Spiritual Reasons: For change to Plant-Based Diet
We live in a world of relentless change, huge migrations of people to new mega-cities filling soaring skyscrapers and vast slums, ravenous appetites for fuel and food, unpredictable climate change, and all this in a world where the population is still growing. Should we be worried? Should we be scared?
How do make sense of it all?
- “What is the meaning of human life, or for that matter, of the life of any creature? To know an answer to this question means to be religious. You ask: Does it make any sense, then, to pose this question? I answer: The man who regards his life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unhappy but hardly fit for life.” – Albert Einstein, Mein Weltbild, Amsterdam: Querido Verlag, 1934.
Translation from the original German text.
A human being is a part of the whole; we call the ‘Universe’, a part limited in time and space. Humans experience themselves, their thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the Rest – a kind of optical delusion of their consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison, restricting the scope of interaction to personal desires and affection for only a few close people. The task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody can achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security. – Albert Einstein, New York Post, 28 November 1972 (Einstein died 1955) and the above is a translation from the original
Original German text.
‘Der Mensch ist ein Teil des Ganzen, das wir Universum nennen, ein in Raum und Zeit begrenzter Teil. Er erfährt sich selbst, seine Gedanken und Gefühle als getrennt von allem anderen – eine Art optische Täuschung des Bewusstseins.
Diese Täuschung ist wie ein Gefängnis für uns, das uns auf unsere eigenen Vorlieben und auf die Zuneigung zu wenigen beschränkt. Unser Ziel muss es sein, uns aus diesem Gefängnis zu befreien, indem wir den Horizont unseres Mitgefühls erweitern, bis er alle lebenden Wesen und die gesamte Natur in all ihrer Schönheit umfasst.’ -Albert Einstein („Ideas and Opinions“)
“Protecting the Temple”. “Whatever affects the body has a corresponding effect on the mind and soul” (E.G. White)
In most cultures in the East, a plant-based diet is part of the ethical principles of spiritual traditions. Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism follow ahimsa (non-violence) and Prema (universal love).
A question: Are you a non-violent person?
Let’s find out, every creature on this planet depends directly or indirectly for its survival on another form of life. Ahimsa (non-violence) as is interpreted is inaccurate. When we look at the history of the existence of any species on earth, every one of them has to live by taking another form of life. With few exceptions, members of the plant kingdom directly transform water and sun energy into nutrients for their survival. At the same time, the more highly evolved animals depend on another form of life to sustain themselves. Does being loving and non-violent mean you are spiritual? If you answer “yes” to this question, look again. When breathing in air, we kill millions of bacteria. Isn’t that violent? When we walk on the grass, we kill insects and bugs unknowing isn’t that violent? When we clean our homes with chemical sprays and kill all the bugs, isn’t that violent? In fact, our bodies have more bacteria than cells, some good and some harmful. When they proliferate overproduce, they can cause havoc, and they too can get violent inside our system. The living is violent, and violence is part of our present period. Ahimsa in its accurate interpretation can be described as
“use of benevolent force.”
Now we as human beings have a choice which most animals don’t. As we evolve to the highest state of awareness of ourselves and the environment around us, we become the most intelligent predator, with no other above us on the food chain to hunt or kill us. We are destroying our habitat by the way we live. No other creature destroys its home due to greed, power, and capacity to accumulate unnecessarily.
You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Fate,” The Conduct of Life, 1860
Our resolve for existing is to recognize our responsibility for being on earth. We did not come to this earth to eat, sleep, experience fear, procreate and die, but to understand and experience love and happiness perpetually. That cannot happen by immersing our self in static pleasure. Abraham Maslow said, “only one percent of humans on this earth are living, and the rest are existing.” Animals do exactly that – exist. Plants exist. Why then do we need such a massive brain, we can live just like rabbits and cats and dogs. Their brain size is sufficient to manage the survival of the body.
Professor David Attwell of University College London, who is researching the mechanisms by which the brain is powered, says the human brain consumes twenty percent of all energy produced, more than any other organ in the body. The brain weighs about one point six kilograms representing two percent of an average human being’s body weight. It’s the most super of supercomputers on earth. Why then do we have this amazing, unusual lump of fat at the top of your head? We don’t need such an enormous brain for survival. There is a higher purpose for our existence. We did not come to earth to subsist in this environment. There are natural laws for all species. We were the most evolved of the lot, do have to respect a superior standard to discover the full mental potential.
