Eating eggs in Sikhism.

[Dhan Guru Nanak]

WJKK WJKF

I believe this is my first post on this forum so please go easy. Just a bit of background before I go into my question. I am a 26 year old Sikh- born in India but moved overseas when I was young and just finished university in Australia. I used to eat eggs and meat but stopped before taking Amrit a few years back. I have not eaten any more meat or eggs since then and neither do I have any cravings to do so (just in case people try to say that is my motivation for starting this thread).

Now this question is a result of having some discussions with some of my Australian friends who asked me why it is that I as a Sikh have chosen to refrain from eating eggs along with meat? Now the meat part for me is easy. Even though from what I know of the Rehat Maryada it is only specifically forbidden for Sikhs to eat Halal meat, from a personal point of view I am against eating meat because it is taking the life away from an animal.

However in terms of eggs I had trouble explaining the reason. Almost all commercially sold eggs (esp overseas) are unfertilised. They are the normal by products of a hen's reproductive cycle. There is no actual loss of life (i.e. the hen) and there is no potential loss of life (i.e. there is no embryo as the egg is not fertilised). Also in free range eggs there is usually little other harm done to the hen.

So why do most Sikhs who do not eat meat also don't eat eggs? Sikhs are not vegans. We eat animal products (eg. cheese, milk, honey) as long as it does not cause any loss of life. So technically how is it any different from drinking milk?

From my limited knowledge I do not believe it states in Gurbani or the Rehat Maryada that Sikhs should not eat eggs. But if someone can point me in the right direction that would be very much appreciated (especially specific shabads).

Once again this is an honest question and I would appreciate all responses as this has been nagging me for a while. And if you could please answer specifically in terms of eggs and not meat (which I already explained my view) that would be fantastic as a similar thread a few years back got side tracked because everyone just started talking about meat.

Thank you to all who reply.

WJKK WJKF.

[luckysingh99]

Yes the eggs we purchase are not embryo's and are not a would be life.

They are a by product and are produced as per cycles of the hen. There is nothing cruel about taking them from the hen than taking milk for that matter.

The problem is the lack of education and hindu vegan influences whereby eggs are not eaten with the false belief that a life is killed or stopped from producing.

No one can justify or explain why you should not have eggs but you can take milk because of the lack of knowledge.

What you do is up to you and gurbani does not say either way it is neutral on this issue.

[Jangal Da]

Welcome Gurbhai

This is very interesting and so I shall be asking my fellows in the community whose Sikhi jeevans are greater than mine.

I do not think this debate infringes the forum rules, but cuts close and is 'food for thought' (sorry - could not help the pun), so I do not reckon we can go into a deeper discussion on the SikhSangat platform unless Mods give their nods.

[N30S1NGH]

This is good topic, its one of those topics which no one wants to discuss and its shoved under the carpet....I was bit in a dilemma too before for a bit.. It started off with my wife side of family pointing out the whole discussion regarding fertilized eggs vs non fertilized eggs thats there is nothing wrong with eating- non fertilized eggs as its non fertile..despite of finding myself agreeing with the point that there is nothing wrong with eating non fertilized eggs, i still decided NOT to eat eggs period solely on the fact- neither do i have time, energy or desire to go out of my way to shop around for non fertilize eggs and get into this whole chasing which one is fertilize eggs and which one is not fertilize egg. If its solely based on health deficiency aspect, then its a different story but if one is healthy i think one should going out of way to shop around non ferilize eggs because margin of error is high and besides on a bigger note- it kind of defeats the purpose of gursikh not looking pro-actively for taste buds be it non fertilize eggs or enrich rajoguni food equally.

[luckysingh99]

If i'm not wrong,I believe that all the eggs available for purchase are non active or not fertilisable.

This information was first given to me by some strict gora vegans who couldn't undertstand why I thought milk was fine and eggs were not.

I soon learned that the cows are put through much more cruelty and strain in order to give us our daily milk than hens go through with eggs. The eggs on the supermarket shelves are all waste prodcts of the hens cycle as mentioned. The hen naturally produces these no matter what, although I need to check on which ones get induced or stimulated to produce more eggs which would mean tampering with their hormones.

I'm not sure what the situation is with that and exactly what 'free range' means, but I will try and learn.

Bottom line is don't feel so gulity if you have accidently eaten a cake or cookie with egg product in it because it is not what we make it out to be.

However, we should all learn a little more to get a better understanding.

If it's more to do with nature just like honey and bees are, then we need to educate ourselves about it.

[N30S1NGH]

Very interesting point luckysingh99. I love to get wider input on this from the panth/parcharaiks/mahapursh/scholars etc..!!!.. I will talk to my divine friend who studied Gurmat at samparda 10+ years regarding this topic...will report back in this thread once i get more info on this. Can anybody can confirm if in india they only sell fertilized eggs or non fertilized eggs?

[Singh559]

It's still a fetus :\

[youarereadingthis20]

Personally, I think that an egg have the possibility to become a life form if it IS fertilized. That's the reason why I don't eat them

[luckysingh99]

It's still a fetus :\

This is what we are saying- that it's NOT a fetus !!

Sounds weird, I know, I only learnt of this within the last year and it got me thinking.

You see it's just like the lining that develops in a human female. This lining is every 28 days and if no egg is fertilised then it is just a waste prodeuct that is eliminated ie.. the monthly bleed.

So you undertstand that NO fetus is bled or eliminated. In the same way the egg is eliminated from the hen in their cyles which are something like one and a half weeks or similar

Only IF a ROOSTER is present can they be fertilised and then will develop into chicks !

The points that a lot of strict vegans and vegetarians make is the cruelty in to keeping these hens for that purpose and just using their eggs for a couple of years and then killing them after,- HENCE, we have 'free range' where these conditons are not imposed.

Their argument is that cow cruelty for supllying milk is worse because the milk is never given from mother to baby as nature intends but the mother cow is kept away from it's babies and used to supply us gallons and gallons of milk.

After a few years this cow is also killed and used for meat !!

So where is the real cruelty worse, the eggs OR milk ?

This leads to some true strict gora veggie that claim there is less cruelty in just killing an animal from its natural environment and then eating it compared to rearing and maintaining one to use and abuse for supplying milk and then having a good weight on it for years to later use it for meat. In other words it is only kept healthy so that it can supply us milk and then later some good ounces of meat !

Where does that leave eggs ?

Same kind goes on here. They keep these hens and chicks to be free and healthy supplying us their wasted eggs and then they too get killed for the meat !!

[luckysingh99]

Personally, I think that an egg have the possibility to become a life form if it IS fertilized. That's the reason why I don't eat them

It can't be fertilised once it's out. The egg comes out regardless.

If a rooster is present then the egg will be ferilised if not then the same egg is simply eaten by the chicks and hens because it is nutritous.

The real reason why we don't eat them is because of old hindu and indian veggie beliefs whereby milk and other dairy is allowed but not eggs.

A real vegan does not have any animal products, so no cheese, milk, eggs, yoghurt..etc..

This is why we have this extra veggie term called 'HINDU VEG' when we order flight meals and in some restaurants.

It simply means NO MEAT and NO EGG - but other animal products are OK.

Do we just blame brahmin and vedic contributions for this ignorance or do we move forward and learn ?