Do the Vedic literature allow meat-eating? Did Hinduism adopt vegetarianism from Buddhism?

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Answer summary:

1. Vedic literature not uni-form, but omni-form: not just one way for all people, but multiple ways depending on levels of people.

2. Vegetarianism is their recommendation, as seen from the verses below, but meat-eating is their concession. eg. doctor to diabetic patient: medicines and sugar-less diet are the recommendation, sweet once a week is a concession.

3. When patient misrepresents concession to be recommendation, the doctor rejects the concession entirely to prevent such future abuse. That's what Lord Buddha did.

4. Buddhism brought to the forefront of practical application the recommendations for vegetarianism that had been gradually sidelined.

5. Vedic literature lead the way in pioneering a global elevation of human consciousness through the adoption of vegetarianism.

 

Rig Veda:

"One who partakes of human

flesh, the flesh  of a horse or of another animal, and deprives others of

milk by slaughtering  cows, O King, if such a fiend does not desist by other

means, then you should  not hesitate to cut off his head."

Rig-veda (10.87.16)

 

 

Manu-Samhita:

 

"Meat can  never be obtained without injury to living creatures, and injury to

sentient  beings is detrimental to the attainment of heavenly bliss; let him

therefore  shun the use of meat. Having well considered the disgusting

origin of flesh and  the cruelty of fettering and slaying corporeal beings, let

 

him entirely abstain  from eating flesh." (Manu-samhita 5.48-49)

 

"He who permits the  slaughter of an animal, he who cuts it up, he who kills

it, he who buys or sells  meat, he who cooks it, he who serves it up, and he

who eats it, must all be  considered as the slayers of the animal. There is

no greater sinner than that  man who though not worshiping the gods or the

ancestors, seeks to increase the  bulk of his own flesh by the flesh of

other beings." (Manu-samhita 5.51-52)

 

"If he has a strong desire (for meat)

he  may make an animal of clarified butter or one of flour (and eat that);

but let  him never seek to destroy an animal without a (lawful) reason. As

many hairs as  the slain beast has, so often indeed will he who killed it

without a (lawful)  reason suffer a violent death in future births."

(Manu-samhita  5.37-38)

 

 

"He who injures harmless

creatures from a wish to give  himself pleasure, never finds happiness in

this life or the next."  (Manu-samhita 5.45)

 

"By subsisting

on pure fruits and  roots, and by eating food fit for ascetics in the forest,

one does not gain so  great a reward as by entirely avoiding the use of

flesh. Me he [mam sah]  will devour in the next world, whose flesh I eat in

this life; the wise declare  this to be the real meaning of the word 'flesh'

[mam sah]."  (Manu-samhita 5.54-55)

"He who  does not seek to cause the sufferings of bonds and death to living

creatures,  (but) desires the good of all (beings), obtains endless bliss.

He who does not  injure any (creature) attains without an effort what he

thinks of, what he  undertakes, and what he fixes his mind on." (Manu-samhita

5.46-47)

"By  not killing any living being, one becomes fit for salvation."

(Manu-samhita 6.60)

?

Mahabharata:

 

"He who desires to augment his own

flesh by eating the  flesh of other creatures, lives in misery in whatever

species he may take his  [next] birth." (Mahabharata, Anu.115.47)

"The  purchaser of flesh performs violence by his wealth; he who eats flesh

does so by  enjoying its taste; the killer does violence by actually tying

and killing the  animal. Thus, there are three forms of killing. He who

brings flesh or sends for  it, he who cuts off the limbs of an animal, and he

who purchases, sells, or  cooks flesh and eats it--all these are to be

considered meat-eaters."  (Mahabharata, Anu.115.40)

 

"The sins  generated by violence curtail the life of the perpetrator.

Therefore, even those  who are anxious for their own welfare should abstain

from

meat-eating."  (Mahabharata, Anu.115.33)

 

Bhishma started, "Numberless  discourses took place between the Rishis on

this subject, O scion of Kuru's  race. Listen, O Yudhisthira, what their

opinion was. (115.7)

"The highly wise seven celestial Rishis, the Valakshillyas, and those

Rishis who  drink the rays of the sun, all speak highly of abstention from

meat.

The  self-created Manu has said that the man who does not eat meat, or who

does not  kill living creatures, or who does not cause them to be killed, is

a friend of  all creatures. Such a man is incapable of being oppressed by

any creature. He  enjoys the confidence of all living beings. He always enjoys

the praise of the  pious. The virtuous Narada has said that that man who

wishes to multiply his  own flesh by eating the flesh of other creatures meets

with disaster.  (115.9-12)

"That man, who having eaten meat, gives it up afterwards wins merit by such

a  deed that is so great that a study of all the Vedas or a performance, O

Bharata,  of all the sacrifices [Vedic rituals], cannot give its like.

(115.16)

"That learned person who gives to all living creatures the gift of complete

assurance is forsooth regarded as the giver of lifebreaths in this world.

(115.18)

"Men gifted with intelligence and purified souls should always treat others

as they themselves wish to be treated. It is seen that even those men who

are endued with learning and who seek to acquire the greatest good in the

shape  of liberation, are not free of the fear of death. (115.20)

"What necessity be said of those innocent and healthy creatures gifted with

love  of life, when they are sought to be killed by sinful wretches living

by  slaughter? Therefore, O King, know that the discarding of meat is the

highest  refuge of religion, of the celestial region, and of happiness.