The Force: Look around you; a very subtle force is guiding everything; there is a natural law in operation. “Life depends on another life”. Every creature on this planet depends directly or indirectly for its survival upon another form of life. As the most evolved being on earth, we don’t need to eat flesh to sustain this body. Here we need to follow some fundamental universal laws called “Yama” and “Niyama” for psycho-spiritual development. These principles allow us to further enhance the mind’s intuitive faculties, which is our most powerful tool to understand our purpose on earth. Animals and other living forms follow the natural law of survival through their instincts. As humans, we decipher and decide by way of an intellectual or rational method. We are unable to explain our intuitive insights. We receive flashes of knowing without logic or rationality. Einstein, Mendeleev, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Darwin, Edgar Cayce, and many others figured out intuitively the solutions to their questions. They proved their hypotheses, which totally changed the way we perceive all science today. That makes humans different. We have the power of choice, to be guided by intellect and rationality, or guided by our intuition that has led to significant discoveries. What do we choose?
There must be a much higher purpose for us to have evolved to this stage with the premier mental faculty. Here we answer the spiritual reason for adhering to a plant-based diet. Each living entity wanting to thrive, live, and express itself. No animal wants to die or prematurely killed. When we look beyond race, religion, and culture, we all want to be happy, healthy, and prosperous. How we achieve that depends on our purpose in life and how we attain happiness.
We cannot find peace within ourselves if we are not willing to respect nature and be at peace with the world around us. The slaughter of animals is violent, full stop. There cannot be, such thing as “humane slaughter of animals.” The Vedas say Meat can never be obtained without injury to living creatures.” Many spiritual teachers have promoted the plant-based diet as an integral part of the spiritual path for thousands of years because not killing animals, is part of ahimsa or non-violence.
As a general precept, but also because participating in the wholesale slaughter of animals, or killing animals as entertainment or sport creates adversarial karma.
Our entire universe is vibration. Let us say we accept that our universe began 13.7 billion years ago with a big bang then from where did you and I come into being? All the scientific processes and discoveries have proofed that evolution has brought us to this stage, of course, we say everything started from the big bang, which means you, me, and all of the created life forms came from that same big bang. Since initially everything was nothing but vibration, and that means you me, and the rest of creation is likewise vibration. The presence of the elements in the universe carries their intrinsic vibration. Take, for example, the “Hydrogen molecule, oscillates at 1420 MHz. Carbon molecule 492.162 GHz, Nitrogen molecule 3.56 Mhz, etc. The basic building block of all living forms has come from a chemical combination. The very force of life begins by the transmutation of pure consciousness into the living matter by the presence of a subtle vital force that gives life its pulsation. The natural vibration has been present in all matter since the “Big Bang.”
Spirituality is about elevating your natural vibration. According to the ancient spiritual philosophy of Tantra which was first propounded by Lord Shiva 7000 years ago, there are three kinds of vibration all around us, sentient (sattvic), mutative (rajasic), static (tamasic). These waves permeate all of the creation. That is the reason you feel great sometimes, agitated or static during the different times of the day. The same vibration that is emanating all around us is also passing through all the food we consume. In Tantra philosophy, these vibrations also categorize food as sentient, mutative, and static.
You know, spiritualism and spirituality are not the same things. “Spiritualism” means something that concerns ghosts, and “spirituality” concerns the Supreme Cognitive Principle. So there is a heaven-and-hell difference between the terms “spiritualism” and “spirituality”. We are concerned with spirituality.” Shrii Shrii Ananda Murti ” The Cult of Spirituality – the Cult of Pinnacled Order.”
There is clear proof that what we eat affects our minds. To expand our consciousness, we need to keep our minds healthy by controlling what we eat. Imagine you are a car running on gasoline fuel. Instead, you fill up with diesel fuel, will your car start? No. Let’s say the driver of the car is drunk, will it be safe to drive the vehicle on the streets? There is a controller of the body, which is the mind, who acts as the driver of the car. We are not just this body, but there is a mind, which skillfully guides and channels it towards a greater purpose.
Here is the pure conscious reason why a plant-based diet is significantly more suitable for our physical and mental well-being. Our goal is not about meager existence; it’s to expand our consciousness and share the experience as one human family. When we look at life through the knowledge of the empowered mind, we begin to live in a gentler awakened manner and start respecting all forms of life. One of the reasons that many people who are in touch with their deeper self, turn to a plant-based diet. When our consciousness expands, we transform. This personal transformation will inevitably renovate our society, just like the moonshine sparkles on each raindrop. There is the cosmic soul, the supreme consciousness within each entity of creation.
Yogic science: Since the aim of a yogic spiritual path is the liberation of the self from the cycle of life and death, partaking in the slaughter of animals means prolonging our suffering by supporting the plight of others and binding us to the world. Yoga is a liberating path of inner peace and self-awareness, a journey of union between the individual self and the cosmic self.
