TYPE OF FOOD
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First, don't go
around
telling others
not to eat non-
vegetarian food. In
departments
unknown, it is better
not to involve
yourself and get
snubbed in return!
Certain issues
cannot be resolved
by logical reasoning.
You could decide to fall in one of three following categories: first would be not to eat non-vegetarian food and not think about it also. The second category would be to eat non-vegetarian food and forget about it. The third category would be not to eat non-vegetarian food yourself, but feel deprived, and hence torture people around you not to eat it as well.
Paramahamsa Salem, India
I am a pure vegetarian. I eat vegetarian food because it is conducive to my body, that's all. Vivekananda was a non-vegetarian. Hitler was a vegetarian! Do you want Vivekanada or Hitler? It is tough to categorize people based on eating habits. I fear to tell, but Vivekananda used to smoke. If I tell this to youngsters, they will start following the smoking habit. Vivekananda was in foreign countries, and at that time there was no thermal wear, so he smoked to keep himself warm. With these trivial habits, you cannot judge a person.
After hearing such words of preaching, the tendency is to stop smoking for a couple of days, and to go around torturing all our friends to stop smoking as well. We will give them continued discourses to dissuade them from smoking. You feel: when I haven't smoked for two days, how can they enjoy smoking?
Coming to vegetarian food, I would go on to say that those who eat non-veg food for one hour a day and forget about it are better off than those who eat vegetarian food and think about non-veg 24 hours a day! Listen to this small story: a Zen Master was walking with his disciple towards his city. On the way, there was a river and a beautiful woman was standing near it. She requested the Master to help her cross the river. The Master promptly carried her to the other side of the river, left her there and returned. The disciple was disturbed by what he saw and couldn't resist asking, 'Master, how can you, as a Master, carry a young girl?' The Master turned around and replied, 'I left her there a long time ago. Why are you still carrying her?' We all take small issues like these and contemplate on it for hours together. Instead, I tell you, just eat non-vegetarian food and forget about it.