babaji continued "Mine is the responsibility to awaken you so that you may seek the truth on your own, which you will never attain if you blindly follow me".

I returned to the ashram several times. A few months later I was granted 'Diksha' by Babaji and became his disciple.

I who seek love and compassion, must myself first be compassionate and true.
I realised that I cannot change the world, but I can change myself.
I gave up eating meat and became a vegetarian.