According to Ayurveda and Tantra yoga, nature consists of three qualities or forces (gunas) known as Sattva (sentient), rajas (mutative), and Tama (static). Sattva is purity, peace, light, right action, and spiritual purpose. Raja is the principle of movement, transformation, and excitability. Tamas’ is inertia, darkness, decay, and confusion. Rajas’ comes the notion or idea that the external world is real, which makes us lose focus of our way of the world within and seek happiness outside of ourselves. Rajas create desire, ambition, mental activity, emotional imbalance, and upsets. From Tamas is that veil of ignorance our true nature and weakens our power of discrimination. Sattva gives clarity, concentration, love, joy, and devotion. Sattva, as a state of balance, is responsible for health and healing. The energy in meat is decaying and dead as such is tamasic, so it promotes that manner of mind frame, while a vegetarian diet promotes a sattvic mind, which is more peaceful and bright. Think about a lion as opposed to a deer, a cow, or a swan, and embrace the type of energy you would rather have.
There are two paths in life; one is the path of ignorance and the other the path of wisdom. The choices we make will determine the quality of our life and that of others. We need to realize the truth within ourselves rather than rely on the false propaganda fed us by profit-mongering multinational corporations. These companies have been providing disinformation through unscrupulous pseudo-scientific EVIDENCE, and RESEARCH carried out by some unethical scientist(s) whose primary interest was the financial gain at the expense of the general public. Until you examine what it is indeed to be physically fit and healthy, mentally strong, stable and emotionally balanced, and spiritually elevated, and how you manage your level of energy will determine your personality. What you do to maintain your physical body, and the mental state determines the quality of your life. The way you direct your mind and how you use your knowledge depends on the choice of the type of food you select, which determines the level of energy you have to manage your day, every day of your entire life. Let’s be clear: “you are what you eat”. What goes through your mouth controls the quality of your life. So what is wrong with eating food with a little source of vibration like meat, poultry, fish, etc.?
Let’s examine some facts. Say we go along with this concept of the big bang theory. Scientists and quantum physicists today say that everything came from the big bang. A very compressed form of energy the size of a sweet pea exploded with such a bang and expanded into what we call the universe today. All that we know scientifically today evolved from that initial blast. Stay with me, and we will get to, What’s wrong with eating food with low vibrations? First, what is vibration?
Physicist, Dr. Max Plank, who received the Nobel Prize in 1918, sometimes called “The Father of Quantum Physics”, said during his speech at the award ceremony,
“As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear-headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only under a force that brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.”
Scientists, including Einstein (called the genius of our time), and Linus Pauling (the only person to receive two unshared Nobel Prizes, and had 48 PhDs during his lifetime, whom Einstein himself called a genius), needed hard evidence to prove their theories. They needed factual data to corroborate their theses, and yet, such a renowned scientist as Max Planck asserted that there is no such thing as matter.
We live in this material world, we hear, see, touch, taste, and smell. How can we perceive the other worlds or space where there exists no such thing as matter, and how can we understand that statement? Let’s say, we agree, this only proves that you, me, all of the creation in this physical world are nothing but an illusion. Are you, are they illusions?
“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.” Max Planck The Observer (January 25th, 1931)
You are wondering what has all this to do with what we eat? Can you recognize the fact that everything we do, feel, hear, see, touch, taste, and smell are nothing but vibrations of different frequencies? According to the big bang theory, all of the creation gradually over millions and billions of years condensed into this so-called physical matter that you and I can perceive. It follows that we also agree with the fact that we came from the stars and that everything else around us, and what we eat has vibrations as well. These vibrations can be subtle, mutative, or static.
Just like you may feel great in the morning, not so great in the late afternoon and feel tired and kaput, or all washed up, in the late evening, and have to go to sleep. Similarly, these three forces are always around us. Ancient yogis called these three powers:
- Sattvik (sentient) principle: This binding quality is the most subtle. Associated with conscious awareness, simplicity, purity in thought and deed, happiness, cheerfulness, sensitivity, constantly full of energy, lightness, soft and gentle.
- Rajasik (mutative) principle: This binding quality is less subtle than the first and is agitative. Related to constant transformation, change, growth, dynamism, restlessness, not being satisfied, and activity. Tamasik (static) principle: This binding quality is the crudest of the three. Connected with lethargy, inertia, entropy, degeneration, ignorance, death, and decay.
- According to Max Planck, “Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.”
