Vegetarian Hindus
Rajasthani vegetarian cuisine.
Paths of
Hinduism hold
vegetarianism as an ideal. There are three main reasons for this: the principle of nonviolence (
ahimsa) applied to animals,
[15] the intention to offer only "pure" (vegetarian) food to a deity and then to receive it back as
prasad,
[16] and the conviction that non-vegetarian food is detrimental for the mind and for spiritual development. Many Hindus point to scriptural bases, such as the
Mahabharata's maxim that "Nonviolence is the highest duty and the highest teaching,"
[17] as advocating a vegetarian diet.
There are many Hindu groups that have continued to abide by a strict vegetarian diet in modern times. Vegetarian diet reflects the way of the traditional living ways of Indian people. One example is the movement known as ISKCON (
International Society for Krishna Consciousness), whose followers “not only abstain from meat, fish, and fowl, but also avoid certain vegetables that are thought to have negative properties, such as onion, mushrooms and garlic.”
[18] A second example is the
Swaminarayan Movement. The followers of this Hindu group also staunchly adhere to a diet that is devoid of meat, eggs, and seafood.
[19] Vegetarians generally avoid addictive substances, including tea and coffee. Their food reflects a simple Indian meal based on rice and dal, vegetable, chapattis, yogurt and milk. Also, as they are farming, they normally do not hurt worms that appear on the organic produce.
[20]
Vegetarianism is propagated by the
Yajurveda and it is recommended for a
satvic (purifying) lifestyle.
[21] Thus, another reason that
dietary purity is so eminent within Hinduism is because “the idea that food reflects the general qualities of nature: purity, energy, inertia”; it follows that a healthy diet should be one that promotes purity within an individual.
[18]