Meet your Meat…
Ok… I just came across this video and thought I would share it with you all. I’m not trying to give a guilt trip to those people that eat meat, but I think is important to be aware and know the reality of inhumane treatment; To know what happens to animals before it ends up on your plate. It is amazing how "meat farmers" can be so cold and heartless, and do the things they do to the animals. The mass production of companies and goal of higher profits is all part of it. It really shows how humans can be desensitizing to not have feelings of suffering for living things. As long as it is not human…then it must be ok? I don’t think so. The reality is that most people have no idea what goes on behind the scenes at these "farms". It is not only the treatment…it is the drugs (hormones, anti-biotics) which they use to make the animals grow faster and stay alive long enough for slaughter. These drugs and chemicals are in the meat which you eat and pose a risk in your health too. You are what you eat, right? This is not even going into the health issues with just eating meat. Some Sikhs say… "as long as the animal is not killed in the Halal way then it is ok". If you ask me…I would consider most meat to be killed in the "halal way", aka: inhumanely. When you go to the super market and buy some meat or order a hamburger…do you ever relate that chunk of meat to something that used to be living and was treated very badly? I think these days we have become very disconnected with things on this the earth. I won’t go on since I know this is a touchy subject for many. I’m not trying to make people feel bad. I just want people to know the reality. For me without even going into anything Sikhi I won’t eat meat for these reasons. There are so many negative things about it and it is not worth it to me. These days there are so many options for being vegeterian that filling my stomach at the expense of pain and suffering to animals doesn’t go well with me.Click Here To watch the video. Not recommended for Children. Graphic material!!Also check out the Meatrix which us a light cartoon spoof of "The Matrix" movie and gives some of the basics. If you must eat meat then search this website for places you can buy meat that is healthfull, humane and better for the environment.Interested in learning more about becoming vegetarian? You can order a free Vegetarian Starter Kit! or download the PDF file which has all kinds of good information, recipes, etc.Ps. If you do eat meet I highly recommend that you read up at: www.GoVeg.com. On the left hand side there is a section called "The Issues" which gives an overview of the different issues relating to eating meat that you should be concerned with (Cruelty to Animals, Health Concerns, The Environment, World Hunger, Poisoning Communities, etc). For those who would rather not know about this stuff…some quotes to think about: "The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding." – "Ignorance is not bliss – it is oblivion"If you have comments please keep them nice and clean.
60 Responses to “Meet your Meat…”
Do You Enjoy MrSikhNet.com?
Can you help support SikhNet so this blog and the many services of SikhNet can continue? Donations small & large are greatly appreciated. Make a Donation.
Recent Posts
- Quotes on the Power of Woman
- Share you love of Gurbani Kirtan
- Time Lapse Photography in Nature
- Sikh Superhero Agent Deep Singh
- Universal Sikhi – Across cultures, religions and continents
- Dignity of the Mother
- Prabhupati: Becoming the Master of the Divine
- Aaraadhana – Acting Divinely
- What my Amrit Veylaa Sadhana Gives Me
- Know the Lowest, Aim for the Highest
Ann,
Banda Sahib Gurudwara has a beutiful building right next to Nagina Ghat on banks of Godavari. This building was build following Sikh fetish for marble about 10 years ago. I have pictures of Gurudwara from my college days as I did my engineering in Nanded.
If you have a copy of the Amrit Keertan Pothee, you may want to turn to the pages from 656 to 659 and you will see their shabads by Bhagat Kabir Ji, Bhai Gurdas Ji as well as well as Guru Nanak Dev Ji and Guru Arjan Dev ji, which are depicting “sab jeean te deya karnee”. (Have compassion for all living things)
Here are a few sloks which outrightly prohibits meat comsumption.
Kabeer jeea ju maraih jor kar, kaihte hai jo halaal
daftar daee jab kaaDh hai, hoigaa koan havaal.//199// (1375.G.G.S.)
Sayeth Kabir, sayeth thou by “forcefully” killing living beings, Halaal.
When in God’s house, your accounts be taken, what will then there happen to you!
Kabeer jor keeaa su julam hai, lay-e jabaab khudaae
daftar lekhaa neeksai, maar muhai muh khaae.//200// (1375)
Sayeth Kabir, using force is unlawful, God shall question this.
when your accounts will be opened, you shall reap on your face a God’s wrath.
