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The recent out-break of E.coli in Europe, due to bacterial contamination in
vegetables caused death of 18 people. Immediately people started convincing
others and there were lots of news in electronic and mass media, spreading
rumors that vegetables are not at all suitable for human consumption. This
is the height of demoniac mentality.


Birth and death of any living entity is as per Krishna's plan and all the
reasons we see for its cause like disease, accident, murder etc, are mere
external reasons. Human beings have been eating vegetables for millions of
ages and have been leading a very healthy life. In fact, vegetarians have a
longer and healthier life span compared to meat-eaters. Meat is nothing but
dead matter and we all know how bodies decay as soon as soul leaves it. So,
what is the fun in eating such obnoxious, decayed dead matter? In fact,
there is high probability of bacteria and worms to be present in such dead
matter rather than in vegetables.

But, indeed it is not surprising that people who love to eat meat are
passing such comments about consuming vegetables. Our beloved spiritual
master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj used to say in Gujarati - "jevu
bhojan, tevu bhajan, ane tevu pachhi vesh, ane tevu bhaashan" - meaning, "
Whatever food we eat, the bhajan comes accordingly and we dress and speak
accordingly". If we eat saatvic food offered to the Lord, then we will be
able to sing Krishna's bhajan and wear simple clothes and our speech will
also be pure - about Krishna. Whereas if we eat taamasic/raajasic food,
then our bhajan will be on mundane things and that will reflect in our
degraded way of dressing and speech.

Krishna being our Supreme Father and creator of the whole cosmic
manifestation, knows very well what is good for each species of life and
has accordingly arranged for suitable body for each of them. He has further
declared in Bhagavad Gita verse 9.26



        patram pushpam phalam toyam / yo me bhaktyaa prayacchati
           tad aham bhakty-upahrtam / ashnaami prayataatmanah


"If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water,
I will accept it."

Lord is not asking for fish, eggs, meat etc. So just because our senses are
craving for meat, we should not commit the sin of offering whatever we want
to the Lord. He is prescribing only for simple saatvic food and that too
importance is given for the mood with which we are offering this to Him.
That's why the word "bhakti", meaning "loving devotion" is stressed twice
in the above verse.


In his wonderful purport to above verse, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada
very nicely brings out this point. He further says, "If one wishes to
engage in devotional service to the Supreme in order to be purified and to
reach the goal of life the transcendental loving service of God then one
should find out what the Lord desires of him. One who loves Krishna will
give Him whatever He wants, and he avoids offering anything which is
undesirable or unasked. Thus meat, fish and eggs should not be offered to
Krishna. If He desired such things as offerings, He would have said so.
Instead, He clearly requests that a leaf, fruit, flowers and water be given
to Him, and He says of this offering, "I will accept it." Therefore, we
should understand that He will not accept meat, fish and eggs. Vegetables,
grains, fruits, milk and water are the proper foods for human beings and
are prescribed by Lord Krishna Himself. Whatever else we eat cannot be
offered to Him, since He will not accept it. Thus we cannot be acting on
the level of loving devotion if we offer such foods."

But, it is very true that only those who sincerely desire to learn the
truth, will be able to appreciate and follow the above words of Lord
Krishna. People who are skeptical and challenging attitude, will never be
able to appreciate, relish or even come close to Krishna and His
instructions.


In this regard we came across a short story about an old man who was
serving water to people on the road. There were many people passing by.
Those who were thirsty were very glad to see the old man and they
thankfully drank the water and left. But there was one man, who went near
the old man and asked so many questions like whether the water is good/bad,
the source of water, why he is serving it, whether he has washed the pot or
not, whether he has filtered the water or not, whether he is paid for this
service etc. After asking so many questions, still the person went away
without taking water from that person. The reason being he was not thirsty,
but still wanted to just challenge the person who is doing some service.

On the other hand we also come across some category of people who claim
that they never thought/knew that eating meat is a sinful activity. But in
the name of being ignorant they cannot escape from the reactions of such
sinful acts.


In one of the Bhagavatam classes, Srila Prabhupada has mentioned that
people are suffering due to their sinful activities. He says, "Just like a
man does not know the traffic rules. He drives the car on wrong side and
incurs some accident, and he is taken by the police custody. And if he
says, "Sir, I did not know that here the car is driven from the right
side," that does not make him excused. The law will punish him. So
ignorance is the cause of breaking the law, or sinful activities and as
soon as you commit some sinful activity, you have to suffer the result." It
is also said that for every animal they eat, they will be killed by the
same animal in subsequent births.

Source: An extract from an email by H G Tushta Krishna Prabhu and H G
Suniti Mataji (disciples of H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj) to Grantraj
yahoo groups.