Continued from the previous issue.
Anjali: Maybe Adam was having the meat, too!
Swamiji: It does not look to be so from the material available. I was not there with Adam. I never had any dinner invitation from him!
Anjali: Perhaps you could have been the first person invited to taste the apple!!
What about in the Vedic period? Why is sacrificing animals allowed in the Scriptures, especially for rituals? If it is prohibited in daily life, why do it at a time which was considered sacred?
Swamiji: In the Vedic period, animal worship and animal sacrifice were conducted. There is evidence to prove that up to the Bhagavatam time, we as Indians were non-vegetarians. It is only later on that the idea of vegetarianism developed into a system.
Anjali: Perhaps it was due to geological events that increased the heat in India and because meat decays faster that vegetarianism crept in.
Swamiji: We find that vegetables do not decay so fast, say up to forty-eight hours, they look fresh. But in forty-eight hours, meat looks very dirty, unless it is refrigerated. The deterioration of meat is faster. Furthermore, within the human body, during the process of digestion, food remains in the canal for about forty-eight hours. Meat takes a very long time to digest. Fruit and vegetables get digested faster. Whatever stays longer in the intestines starts decaying and rotting with the heat of the body system, and a lot of toxins are created. Also, you must have noticed that generally, man eats only those animals that don't eat other animals. It is very difficult for a man to digest and assimilate carnivorous animals. They must be toxic to his system. That means a certain amount of toxicity is present in the first round because twice removed, the meat becomes impossible to eat!
Anjali: That means non-vegetarians are safe from cannibals!
Swamiji: Ha! Ha!
To be continued.