Bed Kateb kahaih mat jhootey, jhootaa jo naa bichaarai,
jo sabh mai ek khudaae kahait ho, tio kio murgee marai?! (1350)
Do not say that the vedas are false, false are those who do not reflect.
If in all is one God, then why does one kill the hen!
Kabeer bhang mashalee suraapaan, jo jo pranee khaan-he
teerath barat neym kee-ey, te sabh rasaatal jaan-he (1377)
suraapaan=alcohol rasaatal=below hell, underground.
Those people who drink bhang, eat fish, drink alcohol,
and do ritual bathing, keep fast, all shall be burried underground.
Kabeer khoob khaanaa kheecharee, jaa mai amrit loon,
heyraa rotee kaarney, galaa kataavai kaon! (1378)
heyraa=meat by hunting
Sayeth Kabir, that the best food is eating, kichree=dals where nectar-sweet is the salt.
You eat hunted meat, but which animal is willing to have their head cut?!
Jeea badh-hu su dharam kar thaaphu, adharam kaih-hu kat bhaaee.
Aapas kao munivar kar thaphu, ka kao kaih-hu kaasaaee? (1102-1103)
munivar-saintly people kaasaaee-butchers badh-hu=killing
On killing animals you have created your religion (the path of righteousness),
then my brother what do we say is not religion (righteousness?)
You call yourself, saintly people, then who do we call butchers?!
There are many more as well by Bhai Gurdas ji,
Var 31 pouRee 9
je kasaaee udhariaa, jeea ghaae na khaaeeaa bhungaa.
Just because the Guru has saved the butcher,
that does not mean that we should kill animals and eat them.
(Need to read the whole Var to understand the first half of my statement!)
Guru Arjan Dev Ji says, Pg 201
Bed PaRai mukh meeTee BaNee, Jeean kuhat na sangai praaNee.
sangai=ashamed kuhat-kill praaNee-humans Jeean-living beings
After reading the entire shabad, this line depicts, that the so called learned, saintly people read the sweet hymns of the Veds using their mouths, however they do not hesitate(feel ashamed) to kill animals.
An article i came accross on the following website, No one has failed to answer where vegetarianism crept into sikhism…
http://www.shastarvidiya.org/htmls/mahaparshad_fanatics.html
The present day wide spread hostility towards eating Chatka meat, and preaching of vegetarianism amongst Khalsa Sikhs arose in the 1980s.
All these militants agreed on one major issue, that of vegetarianism. They turn a blind eye to the historical evidence and truths that existed in order to push their own ideology forward. Even great Sikhs such as Baba Gurbachan Singh of Sampardah Bhindra, a one time Chatka and Sukha consuming Nihang of the Budha Dal, accepted that as a last resort, a Khalsa Sikh may consume Chatka meat.
The militant regimes spread like wild fire in the 1980s through the Sikh world, especially after desecration of the Golden Temple in 1984. Many Sikhs all around the world, listening to these fanatics with a vengeance adopted vegetarianism.
It has to be noted, that there is nothing wrong if one adopts vegetarianism, but these vegetarian zealots began to attack all non-vegetarian Sikhs and claimed them to be ‘anti-Sikh’.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, throughout Punjab these militant vegetarian Khalsa Sikhs, etc. in an Afghan-Taliban manner, were enforcing their perception of Khalsa code at point of a gun barrel on other Sikhs.
Sehejdhari’ (clean-shaven) Sikhs, Chatka/Sukha consuming Nihangs, Chatka eating Sikhs, Sikh girls not wearing ‘Keski’ (small turban), Sikh girls with cut hair, Sikh college girls wearing make-up, Nirmala Sadhus, Udhasi Sadhus, butchers, barbers, alcohol sellers, Punjabi folk singers, Punjabi press, school teachers, large Sikh wedding parties etc., were ALL targeted by these Sikh extremists in order to make them conform to their particular version of fundamentalist Sikhism and political views.
Fortunately these fanatics eventually, after a reign of great terror, lost out in the Punjab. It is the remnants of these lost fanatical souls who so try to enforce their vegetarian Khalsa Sikhism on other Sikhs that have so objected to the images of Chatka on this website.
Yet if vegetarianism is a essential must to be Sikh then what of those countries in the world say for example, the Scandinavian countries etc. where humans, in order to survive, HAVE to supplement their diet with meat and fish. Then is Sikhism not for that corner of the world?
