Any query......

[Somik Raha]

Vivek Anand Ganesan wrote :
> 1) Kshatriya-s and shUdra-s are allowed to eat meat.
>    But, it is forbidden for brAhmaNa-s ( although some
>    brAhmaNa-s such as kashmiris and bengalis do eat

Hmm.. when I was in the South - I asked my Brahmin friends if they were
non-veg. They would be shocked - "Of course not! We're brahmins." - then
sheepishly, "but we take it outside our home".

I wouldnt like to generalize, but almost everyone I knew in a middle class
Brahmin school had this to say. Like in your later mail about the oily stuff
at home - makes us wonder how much hippocrisy is going on...

>    Incidentally, you may be born a
>    kshatriya but you are currently performing a job that
>    does not require hard labour. How do you justify your
>    dietary preference? Convenience alone is not good enough
>    a reason.

Now thats a beautiful point (I agree completely). I simply cant justify the
luxurious Indian diet of the North for this reason. Its great for farmers
though and for folks who do hard physical labour. If I may turn the question
around - what about Brahmins - how many Brahmins - according to the
Mahabharata live simply depending on nature for their existence - and are
engaged in teaching activities of the shastras ? By this logic, Brahmins of
today are not really to be considered Brahmins, and hence the rules
applicable in olden times may not be so applicable.

Baba Loknath Brahmachari was asked (I am not sure about the date - probably
two hundred years back), how many real Brahmins were there in the world. He
replied -there are three. One is myself, second is Trailangya Goswami (a
famous sadhak - I think from UP), and the third is Sufi pir meditating in
the Arabian desert.

> 2) As you have mentioned above, mere vegetarianism alone
>    does not a sattvic food make. You are right in saying
>    that excessiviely oily or spicy food ( no matter veg. or
>    non-veg. ) is not sattvic.

Yes -  I think thats the bottom line.

Regards,
Somik