Abstention of  injury [to others] is the highest religion. It is, again, the

highest penance.  It is also the highest truth from which all duty emanates.

(115.21-23)

"Flesh cannot be had from grass  or wood or stone. Unless a living creature

is killed it cannot be procured.  Hence is the fault of eating flesh. The

celestials who live upon Svaha,  Svadha, and nectar, are given to truth and

sincerity. Those persons, however,  who are for satisfying the sensation of

taste, should be known as Rakshasas  [flesh-eating demons] pervaded by the

quality of Darkness. (115.24-25)

"If there were nobody who ate  flesh, then there would be nobody to slay

living creatures. The man who slays  living creatures kills them for the sake

of the person who eats flesh. If flesh  were not considered as food, there

would then be no destruction of living  creatures. It is for the sake of the

eater that the destruction of living  entities is carried on in the world.

Since, O you of great splendor, the period  of life is shortened by persons

who kill living creatures or cause them to be  killed, it is clear that the

person who seeks his own good should give up meat  altogether. Those dreadful

persons who are engaged in the destruction of living  beings never find

protectors when they are in need. Such persons should always  be molested and

punished even as beast of prey. (115.29-32)

"That man who seeks to multiply  his own flesh by (eating) the flesh of

others has to live in this world in great  anxiety, and after death has to take

 

birth in indifferent races and families.  High Rishis given to the

observance of vows and self-control have said that  abstention from meat is

worthy

of praise, productive of fame and Heaven, and a  great satisfaction itself.

This I heard formerly, O son of Kunti, from  Markandeya when that Rishi

discoursed on the sins of eating flesh.  (115.34-36)

"He who purchases flesh, kills  living creatures through his money. He who

eats flesh, kills living beings  through his eating. He who binds or seizes

and actually kills living creatures  is the slaughterer. These are the three

sorts of slaughter through each of these  acts. He who does not himself eat

flesh but approves of an act of slaughter,  becomes stained with the sin of

slaughter. (115.38-39)

"That wretched man who kills  living creatures for the sake of those who

would eat them commits great sin. The  eater's sin is not as great. That

wretched man who, following the path of  religious rites and sacrifices as laid

 

down in the Vedas, would kill a living  creature from a desire to eats its

flesh, will certainly go to hell. That man  who having eaten flesh abstains

from it afterwards acquires great merit on  account of such abstention from

sin. He who arranges for obtaining flesh, he  who approves of those

arrangements, he who kills, he who buys or sells, he who  cooks, and he who

eats it,

[acquire the sin of those who] are all considered as  eaters of flesh.

[Therefore] that man who wishes to avoid disaster should  abstain from the meat

of

every living creature. (115.44-48)

"Listen to me, O king of kings, as  I tell you this, O sinless one, there

is absolute happiness in abstaining from  meat, O king. He who practices

severe austerities for a century, and he who  abstains from meat, are both

equally meritorious. This is my opinion.  (115.52-53)

"Yudhisthira said: Alas, those  cruel men who, not caring for various other

sorts of food, want only flesh, are  really like great Rakshasas

[meat-eating demons]. (116.1)

"Bhishma said: That man who wishes  to increase his own flesh by the meat

of another living creature is such that  there is none meaner and more cruel

than he. In this world there is nothing that  is dearer to a creature than

his life. Hence, one should show mercy to the lives  of others as he does to

his own life. Forsooth, O son, flesh has its origin in  the vital seed.

There is great sin attached to its eating, as, indeed, there is  merit in

abstaining from it. (116.11-13)

"There is nothing, O delighter  of the Kurus, that is equal in point of

merit, either in this world or in the  next, to the practice of mercy to all

living creatures. (116.19)

"Hence a person of purified  soul should be merciful to all living

creatures. That man, O king, who abstains  from every kind of meat from his

birth

forsooth, acquires a large space in the  celestial region. They who eat the

flesh of animals who are desirous of  life, are themselves [later] eaten by

the animals they eat. This is my opinion.  Since he has eaten me, I shall eat

him in return. This, O Bharata, forms the  character as Mamsah [meaning

flesh] of Mamsah [me he, or "me he"  will eat for having eaten him]. The

destroyer is always slain. After him the  eater meets with the same fate.

(116.32-35)

"He who acts with hostility  towards another becomes victim of similar

deeds done by that other. Whatever  acts one does in whatever bodies, he has to

suffer the consequences thereof in  those bodies. (116.36-37)

"Abstention from cruelty is the  highest Religion. Abstention from cruelty

is the greatest self-restraint.  Abstention from cruelty is the highest

gift. Abstention from cruelty is the  highest penance. Abstention from cruelty

is the highest sacrifice. Abstention  from cruelty is the highest power.

Abstention from cruelty is the greatest  friend. Abstention from cruelty is the

greatest happiness. (116.38-39)

"Gifts made in all sacrifices  [rituals], ablutions performed in all sacred

water, and the merit which one  acquires from making all kinds of gifts

mentioned in the scriptures, all these  do not equal in merit abstention from

cruelty." (116.40)

 

 

Bhagavata Purana:

"Those who  are ignorant of real dharma and, though wicked and haughty,

account  themselves virtuous, kill animals without any feeling of remorse or

fear of  punishment. Further, in their next lives, such sinful persons will be

eaten by  the same creatures they have killed in this world." (Bhagavata

Purana  11.5.14)

 

Tagged as: 01. Vegetarianism, Meat-eating, Vedas