No Meat, Fish, or Eggs

By the time that I met Kathy, I was largely a pescatarian. The thought of eating meat made me sick and I had a very unfortunate incident with a Maryland blue crab a few years before 2000, so I was mostly eating vegetables and brown rice, occasionally a muffin from the law school “kitchen,” and a lot of Starbucks. Especially the Starbucks. It wasn’t until I first met Her that I asked why no meat, fish, and eggs. I was curious about why those specific animal products were not allowed and She told me that it had to do with karma. Each living thing has a certain amount of elements in them and by ingesting them, we also add to our own karmic load, whether we killed something or not. We are contributing to it. The whole thing was confusing to me because some initiates still wore leather and ate cheese and I didn’t understand the cut-off point. Kathy told us often that the line did have to be drawn somewhere and that as long as I didn’t eat anything with meat, fish, or eggs, I was following that part of the vow that I took at meditation, which also included meditation for 2 ½ hours every day and no alcohol or drugs. Kathy covers this in her book The Living Master by quoting Her Teacher, Maharaj Charan Singh:

 …it becomes a question of supply and demand. If all of the local inhabitants of a city one day decide not to buy any meat from the shops, the next day we won’t find any meat for sale. When we demand, the supply comes. Animals are killed because we encourage that they be killed. Actually, we are as much a part of the killing as if we had done the killing ourself. We are prompting others to kill for us; we are provoking them; we are part of the conspiracy of that killing.

On the subject of why we eat a vegetarian diet, Kathy quotes Maharaj Ji again in The Living Master saying:

If we are practicing meditation, but are not on a vegetarian diet, what we are gaining we are losing at the same time. The explanation is karmic. We can divide this whole universe into five categories, according to the number of the five elements or essences in each category. These elements are water, earth, air, fire, and ether or akash. The entire plant kingdom comprised the first category, since it contains only one of the elements-that of water. The insect world, snakes and poisonous creatures underground make up the second category, where the two elements of earth and fire are active. In the third category are the egg-born creatures such as the bird kingdom, containing the three active elements of water, fire and air. The fourth category is comprised of all the animals, the category in which all the elements are active with the exception of ether or akash, the reasoning element. The human being, having all five elements within him, is at the top of creation.

In this world, killing is in every sphere, for without killing no creature can possibly exist here. When we breathe, we take in life; when we drink a glass of water, we take in life; when we walk, we crush so many insects under our feet. The living must subsist on the living here, but Saints always advise us that we should collect the least burden of killing during our life span.

Ultimately, most initiates do follow a vegan diet and lifestyle. As we meditate and follow the Path, our compassion continues to grow. For me, the state of the environment is another huge factor because of the damage that is done to so much of our planet because of eating meat, fish, and eggs. Ultimately though, I follow the main tenets of no meat, fish, or eggs extremely carefully because of my vow to Kathy.

It is shocking how many things have eggs or gelatin or fish products and just because a label says “vegan” doesn’t mean it actually is vegan. I spend time reading a lot of labels because I’ve found that even those products that were vegan may have added eggs or some other animal product over time. Being vegan is a fine line though. It can start to turn into an ego thing pretty easily, it seems to me. And even if promoting veganism is done with the most altruistic of intentions, the judgment, fear, and negativity that can come as a result of interacting with someone else who doesn’t follow a vegan diet seems to me to be the opposite of what I am trying to achieve, so I have worked really hard to curb my “judgy pants.”

Sending Love,

Kelly