[Advaita-l] more on food habits - Correction

[Satish Arigela]

namaste,
 
>On Jan 3, 2011, at 12:48 AM, Sunil Bhattacharjya <sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com> 
>wrote:
 >There are however some tantric rituals, wher animal is sacrificed and only the 
non-vegetarians follow this >practice and not the vegetarians have to eat meat. 
Tantra does not believe in forcing people to give up >their addictions forcibly. 
One who is advanced eventually gives up the addictions.
 
A contemporary vegetarian brAhmaNa does not use meat in a tAntric ritual *only* 
because he will be violating his AchAra according to  modern smriti-s like for 
the example the parAsara smriti which is supposed to adhere to.
 
The reason meat is used in some tantric rituals is because, for the tAntrika and 
his particular path it has a philosophical/ritualistic significance...and *not* 
because the tAntrika is habituated to eating meat.
 
In other words in the tAntric context, a vIra(a tAntrika word for one who has 
the senses under perfect control and is additonally equipped with mantra siddhi) 
may use meat and even drink in his ritual even though he never craves for it. 

 
To further clarify, if the tAntrIka ritualist craves for meat or wine he is 
considered unfit and hence he will never be initiated into those rituals. This 
point is clarified repeatedly in scores of tAntrika(especially in the dakShiNa 
srotas or the bhairavAgama) works.