In South India, I’ve seen many Hindus and Christians really enjoying it. I heard that Jesus said everything on earth is for humans to eat, except other humans. I found something online that says similar thing: In Genesis 9:3, after the flood, God tells Noah, “Everything that lives and moves will be food for you.” This is often understood, by most Christian, to mean that humans can eat all kinds of creatures, from insects to birds and animals.
People eat what they eat impelled by habit and desire. What is appalling however is the tendency to justify it one way or the other. The scientifically minded justify it using skewed logic while the religious find justification in the Scriptures. As to Bible as you must be aware that the actual words of Jesus Christ are primarily confined to the New Testament. From my reading of it there is no such injunction given by Christ. Though Christ did eat meat as we find in some references, as far as the type of food one should eat, there is no such clear injunction except that he prohibited animal sacrifice in the temples or meat from strangled animals.
Science and Scriptures apart, the principle of vegetarianism is based on three basic principles. First is the presence of the psychic principle which is found individually in certain higher animals such as cow, horse, elephant, bear, lion, cat, dog, and even certain birds. In the lower animals the psychic spark is more as the soul of a species. The second reason is sensitivity towards pain which, though present in plants too, is not there to a degree as to be self conscious. One takes fruits and flowers and leaves that are ready in a plant but the plant itself is nurtured and nourished. The third reason is the cruelty associated in killing as well as the presence of rage, fear, lust in higher animals. Hence by eating these animals we also absorb their consciousness. Plant life has this advantage that it contains only that layer of the vital which nourishes the physical and makes it come alive.
However most people do not care to think, reflect, discern. They live for the body or as the saying goes, they live for eating and not eat to live. Hence the crave and the craze for non-vegetarian food.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
