The Yoga of Eating (The Role of Food in Self- Realization)

Some people, due to estrangement from nature and because of a mechanical lifestyle, believe that animals are just like machines that can be used for our convenience. But anyone who has ever lived with a dog, cat, bird, or any other animal, knows animals have feelings that are very real.

Dr. Kenneth Walker says that half of the food we consume fills our stomachs, the other half fills the stomachs of our doctors. According to Ayurveda, most ailments come from inappropriate intake of food and drink. To a large degree, doctors are kept in demand by our inappropriate eating habits. It has been proven that a vegetarian diet is healthier than a non-vegetarian diet, as we shall discuss in this booklet.

Twenty five years ago, while living in America, I once visited a friend for a few days. His son, who was about 11 years old, had a pet parrot. The boy kept the parrot in a nice cage, took good care of it and was very affectionate toward it. One day when the boy came home from school, he found his parrot had bled to death after becoming stuck on a hook. At the sight of this, the boy became disturbed and started crying. He refused to eat lunch and sat in front of the cage where the parrot was lying dead. I asked him, “Why do you weep for your parrot?"

He replied, “My parrot must have suffered a lot before dying.” | said, “So what? You eat meat and fish. Don't you think that the animals and fish whose meat you eat also have to meet their end in a cruel manner?"

The boy asked me in a surprised tone, “Are you sure?"

I replied, “Yes, of course,” to which he exclaimed, “Then I will never eat meat again. I do not want poor animals to suffer for my sake."

From that day onward he became a vegetarian. Like this boy, many non-vegetarians have never witnessed the cruelty an animal experiences before it reaches their plates and palates. Most animals bred for the meat industry spend their entire life in cages barely big enough to accommodate them. If we had to witness the conditions they are kept in and every act of killing of the animals we eat, most of us would refrain from eating meat.

**Contents and Sample Pages**