Karma– Is there a connection between meat eating and violence?

The basic principle of karma is that we get back exactly what we put out. If we put out love, we get back love. If we put out violence, we get back violence. Try it out - at least the first part. Be nice to everyone you meet one day and see what happens. But if you did go around another day punching people in the face, I guarantee you’d come home with two black eyes.

One of the major causes of bad karma is unnecessary violence to animals. Throughout history no man with a full stomach (or who lived near a grocery store) ever went hunting. And throughout history animals were never slaughtered en masse in slaughter-houses. It is only modern man who has become expert at the massive killing of animals for sport and for satisfying his tongue.

We are so removed from the killing of animals that when we eat a turkey leg we may not even be conscious that this was once the LEG OF A TURKEY WE ARE EATING. Most people don’t think of how the animal once ran around on the very leg that they are eating; that the animal might have been someone’s mother, son, daughter or father. If we saw it that way we probably wouldn’t want to eat it (oh did I spoil your appetite!).

Some of us love our pets and kill other animals for sport. Some of us give money to save endangered species and eat cows, sheep, chickens and turkeys. Some eat hot dogs and have a pet pig. Something’s wrong with this picture.

If you saw a turkey on the road, wouldn’t you try to avoid running it over? I sure would. And wouldn’t you feel bad if you ran it over? I bet there would be a lot more vegetarians out there if we all had to personally kill what ate.  So in a sense meat eating really runs contrary to our natural instincts, particularly when there is enough vegetarian food to eat.

SINCE VIOLENCE THAT GOES OUT MUST COME BACK, THERE IS A CONNECTION BETWEEN THE WAY WE TREAT ANIMALS AND WAR?

George Bernard Shaw wrote:

We pray on Sundays that we may have light

To guide our footsteps on the path we tread.

We are sick of war, we don't want to fight,

And yet we gorge ourselves upon the dead.

Like carrion crows we live and feed on meat,

Regardless of the suffering and pain

We cause by doing so. In this way we treat

Defenseless animals for sport or gain.

How can we hope in this world to attain

The peace we say we are anxious for?

We pray for it on the catacombs of the slain

While outraging the moral law.

Thus cruelty begets its offspring—war!

The way karma works is that we don’t have to personally kill the animal to take part in the violence and get the reaction. If we have anything to do with the violence (working in the meat industry, transporting animals or meat,  cooking or serving meat, buying meat or eating meat), there is a reaction we’ll suffer; and a reaction the world suffers. If I got into the details of the reactions you’d really lose your appetite this time (one reaction that is obvious is that meat eaters suffer higher rates of deadly diseases like cancer, stroke and heart attacks than vegetarians). The fact is that you do yourself, the animals and the world a great favor by being vegetarian. 

My spiritual master said that if people stopped eating meat, there would be no more war. I realize that this is hard to swallow. We can’t make an experiment to prove this because we can’t control animal slaughter. But we can make another experiment that shows something important that gives more credence to this theory.

We can make a controlled experiment on ourselves. I want to ask you if you would try doing the following experiment on yourself. It could change you life.

STOP EATHING ALL MEAT, FISH, AND EGGS, FOR AT LEAST A WEEK AND NOTICE HOW IT AFFECTS YOU.

Actually, I have done some casual research in this area. I have asked many people to refrain from meat eating for a week just to test it out and see how they feel. Many were doubters thinking it would have no effect on the way they thought or the way they saw the world. Many didn’t even believe they could live without meat - or even be healthy without it. But given enough time with them to discuss the pros of being vegetarian and the cons of meat eating, I could convince almost any open minded person to try it for at least  a week or two (move in with your vegetarian friends, buy a cook book, eat at vegetarian restaurants, whatever it takes! It’ll be worth it).

So what happened?

Aside from telling me they felt better, the vast majority said they became sensitive to the fact that they were causing pain to animals by eating them. This is amazing. Just by not eating meat for a week or two, people who had eaten meat all their lives without a second thought - who never associated the food they were eating to a live animal who gave their life and suffered - were somehow now looking at meat eating it an entirely different light.

THEY ALSO TOLD ME THEY FELT MORE PEACEFUL

It’s difficult to be objective about something when you are doing it yourself. So when you stop eating meat for a while, you start looking at the issue from a different perspective. But they also felt different because they were no longer taking part in the violence of animal slaughter.

THIS IS THE REAL REASON THEY FELT SO DIFFERENT

According to ancient India texts on consciousness and health, the eating of meat dulls the part of the brain that makes us sensitive to the suffering of animals. I haven’t done any serious research on this. All I can say is that I haven’t met any vegetarian hunters in my life - and I have been around the block quite a few times. Come to think of it, I haven’t met any vegetarian butchers either.

Of course, my personal experience can’t conclusively prove that vegetarians are less violent people, or that there is a connection between war and vegetarianism? But maybe this experiment could. We’ll make Osama and his buddies vegetarians and see what happens. I bet they’d become peaceniks. Hey, this could be the best counter terrorism plan out there!

And the animals would love it too.

Mahatma Das