Dr. Valerie Hunt, Professor Emeritus of Physiological Science UCLA, research scientist, author, and the lecturer knew for her pioneering work in the field of bio-energy, has done groundbreaking research that has led to the first scientific understanding of the genuine relationship between energy field disturbances, disease, and emotional pathologies. All the body functions are relying on subtle electrical signals. Our muscles, nervous system, heart, and brain emit electrical signals. Dr. Hunt developed a machine that picks up subtle frequencies from the different energy centers which ancient sages have been explaining and demonstrating through cognitive prowess for thousands of years.
Most people believe the findings of renowned scientists, accepting as evidence and truth whatever all these great scientists have proved with their unique instruments. Can we also accept as true what the great yogis have determined through experiments conducted for thousands of years in their bodies and mental laboratories? The psychic and physical conclusions of these yogis are similar to the mechanical result those of Dr. Hunt. “Valerie has demonstrated the human energetic system from a scientific point of view [and] to all those ready to open themselves to the infinite possibilities; this book will be a beacon.” Infinite Mind—Science of the Human Vibrations of Consciousness. C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D. on Dr. Hunt’s seminal work.
We must conclude that “A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it ” — Max Planck, Scientific Autobiography, 1950, p. 33.
You now have to be ready for the truth which will set you free. The old guards had their chance and blew it. Now we have to awaken to the new paradigm and understanding of what a healthy lifestyle is. We all need energy; it comes in the form of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the foods we eat. To determine the energy level of your body, prerequisites for the body to sustain itself is the quality of three essential.
- Oxygen, as in the quality of the air we breathe.
- Nutrition of all forms, e.g., vitamins, minerals, enzymes, carbohydrates, proteins, essential oils, etc.
- The removal of toxins, the waste product which accumulates due to lack of sufficient drinking water, lack of exercise, overeating, improper quality and quantity of food. All these are what determines the quality of your life.
Now, what has energy got to do with the food we eat? If you have good timber, you can make good quality tables from the wood. If the quality of the wood is inappropriate, obviously the kind of furniture you make will be of low quality even if you were the best carpenter. If the raw material is of bad timber, whatever you make will not last. For a good building to last 100 years, it requires good quality raw material. In our case, the food we eat makes our body cells. As we eat good healthy food, we make good healthy cells, organs, muscles, bones, and nerves. When you put “junk” into your body, you will become a junkyard isn’t it obvious. We don’t have to be rocket scientists to figure that out, do we?
As such, we have to go to the next stage to realize that we cannot remain ignorant of what we eat. We are not to eat to fill the stomach but to feed the cells. Let’s see what a microbiologist has to say.
Robert O. Young, a microbiologist, has scientifically proven that all food has subtle vibrations. The body functions are relying on subtle electrical impulses. Our muscles, nervous systems, heart, and brain emit electrical signals. In the sixties, Dr. Valerie V. Hunt developed a machine that picks up subtle frequencies from the different energy centers of the human body, which ancient sages have chakras, thousands of years ago. Dr. Young measured vibrations of various foods and found they were emitting frequencies. He measured these subtle or static waves in megahertz (MHz). An avocado’s wavelength was found to be about 40 MHz.
He measured the vibrations of the following foods: soaked almonds, 45MHz; a rose, 320MHz; a hamburger gets as shallow as 2MHz. In the same way, the organs of our body also transmit vibrations. Our brain is vibrating at 75 MHz, heart at 70 MHz, lungs at 65 MHz, stomach at 60 MHz, liver at 60 MHz The lower we go, the lower the frequencies.
Imagine your brain working at 75 MHz, and your fuel supply to the body is a 2-MHz hamburger. Will that make you super-energized or super-tired after some time? Coke has 10 MHz. Most processed foods through their process of cleaning and polishing and extraction lost all-important nutritional value. Plain white flour and sugar are poisons for the body, yet we eat them daily, unconsciously. Consumption of these kinds of foods has very minimal energy.
Everything, everywhere, is all bundles of vibration. Please take a minute to think deeply about what we eat and discover for yourselves, that there is a force that guides everything, and that immense power will guide you to tap into the universal power. We can make a difference in our world. How not to become mere socio-economic puppets dancing to the whims of the multinational puppeteer. Decide to inform yourself of the reality.
Shrii Shrii Ananada Murti “If a person takes the food of Ta’masika nature, then automatically his natural tendency will be towards crude thoughts because the food will stimulate two lower chakras (Mu’la’dha’ra and the Sva’dhis’t’ha’na) that are static in nature.
If one eats too much Ta’masika food, these two lowest Chakras become strengthened while the eating of Ra’jasika food strengthens the Man’ipura Cakra which controls the physical energy.
Ra’jasika food supplies more energy to man for more and more action at the physical level. The Sentient food strengthens the Anahata and Vishuddha Cakra ‑ which helps very much in spiritual Sa’dhana’.”
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