Are all vegetarian seekers more spiritually advanced than non-vegetarian seekers?

In other religions, even great saints have eaten meat. But no meat-eating is a basic regulative principle and even neophyte devotees follow it. Are such devotees more advanced than great saints from other traditions?

Hare Krishna. Question.
Are all vegetarian seekers more spiritually advanced than non-vegetarian seekers? In other religions, even exalted saints have eaten meat, whereas no meat eating is a basic regulative principle that is followed even by neophyte devotees. So, are such neophyte devotees more advanced than exalted saints in other traditions? Answer. Spiritual advancement is primarily determined by one’s love for Krishna.
That is the defining characteristic and everything else assists in the development of that defining characteristic. So, we shouldn’t pass a value judgment on others based on other factors. Who is how advanced, that is a matter of the heart and we can’t really know at what level of spiritual advancement a person is.
Often that is known only to Krishna and that person, Krishna who can see that person’s heart. More important is to recognize that what is uncool for our bhakti. So, if we, for us, if we are killing the other children of God just for the sake of the satisfaction of our tongue, then that is definitely pratikul to bhakti.
Very, very, very, very unfavorable for bhakti because we are losing our capacity to feel the pain of others and the whole process of spiritual advancement is a development, an enhancement, an enrichment of the capacity to feel. Ultimately, we want to feel in relationship with Krishna, but if we can’t feel in relationship with the children of Krishna, how can we feel in relationship with Krishna? So, therefore, what we should focus on is that what is favorable for my bhakti. So, for us as spiritual seekers, giving up meat-eating is favorable, even essential for the practice of bhakti.
And we can also say that anyone in any tradition, if that person was a spiritualist, then that person could be a vegetarian or non-vegetarian, then becoming a vegetarian would be favorable for their bhakti also. So, whoever in whatever tradition that person may be, it will be favorable for their bhakti. But that doesn’t mean that we have to lay down as a mandatory condition on others.
This particular, you know, in many places in the world, meat-eating is just a part of the integral culture and that is what people have been doing for generations. And then even the same in the people who become spiritualists, because they still live in that culture, they continue to practice that same diet. Now, there are, of course, quite a few saints.
There are Franciscan friars and there are Sufi saints who have actually practiced vegetarianism going against what was the cultural standard as well as the religious standard at their times. So, there have been exalted saints who have given up meat-eating also, but that’s not the point which we are discussing right now. Ultimately, it’s a capacity for feeling, the capacity for sensitivity towards other people, other living beings in general, ultimately towards Krishna.
So, if we become self-righteous thinking that, oh, I have given up meat-eating and that person is so advanced, but that person is supposed to be so advanced, but that person eats meat, therefore is a fallen person, then we are becoming proud. You know, we are insensitive to animals, but then we often are insensitive to other people. You know, we may, we often give up meat-eating not because we have developed sensitivity for the pain of animals, not because you have developed a sensitivity for the feelings of other living beings, including animals.
We give it up because we feel it’s a regulatory principle and we often, especially if we have been born in the Indian culture, then we to some extent know that religious people are expected to give up meat-eating and that’s why we give it up for the sake of religion. We have to check within our own heart, is our giving up of meat-eating done because we have developed enhanced sensitivity for the pain of animals or is it done simply because we have been told that it is a regulatory principle and we know that it is an expected cultural standard for people who want to be religious and that’s why we have taken it up. So, if we are not, if our giving up meat-eating is not because of a developed sensitivity towards the pain of other living beings, then that meat, giving up meat-eating, it is favorable to bhakti but it does not necessarily reflect enhanced sensitivity.
There may be saints in other traditions who are, who may be eating meat because that’s the cultural standard but they may have far greater sensitivity towards the pain of others, other human beings and ultimately they have greater sensitivity towards God and they want to, as per their traditional understanding, share the message of God with others and they are ready to sacrifice greatly for the service of God and for sharing the message of God. So, we shouldn’t pigeonhole spiritual advancement to just one criteria, meat-eating or no meat-eating. We know it is favorable for bhakti and that’s what our scriptures and our Guru Sadhya Shastra have told us.
So, we practice it but just because somebody else is not practicing it doesn’t mean that that person can’t have spiritual advancement at all. Now, whether the person is spiritually advanced or not is to be judged by one, is to ultimately be judged only by Krishna but if we want to see, then we have to see the actions of that person and we will see that many people who are meat-eaters, they are often far, far more sensitive, far, far more concerned and compassionate for other people spiritually than we as devotees are. If our giving up meat-eating is making us self-righteous and proud that I am, I have given up meat-eating, I am spiritually advanced, then we are missing out on the purpose of giving up meat-eating and the purpose of practicing devotional life.
The purpose is to develop increased sensitivity for the feelings of others and ultimately for the feelings of Krishna. So, we want to make Krishna’s feelings as our feelings. Krishna loves us and Krishna loves all living beings.
Similarly, we want to love all living beings. So, how much have we progressed in that journey of accepting Krishna’s feelings, of being able to feel Krishna’s feelings, that is the central barometer of our spiritual advancement and not whether a person has given up meat-eating or not. We should, of course, strictly follow the principle of no meat-eating for our sadhana, but we should not minimize or denigrate other spiritualists because they’re not following it and we should understand that different people come from different traditions and the ultimate criteria is that we should be able to, we should be able to, that we should be increasing our spirituality, our sensitivity towards others and ultimately sensitivity towards Krishna.
That is the ultimate barometer of spiritual advancement. Thank you. So, our anarthas are also a part of our nature and isn’t that something which