Non-Violence
47
Dadashri: So then, how can they even consider eating
meat? Someone else kills the animal and you eat it. This is
meaningless. If you heard the agonizing cry of a chicken while it is
being slaughtered, you would be overcome with despondency
for the world for the rest of your life. I have heard that cry and it
was then that I realized the excruciating pain the poor bird suffers.
The Importance of a Vegetarian Diet
Questioner: Do vegetarians and meat-eaters face any
problems in their worship of the Lord? What is your opinion?
Dadashri: There is no problem for the meat-eater as long
as eating meat is ‘in his blood’. For such people, eating meat
does not create an obstacle in their worship to the Lord. The
problem occurs when one who is born to a vegetarian mother,
becomes non-vegetarian. But otherwise neither vegetarianism nor
non-vegetarianism presents an obstacle in one’s worship to the
Lord.
Questioner: So can you worship without being pure
vegetarian?
Dadashri: No, it is not possible, but in this day and age,
what can one do? Pure vegetarian food is difficult to get nowadays,
and besides, very few people have not succumbed to the influences
of the current time cycle. People nowadays generally fall into the
company of others who lead them astray in a non-spiritual
direction.
Questioner: If someone unknowingly eats non-vegetarian
food, how does it affect him?
Dadashri: Everyone does it unknowingly anyway, but even
then there are repercussions. What if you unknowingly stuck your
hand in fire? Even a child would get burnt, will it not? Everyone is
rewarded the same regardless of whether it is done knowingly or
unknowingly. The only difference is in the way one suffers the