Why I quit eating meat

lakhvir · May 5, 2004

GuruFatehJi

it did not take anyone to put pressure on me to quit eating meat. eating meat has been the biggest confusion among sikhs and even amritdhari sikhs will stress on all sikhs that a sikh must be a vegeterian. i do not have the intention to say who is right and who is wrong in this debatable issue.

i've never been a meat fan but i did not mind processed meat like hot dogs, meat sandwiches and all that. i used to love hot dogs and they are the ones that got me to quit eating non-vegeterian food altogether.

it was one of those days when i stopped by a store to grab a hotdog and half way through eating it made me feel so horrible inside. all of a sudden, it tasted really bad. the more my spirit complained the more i hated every bite. and that was it. i had made up my mind that the spirit was not willing yo accept any more non-vegeterian stuff.

i love sikhi and read books and get inspired to become a real singh, a true khalsa. as yet, i can very easily call myself one but i know that i'm lying to myself and i am not until i take the eternal gift of amrit. until that happens, i know that each time i take a step in learning more about my religion and it's values, the more the inner spirit guides me.

giving up eating meat was one of those calls from the inner spirit. and having made up my mind 100% on never to go back to eating meat again, i have never felt cleaner and happier in spirit. the soul feels good.

no one ever told me that eating meat was okay for sikhs because every sikh has a doubt over it. some love and cannot leave it but that's their life and i am no one to get them to stop. likewise, just as no one invited me to begin

eating meat, no one adviced me to stop and that means a lot to me. that's because the world can mislead but the inner spirit will never mislead. that's what i have come to believe.

it's not at all difficult having people around you eating non-vegeterian food. it's their choice to eat meat and equally mine not to do the same. i respect everyone's choice because that's what kills our ego. i have friends who i go out with who eat meat but never has any thought occured to me to ask them why they eat meat. i doesn't mean anything to me.

a sikh friend of mine does not eat meat at all except for fish [ which many people believe is not meat! ]. he's a full kesdhari sikh who doesn't seem to have clipped off even one string of hair amongst most of our sikh youths in kenya who have trimmed beards. i respect my friend, to notice how he's holding on so religiously to the gift of kesh. the only thing he does, which most people will say is wrong for a sikh to do, is eat fish. i have never intended to get him to stop eating fish if he already keeps away from other meats. i know that the day he feels it is wrong to eat fish, he will stop. and that is what happened with my case. the day i realised my body did not crave for meat, i stopped in my tracks. but that is not the end to being a non-vegeterian.

it's only been a couple of months since i gave up meat and it is interesting to note that whenever i ask for a vegeterian menu at the restaurants, there are some riased eyebrows '. . . huh? a sikh not wanting meat?' that is the impression people have of most sikhs in my country that sikhs are never known to keep away either the chicken or the bottle of alcohol. sikhs in my country are known to be good drinkers. it's a sad impression but in a country where the sikh leaders are also good boozers themselves, we all know too well that an ill in the society will go on.

well, to conclude my little story which i thought i would share with my cybersikhs,

i only felt the need to tell it as much as i felt the need to quit eating meat. it is easy to criticise someone but not so easy to correct. the meat eating debate will live many lore long years in the sikh community until in each one of us the inner voice is listened to and obeyed. for now, we cannot expect every sikh to be spiritually inclined. that is how we are made. at times, it is best to have a chat with your friends but whatever message they get out of the chat is up to each one of us. just like our gurus never criticised a wayward sikh, they corrected them in their own individual ways. but how many of us practice the humility of our most revered gurus?

to those who eat meat, i would say that it does not change my impression about you and that you are just as much loved by the guru as much as his gursikhs are. only we must learn to listen to the inner voice that does not like to shout. are we listening?

L*

PS: It's been over 3 years since I wrote this article for Sikhnet, and since, even my friend (who I mentioned used to eat only fish) has quit completely. Today, he says, he cannot even stand the smell of it. Dhan WaheGuru!!