Photo: Felix Muzquiz
A H IMS A 101: D O E S E AT I N G ME AT INTER FER E WIT H T H E D E E P E N I N G O F OUR YOGA PRAC T IC E ? By Suzie Muchnick, with Michael Spencer
S
cience reveals the stunning benefits of a plant-based
Guruji and Prashantji have both said that they do not demand
diet—in fact, the claimed effects of veganism seem
that their students be vegetarian. They know that time and
impossible sometimes. Will avoiding meat actually
yoga practice will naturally lead to vegetarianism. In the
help save the planet and reduce pollution, all the
introduction to Light on Yoga, Guruji writes, “Whether or not to
while helping us dodge diabetes, cancer, and heart disease?
be a vegetarian is a purely personal matter… But, in the course
Actually, yes, the claims are true, and more: Eliminating
of time, the practitioner of yoga has to adopt a vegetarian diet,
animal flesh from our diets could dramatically reduce global
in order to attain one-pointed attention and spiritual evolution.”
hunger, and it honors animals.
Digest that as you will.
Despite all of these claims, many people continue to eat meat.
The notion that yoga practice brings vegetarianism isn’t unique
Why? People do things for many reasons. Frequently, we do
to Guruji. Hindu scholar Edwin Bryant’s extensive commentary
things against our own self-interest, balancing the desire of the
on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali paraphrases Hariharananda, head
moment against a long, healthy life. Or we convince ourselves,
of the Kriya Yoga Institute in the U.S., stating that the fifth limb
despite the evidence, that eating meat is the only way to get the
of yoga, Dharana or concentration, is essential for perfecting the
nutrition we need. And sometimes even our doctors tell us we
Yamas and Niyamas. While ahimsa is presented in the sutras as
need meat to stay healthy. There’s an inexplicable streak of
the very first Yama that a practitioner must follow, Dharana
individualism in all of us that sometimes makes no sense
deepens our ability to practice the earlier limbs. And so as our
whatsoever, and yet without it, the magic of being human
practice deepens, our understanding of ahimsa will also
would be gone. Indeed, we must make these choices for
broaden and may come to include practicing vegetarianism.
ourselves as individuals. In Volume 4 of Astadala Yogamala, Guruji graphically illustrates But as yogis, how does the food we eat affect our practice?
another reason to consciously choose what you eat: “A
And does eating meat actually go against the first Yama—
nonvegetarian diet is not conducive to the mental and spiritual
ahimsa, or nonviolence?
aspects of yoga. When an animal is lead to a slaughterhouse, does anyone study the terror, fear, and anguish before it is
While the Iyengars have not published extensively on the topic,
slaughtered? This consequently changes the chemical
Guruji makes it clear in Light on Yoga that a vegetarian diet is
composition of the animal’s body, which is very disturbed.
essential for practicing yoga. In his introductory discussion of
When one eats this disturbed, perturbed, frightened, and
ahimsa, he writes, “Men either kill for food or to protect
chemically changed flesh of the animal, naturally it affects the
themselves from danger. But merely because a man is a
system and disturbs the harmony of one’s body and mind.” As
vegetarian, it does not necessarily follow that he is nonviolent
Guruji framed the process, does it really matter if the meat was
by temperament or that he is a yogi, though a vegetarian diet is a
“factory farmed” or “free-range”?
necessity for the practice of yoga. Blood-thirsty tyrants may be vegetarians, but violence is a state of mind, not of diet.” Spring/Summer 2014 Yoga Samachar
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