Law of Karma and Non Vegetarianism

Read an interesting line on this topic in an unlikely source.."India Unbound” by Gurcharan Das (I am just on chapter 3 in this book and there are 20 more chapter to go…so in case I continue to read the book chances are many more posts would be inspired by the book!)

The author writes very well….It is almost like he is talking to you…the English is simple and you can picture the scenes that he is describing without any effort and I think that is what makes a writer great...

His father was a very spiritual man and as a child he used to tell them that one inherited the karma of the animal that one ate and therefore one regressed into the reincarnation cycle of births and death. The goal of ones life was to break free from this cycle and achieve unity with the Absolute. It did not make sense to eat meat and add to one’s karmic burdens.

Now I am not propagating Vegetarianism here…although I am by and large a vegetarian myself…I taste non-vegetarian exotic dishes occasionally… the most exotic non veg dish I have tasted is Szechwan Frog legs in Singapore and it was quite nice. Only once have I ventured to eat a complete chicken burger and I could feel the little chicken jumping in my stomach, maybe it was psychological…maybe it was just to heavy to digest..but that was the end of my ‘eating-eating’ non veg …but I am still open to tasting because I believe in trying out almost everything new that comes my way!

Now there is a significant difference between eating and tasting…and I know what it is for myself but it is difficult to explain…so everything I tell my friends I am a vegetarian…I get sniggers with sarcastic smiles and some ya rite it you say so type of comments…So not I call myself a “pseudo vegetarian” with a tag line of I taste non veg but don’t eat it!

Those are my culinary preferences..now back to the funda that made me want to write this post!
“One inherited the karma of the animal that one eats and so It did not make sense to eat meat and add to one’s karmic burdens”

I think it is interesting though….and it does make some sense…you are killing an animal to eat..and you are preventing him from completing his life and fulfilling the karma that he had come to complete…since you are digesting and assimilating (inheriting) the body and preventing it from completing its cycle….you might as well inherit the Karma also!

The counter argument to this can be..maybe it is the karma/fate of the animal that he was to be killed and become food for someone to eat. It is the animals karmic debt that had to be paid off by being eaten!

I don’t know the answers…the complexities of the “Law Of Karma” are many…the only thing that I am absolutely sure of is that the Law of Karma exsits!

PS- I have written another post few months back on the. The Law Of... Karma. Check it out!