Even in the Punjab, prior to the Green Revolution in the 1960s, the vast majority of Sikhs in the Punjab supplemented their diet with quail, pheasant, goat, chicken, etc. If killing animals is such a sin as these fanatic vegetarians claim, then what of the Punjabi farmer? Like all farmers world over, he employs pesticides to rid his fields of vermin.
The majority of modern western medicines have been tested on animals then are Sikhs supposed to abandon their use? Even vegetarian Ayurvedic (traditional Indian medicine) practicing Sanatan Sikhs such as the Udasis acknowledge that sometimes in order to cure an illness, one has to use an animal product.
Many every day products in the West such as bread, cakes, biscuits, crisps, chocolate, ice cream, toothpaste, toiletries, etc. contain animal products such as Gelatine (animal fat), colorings, binding-agents, etc. Should Sikhs boycott these products?
To be a vegetarian is perfectly acceptable. Indeed, one of Nihang Niddar Singh’s Gurdevs, Udhasi Baba Gram Das Ji, was a strict vegetarian, but one must keep a realistic perspective on the issue and not blow it out of proportion and end up in cuckoo land such as some Sikh are guilty of doing.
Early last century, the leading Tat Khalsa Singh Sabhia intellectual Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha, in his famous encyclopedia of Sikhism under the heading, ‘Maas’, (meat), quite aptly wrote:
‘In the Sikh religion the eating of meat is not recommended like in Hinduism, nor like in Buddhism and Jainism is it banned.’
(Mahan Kosh, Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha, 1926)’
IF (i know it’s a big if) it’s okay for sikhs to eat meat. then is it okay for amritdharis to eat meat?
if not then why not?
ps…which guru started amrit shakna practice?
pardon the ignorance as always!
I think it depends what vows u make to the 5 piyare when u take amrit…if u vow not to eat meat then u shouldnt!
Personaly i wouldnt make a vow i could stick to and if i wanted to keep my martial traditions as given by Guru Gobind Singh Maharaj i would only vow not to eat Helal (as in the Rehat Maryada given by SGPC).
I dont feel the need to impose my beliefs on any one else…I am not a meat eating fanatic or a vegetarian one!
One last point what are the skins of Tabla made of? All gurudwaras have them and Guru’s bani is sung with them…what do the vegetarians say about that..is there a vege tabla?
ohhh ann! you little sly person you!!!
i see the american indians wearing the animal skin to keep themselves warm (in the olden days)…and i would say to myself…there’s gotta be a good reason why so many people wear leather and fur to keep themselves warm in the harshest of climates.
so:
we have a “huge” population of deer where i live. (i know i know…the deer must be saying we have a Huge population of humans in our neighborhood! and i’d agree with them)…
so we see lot of deer road kill…and their skin looks so good and i was thinking what if i started a company that would just make coats and accessories for people who don’t like wearing leather or fur…made of Road Kill!
if anyone takes my idea and runs with it…i’d like 30% of the revenue! thanks!
sorry if i sounded sly… but until recently i thought u had to be vegetarian to be sikh and amritdhari…With Gurus kirpa i met some Nihangs who were amritdhari but ate ‘chatka’ and showed me how brainwashed i was.
They didnt force me to eat meat but just showed me that sikhi doent exclude any1…its for everyone (meat eaters and vegetarins). I dont think Guru Gobind asked for a vegetarina ‘head’ when giving amrit for the first time he just wanted to see who had love for their Guru.
Mandip (UK)
People die for at the end and so do animals die.
In india, leather was obtained from died animals. Animals were not KILLED to obtain leather(skin).
For meat animals are KILLED. We don’t eat meat of animals who die naturally, as of old age or disease.
So, your logic does not parallel anything.
At the end I do agree with lot other postings that it is a personal choice. No one is good or bad.
The comments are so far from the original post…which was not about whether you should eat meat or be vegetarian. I guess it has just evolved to something different.
The post was really about corporate pratices these days in “meat factories” where animals are treated very bad. It was about being aware of this…and possible health concerns for those that do eat the meat. The purpose was to bring awareness about this to people.
Guru Ji Says…..
jo sabh mehi eaek khudhaae kehath ho tho kio muragee maarai ||1||
You say that the One Lord is in all, so why do you kill chickens? ||1||