It is well known that the majority of the Indian populations do not eat meat. This is not because they cannot afford meat. Most of them object to it because it involves the taking of life. Underlying that objection is the law of karma, which has been familiar to Indians for many thousands of years.

Karma and the Vegetarian Diet

Saints and their disciples do not eat meat, fish, eggs or any sort of animal food for the same reason. It involves the slaughter of animal life, and that means the assumption of karmic debts. Let us now see how it works out both in theory and in practice.

In vegetables there is only one active tattwa, or elementary condition of matter. That is jal, which means ‘water’. It refers to the liquid state of any substance. In insects there are two active tattwas, agni or ‘fire’, and vayu or ‘air’. Agni refers to the resolving state, or heat; it means a transitional state of matter. Vayu refers to the gaseous condition of matter. In birds there are three active tattwas: jal, agni and vayu. In the higher animals there are four active tattwas: prithvi (earth), jal, agni and vayu.

But in human, and in human alone, all five tattwas are active. As a matter of fact, all five tattwas are in everything in the world, but they are not active. Akash is the last one, which is active in human alone.  Read more