Spiritual benefits of being a vegetarian

To eat whatever is served, to drink whatever is available and to act as per the wishes of mind are the signs of animalistic tendencies. Even animals do the same. If you act just like animals, then you won’t be able to claim the eternal inner joy, love and laughter that are only available to humans. For receiving the priceless gift of inner happiness, you are required to be the master of your mind, instead of being a slave. You can only become master of your mind when your intellect shines with the true wisdom and your acts are aligned with your consciousness.

Your intellect only makes decision based on the past impressions and the current knowledge. A true seeker of happiness should gain ample knowledge to illumine the intellect so that it can make right decisions that could bring you closer to inner joy.

Such a seeker who illumines the intellect with the facts and who listens to the consciousness becomes vegetarian spontaneously, without forcing the mind. I can tell you this with my own experience. My parents were omnivorous and hence it was natural for me to eat meat. I used to relish it too. However, it was only when I came in contact with my spiritual master, listened to his talks and gathered ample information about the subject that I became more mindful of my eating and drinking habits. When I started listening to my conscious and started asking myself: what gives me right to take another life? Is it justified to take a life for the sake of satisfying my taste buds? How can I become more peaceful from inside if I eat meat? Instead of just blabbering about Go-Green, how can I contribute to the environment? Well, such contemplation helped me to become a vegetarian spontaneously, without any efforts.

If you continue to perform certain action for a long time, even if it is wrongful action, it becomes a habit. Your mind approves such actions without consideration. You need someone to shake you and wake you up to remind you of your unjust actions. Here is a humble attempt to present you with all the relevant information about the subject of vegetarianism and your eating lifestyle. Presented below are some of the benefits of being a vegetarian.

Vegetarian food helps you to regain your inner peace and happiness

If the slaughter houses have glass walls then everyone will become vegetarian. When the animal is about to be killed mercilessly, the helpless victim is filled with the ominous feelings of fear, anger, hate, disgust and despair. The same gloomy feelings are carried over to each of their body cell. Your mind gets affected by all that you eat and drink. When you eat the flesh of the dead animal carrying those ominous feelings, you mind becomes restless and filled with despair. That is the reason why those who strive to calm their mind with meditation are very careful about all that they eat and drink.

The law of Karma is very logical. As we sow, so shall we reap; for every action there is a reaction; do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Those who believe in the law of Karma would easily comprehend that the kind of Karma that is incurred by eating meat, after inflicting pain and premature death to animals, cannot bring you peace and happiness as reward.

Those who have realized the true meaning of life insist that to see God in each and every being is the true wisdom and the highest form of devotion to God. When you recognize the same consciousness in all beings, as is residing in your heart, then the Supreme consciousness is pleased. When your acts start pleasing the Supreme Consciousness that is also residing in your heart, then your thoughts are aligned with your consciousness. This makes your mind attain poise and your intellect starts shining with the wisdom of truth. In this manner, your righteous actions bring you wholesome peace, natural health and inner happiness.

Vegetarian food makes you less prone to diseases and healthier

There is no nutrient necessary for optimal human functioning which cannot be obtained from plant food. Vegetarian diet is safe, nourishing and wholesome in nature. It has been observed in various studies that vegetarians live on average about six years longer and healthier than their meat eating peers. Meat eaters are exposed to a wide variety of health risks as they enter into the food chain at much higher level. Animals don’t maintain hygiene like humans and hence, there are a host of bacteria and viruses in their flesh. When you eat meat, you are exposed to all of those micro-organisms.

Cattle and livestock feed is routinely blended with hormones and antibiotics to allow agribusiness the efficiency of massive flocks and profitability. These hormones and antibiotics make their way into those who eat flesh, causing hormonal imbalances and antibiotic resistance. It is also a known fact that animal-based diets are high in saturated fat, excessive protein and cholesterol. Such diets lead to heart disease and stroke, which results in nearly 50% of all deaths in the U.S.

