Why I Am A Vegetarian

By Umapati Collins

Around 1997 I completely stopped eating meat and fish. I didn't become a vegetarian to feel physically better. My initial vegetarian diet was not even particularly healthy. My wife Lakshmi and I made several adjustments over the years to improve our nutritional and protein content while reducing sugar, fat and simple carbohydrates. We try to buy organic and locally grown food and have a supply of vegetables from our garden. I now have a more varied diet than in my past.

It took me several years to phase meat out of my diet. As I got older, I naturally reduced my red meat intake. This was more of my body telling me red meat was difficult to digest than listening to my internal moral values. After I met my spiritual teacher in 1990, I found myself naturally making adjustments in many areas of my life. I became increasingly aware of feelings of shame and sadness around eating meat. I significantly reduced my meat intake but didn't go vegetarian until a few years later following a spiritual retreat (where only vegetarian food was served). At the end of the retreat, Lakshmi and I decided to convert to full-time vegetarians.

One of the reasons for my shame was because I considered myself to be an environmentalist. Eating meat has a direct effect on two major environmental issues. The first is that it requires the killing of sentient beings for my welfare. Most livestock live in terrible conditions, are pumped full of hormones and antibiotics and experience horrific deaths. The second is that compared to vegetarian foods, producing meat is an extremely inefficient and destructive use of the earth's resources.

I don't view non-vegetarians as unconscious, insensitive or wasteful. Nonetheless, based on my personal morals, 'I' would be unconscious, insensitive and wasteful if I continued to eat meat. This is a very personal experience that each individual must address based on his or her own life experience. Most of us make attempts to reduce personal waste but we have to choose solutions that work within the parameters of our personal lifestyles. One problem is that we are continually barraged with information about behaviors that contribute to waste. This information is often so contradictory and overwhelming that we become immobilized. It is a real struggle to find the time and strength to change within the societal and economic structures that dictate our waste. It is hard to even know where to start. For me the important thing is that each person begins to identify simple reductions in waste that he or she can reasonably affect.

I believe we should focus on becoming more sensitive to the suffering caused by our lifestyles without beating ourselves up for it. In my experience, this awareness naturally leads to gradual lifestyle adjustments that limit our contributions to that suffering. Eliminating meat from my diet was one small area in which I found I could succeed.

I see compassion as living my life consciously and cultivating the awareness that I am one with all of nature. I fully believe that the miraculous, indescribable life force that resides in my body is the same living energy that emanates within all of existence. From this state of mind, I find the unnecessary killing of sentient beings to feed me, to be totally lacking in compassion and personal integrity.

Compassion doesn't exist in the mind. It only exists when we open up our hearts. My spiritual teacher encourages us to focus our lives on helping the poor, the sick and the less fortunate. She also teaches us to be caretakers of the planet, wasting nothing – not even a grain of rice. The money we waste on mindless entertainment, junk food, fancy clothes, and expensive cars, could support several third world families or even villages. In recent years I have found myself questioning the true extent of my compassion. How can I be so wasteful while at the same time accepting that so many of my brothers and sisters are in dire need.

I recall the old est teaching that most people live their lives as if they don't make a difference. There is little evidence that our lives "really matter." It requires a conscious choice to take the position that "my life matters." When I waste, I am subconsciously saying, "My life doesn't really matter." Whenever I consciously avoid waste, I am saying, "My life and this specific action does matter."

Living as if my life matters demands an ongoing examination of all my actions. In recent years Lakshmi and I have taken a stand to aggressively invest in socially conscious and green investments. Our old investment advisor felt her job was to make us (and herself) as much money as possible even if it meant investing in fast foods, the military complex, petroleum, liquor, tobacco, or industries that exploit people and the land. Lakshmi and I decided that this was unacceptable for us.

We shifted our investments to a financial manager who has been extraordinary in finding alternative investments we feel comfortable with. We are doing nearly as well today as we would have with non-green investing. The past couple of years, we have observed the market for these types of investments expanding. I feel we are contributing to converting global investment strategies to become more morally and environmentally friendly.

Becoming vegetarian was just a step in a process of evolution that has transformed me in ways that go far beyond my eating habits. My intention to live consciously has allowed me to integrate the personal, professional and spiritual aspects of my life. Today I co-facilitate breathwork workshops with my wife and practice Jyotish (Vedic Astrology). As a side benefit, I have found that being a vegetarian has increased my intuition and clarity, which is vital in both practices.

We are all dynamic individuals who have our own ways of perceiving ourselves and the world. We have our own paths to learn what it means to be responsible human beings. My wish is that your path is full of Divine blessings.

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