Sparking a Thought

Thanks to Janet who mentioned something on Jean's blog, which got me started on this particular post!

A few days ago I was discussing food with a friend and then we moved on to India, from there to food in India and finally to restaurants in India. Once there I started talking about veg and non veg foods and how it was important in India to have vegetarian choices. Obviously there are a lot of vegetarians in India...but my friend decided to ask me what a vegetarian is and how vegetarianism came about in India.

I could and should have just looked it up, but I chose to use my favorite method of all and did some open free flow babbling to get to the root of vegetarianism in India. So please beware, the following hypothesis is not based on any facts that I have substantiated as of yet...but as usual I feel confident in my bizarre sense of logic. So here goes!

First of all, as far as I am concerned a vegetarian is a person who does not consume the flesh of animals, fish included and refrains from eating eggs as well. However, they do not refrain from dairy products such as cheese. I know there are people who now refrain from cheese because of renin/rennet but for the purpose of my discussion, those people are being ignored.

Secondly, as far as I know, the cow was never really 'sacred' as far as the western understanding of the word goes. Yes, the cow is 'worshipped' in one sense, but I believe that was because it was such an important part of daily living. The cow's milk was sustenance, the cow dung fertilizer, the cow plowed the field, blah blah blah...so the cow became so important you only slaughtered one on very special occassions. Let's face it, when the cow could provide so much, why on earth would you kill one...hence the rarity of beef. In fact, if I remember correctly, the Vedic scriptures even refer to feasting on the flesh of a cow...so yeah, our ancient and most holy and venerable ones ate beef!

Okay so if I am correct so far, and I think I am, how exactly did vegetarianism become so prominent. I think it is based more on the idea of how prayer can affect your life. In India faith is strong. Bottom line, put your faith in God (take your pick of which God) and viola all can be resolved. Now how exactly would one show they have faith in God and believe that God will fix their problems, why by picking a day to worship that God of course! Okay so now we have picked a day, and we obviously have a specific problem in mind, so how are we to show we are worthy of God's intervention. Well let's see, the easiest way would be to make a sacrifice of some sort. Sacrificing an animal would be stupid, since that would harm one of God's creations, so let's do something that shows we have strength of will and commitment. Okay why not fast for a day and begin and end that day with prayers.Logical move to me. (I have to interject at this point my friend asked why cutting down a stalk of corn was not considered harming one of God's creations and although I have an answer for that, I chose to answer in the following way. "Shut up and listen, I'm on a roll, we can discuss that another day!"

So now we have someone picking a specific day on which they will observe prayers and a fast of some sort. Whether it's just fasting in the form of no food before sundown, or fruits only, or no meat...whatever, it's just some sort of a fast.

Now we get to the interesting part. As far as I can see, any of the following are common and apparently good reasons to ask for God's intervention:

• A family member needs to find a suitable mate
• A family member needs to do well on their exams
• A family member needs a good job
• A family member's health is failing
• Your health is failing
• Your daughter is not pregnant yet and should be
• Your daughter in law is not pregnant yet and should be
• You aren't pregnant yet and should be
• You wish to be more patient
• You wish to be more compassionate
• You wish to be successful
• You need to make more money
• Your son needs to make more money
• Your husband needs to make more money
• Your daughter needs to visit you more often
• Your son should observe his family duties and care for his aging parents
• Your son or daughter need to take better care of their children
• You daughter in law needs to stop abusing you
• Your grandchild is not particularly pleasing to look at and you wish to help them become more attractive
• Your child is not that attractive and you want to make sure somebody finds them attractive
• Someone in your family has been touched by the 'evil eye' and this needs to be removed
• You feel oppressed and believe an 'evil eye' has been cast upon you
• Your mind is restless and you do not feel at peace
• You think your child's mind is restless and they need to find peace
• You think your son or daugther in law's mind is restless and you want them to find peace
• You don't know what you should be doing in life and you want direction
• You want someone you know to find direction in life
• There are tragedies happening around you, and you want those affected by that tragedy to find comfort
• You feel your actions caused strife for your family or friends and you wish to recitfy the solution
• Your pet is ill
• Your need a better home
• Your children are successful and you want to ensure their continued happiness and protect them from the 'evil eye'
• Your family is happy, you want to protect them from the 'evil eye'
• You have lost someone you love and you wish to find comfort
• Your business is failing and you wish for it to become more successful
• Your son/daughter/son in law/daughter in law/husband is lazy and this needs to be rectified
• Your friends are all married and now you need to find a husband
• To pray and abstain from eating shows strength of character and fortitude which can only be increased by continuing to pray for the strength of character and fortitude to allow you to keep a fast

Now remember, that is only a partial list! So basically if you give up eating meat on a specific day to accomplish one task...the bottom line becomes clear - Be a vegetarian and pray every day and your life will be good. Thus vegetarianism and the strong faith in India is now explained.
My tendency towards fatness, my lack of direction in life, and my lack of a husband are now also all explained.

Well I'm off to buy some steak, see ya later!
Swapna