Thursday, March 08, 2007

Meat, sikhi, and common sense

One of the topics that I hear a lot from sikh youth these days questions the concept of meat. There are a few general questions that always come up:

  1. Why can't we eat meat?
  2. Plants are living too, why can we eat them?
  3. What about eggs? What about fish? Insects? Mushrooms?
The problem is, that a lot of us don't understand the fundamental concepts behind sikhi, and so we don't understand how and why our rehat is important. I myself, have started by following what I was taught, and worked backwords to try to understand some of the reasons behind it. Here are my thoughts:

So why can't we eat meat?

As raj_karega_khalsa put it: "We dont refrain from eating meat for 'non-violent' reasons or something or because something is being killed. We refrain from eating meat for merciful reasons." Its wrong to cause pain. Simple. As much as we can try, all animals suffer when they are put down, especially in our modern slaughter house facilities. The halal preparation of meat is especially prone to causing pain. Killing a cow is just as bad as a chicken, a pig, or anything else that we term as "edible".

So the answer is simple: As a vegetarian, I don't eat anything with a nervous system. Why? Because the nervous system allows an animal/person to feel pain. Its the beginnings of consciousness. So cows? They can feel pain. Insects? They can feel pain too. Fish? Same thing. Celery? No nervous system, so bring it on!

This is important also because fungi, which are evolutionarily closer to animals than plants, are usually considered a vegetarian product for this very same reason.

But can't plants feel pain?

Plants can react to stimuli (like light, heat, etc.), but they can't feel pain, because they don't have nerves (which pick up pain signals) or a 'brain' (that can process those signals). Others reasons that people give for vegetarianism, saying that fruits and vegetables can regenerate are simply not true as things like carrots, yams, radishes, when eaten, destroy the plant.

So again, its a common-sense model of sikhi: mercy is a fundamental concept that is enshrined in sikhi, from our concept of vegetarianism to our kirpan which means literally "to allow mercy".

Once again, please note that these are my personal views, I may be right, I may be wrong. :)


Anonymous said...

I like I like!!! :D

Hari Singh said...

Every reason to not eat meat is a "Sikh reason", because it is the smartest, most conscious choice. As Sikhs we have been individually empowered, we do not need to consult human authority in order to determine our path (we have meditation and the shabd Guru). While at the same time with this power comes responsibility to not just donate to the Gurdwara and think your done. In other words, as Sikhs (students) we are required to keep seeking, we are required to continually develop and maintain a spiritual practice, while being a householder. This means since we must feed ourselves and our family and we cannot do this blindly we are mandated to make the smartest most conscious decision.

I like your post very much, because it gives many reasons why the smartest choice is a vegetarian diet. I believe, however, that no discussion of Sikhi and meat can be complete without mentioning two other important factors health and wealth. First we were mandated by Guru Gobind Singh to eliminate intoxicants (not just alcohol, drugs and tobacco). Since meat contains a full protein created by another animal and our bodies reject the non-essential amino acids (some of the building blocks of protein) of the animal in favor of the non-essential amino acids synthesized by our own body, then inherently every piece of meat consumed involves intoxicating our bodies. How can we maintain ourselves as a sant-siphai if we are polluted with the byproducts of meat? Fat and slow soldiers may exist in this day and age, but in Guru Gobind Singh’s army there were none. It’s not like all of the parts of meat that your body rejects are easily eliminated, the oldest trace of food ever found in a human’s body was a 70 year old piece of meat (can you say “I want a side of cancer with that burger”). Not to mention saturated fats and cholesterol which will clog your arteries and slow you done (and make men impotent, like 50% of American men over 40).

The second factor is wealth, we have been instructed to give dasvandh as a minimum. People think if they make all of their donations to the Gurdwara and get mentioned in the ardas they are ok. Well this isn’t giving without expectations of return, you are just buying an ardas. We need to give as much as we can, without sacrificing our families needs, one way you can do this very easily is eating vegetarian. It takes 5 pounds of human consumable vegetable proteins to create one pound of meat. America is a country that has been consuming more water than it can replace since the early 90s, Punjab is even worse then America as a whole, in terms of water crises. Animals, especially large animals like cows, consume inordinate amounts of water. In this age of globalization, the more resources that are used to feed and water that animal means the fewer resources for a human. Just because there maybe no one starving on your block doesn’t mean you are not contributing to hunger problems. Large volumes of beef are imported into America from Brazil where they deforest the rainforest to graze cattle, before the rain comes and washes the poor topsoil (which hasn’t been exposed to rain or seen the sun for thousands of years) away and more acreage needs to be deforested, to continue grazing the cattle.

Thanks for addressing this issue, we as a global Sangat need to keep talking about it until we all understand and we all act.

Khalsa4ever said...

Hari singh, thanks for leaving that incredibly detailed comment!

In my post, I tried to look at what I considered the fundamental reason behind vegetarianism in sikhi, but your comments ring absolutely true. The health effects of a meat diet and the ecological damage that massive herds impact on our global environment, while at the same time reducing the amount of food available for consumption is certainly a very negative effect of a vegetarian diet.

It reminds me of the food pyramid I learned in grade 1: that 10% of the energy is lost as one moves up the food chain. Thus, by eating meat, we end up consuming 10x the amount of food energy available than if we had eaten a vegetarian diet to begin with.

S.K. said...

I really enjoyed this post, as it provided a unique and often overlooked point (nervous systems) on the heated meat vs veg debate.

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to say that your religion sounds beautiful. It is a mixed up world these days what with Islam and Christianity bringing about so much death and negativity. It was so refreshing for me to explore a religion that has no media negativity surrounding it. I did not know anything about your religion before but now I know my respect for you all is great!! I would like to be friends with a Sikh and treat him as a brother. I am a white athiest (christened at birth but never followed religion)and was beginning to think that there was no way white and brown people could stand side by side (thanks George Bush you warmonger) but now I feel different...thanks..! Peace and Love. Ben

Khalsa4ever said...

Hey Ben,

Thanks so much! I'm glad to hear that this post was helpful! I agree with everything you've said, and I hope that your search goes great!!

Kaptaan said...

K4E, I have to admit that you have, to date ,made the most sensible argument I've heard for being a vegetarian.

You didn't resort to the typical ad hominem that I've seen others use. However, in light of the comment above from Hari I have to point out that there is evidence that from a biochemistry and metabolic perspective humans are designed to digest both plant and animal based food for complete nourishment.

Also, from a spiritual development perspective there may not be any basis for making a claim that it is spiritually regressive to eat meat vs. being a non-meat eater.

You are directed to see the following:

Anonymous said...

thas tru! exactly wha i've been thinking and have been trying to say but didnt kno how...good post!