Message #40749

[mccoy]

@ Steve: what I meant exactly is that we can 'mildly' suggest that meat is not the ideal food for man. 'Mildly' means without sounding like religious extremists. I will never encourage people to eat meat, but even in the SRF lessons, Yogananda recognized that some people need meat and suggested fowl and white meats, instead of pork and beef, which are to be avoided altogether for spiritual aspirants.

Also, I agree, in this spiritual forum we must stress that meat IS NOT a food conducive to spiritual progress and when eating meat we are incurring some bad karma, since we participate psychologically nto the killing of the animals.

Whereas, the healthy implications are slightly different. MAny specialists with credentials though suggest to avoid meat completely for healtspan and longevity. Some of them suggest to eat fish in moderation, but to me, that's ethically contradictory. I like to see fish swimming in water, not dead on a dish.

The issue is complex. My personal, reasoned opinion is that we should avoid fish and meat. Dairy products and eggs are allowed in the Raja Yoga diet. Sri Yuksteswar also classifies fresh dairy products as sattvic. Unless there are personal intolerances of course.