The human digestive system is not designed for meat. A human's bowel is 12 times the length of the torso of the natural carnivores and is deeply twisted. The carnivore has much stronger digestive acids which human digestive system lacks. In the long convoluted human digestive tract, meat putrefies and becomes toxic to the body.

Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a key researcher involved with The China Study, says "In the next 10 to 15 years, one of the things you're bound to hear is that animal protein is one of the most toxic nutrients of all that can be considered." Meat-centred diets are linked to many kinds of cancer, such as cancer of the colon, breast, cervix, uterus, ovary, prostate, and lung. The National Cancer Research Institute found that women who eat meat daily are almost 4 times more likely to get breast cancer than those who eat little or no meat.

Another perception of expert dieticians is that the consumption of animal products causes the pH of the body to become acidic, leading to cellular degeneration and the onslaught of disease. An acidic pH in the body is the primary precursor to all disease. Vegetarian food helps you to restore PH balance in the body naturally, without much effort.

Being vegetarian saves you from being inhuman

A few people argue that it is natural for human beings to eat meat. If you've ever watched a carnivore eat, you would know instantly that humans are not carnivores. Carnivores attack their prey usually biting through the neck and ripping the throat to shreds. After killing, they rip open the belly with their sharp teeth and devour the entrails. They lap up the blood and chew the bones. No human could eat like a carnivore eats.

The only way humans can eat animals is to disguise what they are really doing, that is to get someone else to kill the animal, then drain and dispose of its blood, slice the muscles into pieces, cook it, smother it with sauces and seasonings... all in an effort to make the mind think that it is not as brutal to eat meat as carnivores do. If you have ever had a pet, you know that animals have feelings, that they are intuitive, sensitive creatures. The production of animals for the consumption of their muscle and organ tissues is less than human.

Over 7 billion farm animals die or are slaughtered in the U.S. every year for the production of flesh, mostly in highly mechanized factory-like systems using unprecedented, largely unregulated methods of brutality and cruelty. The believers of non-violence cannot eat meat, because slaughter doesn't. Many believe that there can never be peace among men while men are declaring war on other intuitive life forms.

Being a vegetarian makes you environment friendly

If you really want to contribute in the efforts of saving mother earth, if you really want to participate in the Go-Green movement, then by becoming a vegetarian you can contribute a lot. Albert Einstein used to insist that ‘Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.’ After reading following statistical facts, you will also agree with Einstein.

The world's cattle alone (not including other livestock) consume food enough for 8.7 billion people. Over a hundred million of tons of grain go to animals while only 5 million tons of grain could adequately feed the 15 million children throughout the world who starve to death every year. It takes about 2,500 gallons of water to produce a single pound of meat. In contrast, it takes only 25 gallons of water to produce a pound of wheat. By eating grain food directly, vegetarians make the food supply more efficient and contribute to the environment.

A meat-eating American needs 3-1/4 acres of cultivated farm land per year whereas a vegetarian only require 1/6 acre per year. Trees are being cut at an alarming rate to clear land for meat production. Tropical forests in Brazil and other parts of the world are destroyed daily, to create more acreage to raise livestock. If tomorrow people in the U.S. switched to vegetarian, over 200 million acres could be returned to forest.

The meat lovers have no convincing argument to support the continuation of their brutality on other intuitive beings, feeble animals and birds. The fact is that their mind is so much inhibited by their taste senses that they cannot give up the momentary pleasure of eating flesh, even at the cost of their health, inner peace and happiness.

After reading this article, I am sure that when you sit next time on the dining table with a slice of chicken or lamb on your plate, you will hear an inner voice that will try to stop you from eating desecrated food. At that time it will be up to you to listen to your conscious or to succumb to the temptations of your mind. If you value inner peace and joy more than the momentary pleasure, then it will be easy for you to make the righteous decision. Instead of fulfilling all the demands of mind, winning over the cravings of mind is true victory on the path of inner happiness.