Vegetarian Ancestors?

Despite what many of us would like to believe, our forefathers were highly aware and sensitive to the pros and cons of foods that they ate, their social, moral and spiritual responsibilities and even the fact that their beliefs would be followed for centuries. They were, perhaps, more responsible for their actions than we give them credit for. Of course, we are not talking about war makers here, only history ad philosophy makers.

More than five thousand years ago in ancient Indian civilization, in the era when the biggest war of all times, the Mahabharat was fought, wise men had propounded the validity of relationship between what we eat and how we behave (in fact Diet in Greek means way of living). Satvik food (pure food) was supposed to be a basis for strong spirituality and control over one’s desires. The epic poem says, "Those who desire to possess good memory, beauty, long life with perfect health, and physical, moral and spiritual strength, should abstain from animal foods." Whether this had too much effect on the people of those times is still unknown but the stage was set for an alternate way of thinking. Besides, according to the Upanishads, the concept of reincarnation also makes sure that new do not hurt any living creature in our life time. Since every person has to take many rebirths, it is safest to stay innocent of killings, who knows what happens in life after this one?

Yoga, one of the worlds’ oldest sciences of living healthy, says that the universal life force, prana is found in fresh fruits, grains, nuts and vegetables, never in the flesh of other dead animals.

One must discount the fact that the earliest inhabitants of forests had equal access to both choicest vegetation and great meats. But what hey chose to eat depended entirely on their social circumstances. For instances, the ancient sages who made ashrams, (little habitations for spiritual and educational pursuits) more often than not abstained from meats and lived off the forest vegetation, fruits, sometimes even cultivating their food. According to a more ancient Ayurveda and Yoga, living on fruits and vegetables cleans up the body and gives strength to the soul, something that meat does not.

Even in the Hindu Vedic caste system that provided a complete definition of the lifestyle that each caste was supposed to follow, the uppermost and the purest castes, Brahmins, were supposed to be completely vegetarian. Their pursuit of spiritual goals and their superiority in intellect kept them untouchable as far as pollutants were concerned. This diet seems to have stood them in good stead, because as the ancient scriptures tell us, some of them had life spans of hundreds of years. No meat, no decay. Yoga helped them, so did their food. The caste system is still largely followed in the Hindu societies of India, and still, a great percentage of vegetarianism can be attributed to this base. Likewise, another ancient religious philosophy, Jainism and Buddhism propounded strict vegetarianism (Jains do not eat any meals after dark for fear of unknowingly killing some organisms). India, thus has a history of vegetarianism, though in most cases, it has got nothing to do with nutrition or a healthy diet, only beliefs. Besides, a very large part of Hindu philosophy is to do with Ahimsa, or non-violence, which is supposed to provide humans with spiritual strength.

In Europe, one of the first prominent vegetarians in ancient Greece was the Greek philosopher Pythagoras who lived towards the end of the 6th century BC. His philosophy of food gradually changed into a moral philosophy, and by the middle of the fourth century BC, it clearly propounded a universal desire for non-violence, never to hurt or kill any other living creature, avoid any bloodshed and above all, not to eat meat, since all animals and humans were creatures of the same God hence shared the same soul. He was supported by Empedocles, Plutarch, Plotinus, Porphyry, and, in some passages, Plato. Plutarch in his essay On Eating Flesh also detailed the virtues of vegetarianism on the premise that meat eating went against social justice and humane treatment of all living creatures. Many historians maintain that Epicurus, the father of the concept of good living, was himself a strict vegetarian!!!

Socrates, too, debated on this issue, as contained in Plato’s Republic, one of his most hitting arguments being "Would this habit of eating animals not require that we slaughter animals that we knew as individuals, and in whose eyes we could gaze and see ourselves reflected, only a few hours before our meal?" His argument was, if we lived like this, we could not stay happy, and require a doctor’s assistance often in life. Besides, if everyone ate meat, there would be wars over pasturage because we would all need grazing place for animals that we will eventually eat, thus hindering our pursuit for a just society? Justified, but mankind has still not learnt a lesson.

The Genesis suggests that mankind was originally vegetarian by nature, and only after the Flood, we tasted the juices of meat. Many vegetarians argue, based on various quotes from the scriptures that Jesus, and all his principal followers were vegetarians. By and large, vegetarianism seems to be more consistent with Christ’s message of love and compassion, and it is very unlikely that he would have enjoyed a hapless lamb being slaughtered for his dinner. A large number of Christian scholars also have, in their writings, renounced the consumption of meat, Ebionites, Athanasius, and Arius, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, Heronymus, Boniface, St. Jerome, and John Chrysostom, to name a few..as Clement wrote, "It is far better to be happy than to have your bodies act as graveyards for animals .The Apostle Matthew partook of seeds, nuts and vegetables, without flesh."

In one of the earliest recorded documents of Christian writings, Clement Homile wrote, based on the teachings of St Peter, "The unnatural eating of flesh meats is as polluting as the heathen worship of devils, with its sacrifices and its impure feasts, through participation in it a man becomes a fellow eater with devils". In fact, many of the earliest followers of Christianity - Clement of Alexandria, Origen, John Chrysostom, and Basil the Great, even Matthew, Peter and James (Brother of Jesus and first leader of the New Jerusalem Church) were all vegetarian. The best quote comes from Regenstein, who says, "nowhere in the New Testament is Jesus depicted as eating Flesh and if the Last Supper was a Passover meal, there is, no mention of the Passover Lamb Dish."

There seems to have been a lapse of several centuries when Europe and the new world all but lost this puritan streak, and enjoyed their meat wholeheartedly. In the nineteenth century, there is a revival in interest in vegetarianism, because of its healthy and non-violent properties. A number of great thinkers felt sorry for the animals that were being consumed, notable among them being P B Shelley, G B Shaw (who put ideas of animal rights in some of his plays) and Arthur Schopenhauer (who felt all humans should be vegetarian but for there being no other food `in the North’). famous vegetarians down the centuries include Leonardo da Vinci, Sir Isaac Newton, Leo Tolstoy, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry Thoreau. This century's celebrated vegetarians include Gandhi, the physician Albert Schweitzer, writer George Bernard Shaw, musician Paul McCartney, and champion triathlete Dave Scott. Albert Einstein, was not a strict vegetarian himself, but believed that a vegetarian diet would be an evolutionary step for the human race.

A long journey, centuries have passed and mankind is still toying with the idea of a peaceful co-existence with other animals (lets face it, we are just better dressed than other animals). But we have never been able to summon enough self control to fight the temptation of a juicy joint of meat. Should we dread the day when some other specie will become more powerful…and then our shanks will be in danger????