Shiva’s vehicle is Nandi the bull and temples devoted to Shiva are normally dedicated to bulls as well as a sign of piety or in fulfilment of a vow. In stories involving Krishna, he milks and plays with the cows.
For the reasons above, Gandhi said, “For me the cow represents the totality of the sub-human world. Through it human beings are made aware of their identity with all living things. To protect the cow is to protect all in the divine creation which is not endowed with the word.” This is why farmers may treat their cows as part of their family. That’s why the cow is considered as a domestic animal in India and Hindus find it immoral to eat a cow.
So to devout Hindus the cow is very sacred and in India there is a law banning the slaughter of cows. Also, in some Indian states there are retirement homes for elderly animals, especially cows, called Gowshalas. When there was the threat of mad cows disease in the UK, a wealthy Indian businessman had some cows transported to a Gowshala in India to avoid their death.
There are five main reasons to be vegetarian and many meat-eaters have converted to vegetarianism over the past 50 years.
According to scriptures it is a person’s dharma to follow the law of ahimsa, meaning to not injure anything, and is the first duty for a Hindu to fulfil his religious obligations to God and God’s creations according to the Vedas.
The law of Karma, which says that actions have consequences, is also a reason. Therefore if a Hindu inflicts injury, pain, and/or death, even indirectly by eating meat, they will suffer the same experiences in the future.
Spiritual consciousness is another reason. Food is the source of the body’s chemistry and affects a person’s consciousness, emotions and experiential patterns. Therefore if someone wants to live in peace and happiness with love for all creatures, then they cannot eat meat, fish or eggs. If someone ingests meat they introduce into the body and mind anger, jealousy, fear, anxiety, suspicion and fear of death that are all found in the flesh of butchered creatures. Therefore, shakaharis live in higher consciousness and mansaharis drown in lower consciousness.
Health is another reason as medical studies prove that a vegetarian diet is easier for the body to digest, contains a larger amount of nutrients and doesn’t overburden or give more impurities to the body. Many vegetarians are more immune to contemporary diseases so they live longer, healthier and more active lives. They have fewer physical complaints, visit the doctor less frequently, have fewer dental problems and less substantial medical bills. Also their immune system is stronger, their bodies are purer and their skin more refined and beautiful.
There is also the ecological reason because the earth is suffering. The increasing loss of species, deforestation, loss of top soils, increase of water impurities and air pollution have been traced to meat being involved in the human diet. To exclude meat from our diet would improve the ecology of the earth. Therefore many people who want to conserve the earth have become vegetarian.
Also the law of the three gunas is involved. These are qualities that every living or non-living creatures possess and are either positive, neutral or negative. These qualities are also present in different types of foods transmitting the quality to the person. A person with a sattvic mind (positive) should eat food such as milk, fruit vegetables and grains and they will gain increased duration of life, strength, health, happiness, and satisfaction. The foods also promote harmony, purity and intelligence. A person with a rajasic mind (neutral) eats meat, alcohol, eggs and spicy food and they will cause distress, misery and disease through passion. Those foods also stimulate excitement, passion and action. A person with a tamasic mind (negative) eats over-ripe, rotten food will cause the person to enter a mode of darkness. Those foods promote laziness, dullness and ignorance. Therefore if a Hindu wants to gain higher knowledge of God they should abide by the sattvic mind qualities.
ISKCON (International Society of Krishna Consciousness) devotees refrain from all meat, fish, eggs, alcoholic products and other fermented products, onion garlic and mushrooms. Many devout Hindus follow this rule but many Hindus will avoid all meat, fish and eggs. All Hindus should avoid eating beef above everything else.
The Vedic scriptures encourage not eating meat but people who simply cannot do without meat are encouraged to eat animals killed in sacrifice but accept the karmic consequences of doing so. Also, the scriptures only encourage prashad in the vegetarian diet which is food blessed in ritual by God.
Ahimsa, the law of not injuring living creatures, makes many Hindus want to be vegetarian avoiding meat, fish and eggs but for those who are less strict they will certainly avoid beef.
Prashad means ‘the mercy of the Lord’ and is distributed to visitors at temples who receive it respectfully in their right hands. Some Hindus will refuse to eat anything but prashad so they will bless their food at shrines in their homes before eating it.
For all these reasons cow protection and vegetarianism are key aspects of Hinduism.
