Originally posted by divegeester
I only know of one spiritual vegetarian in this forum, and most people don't care what he thinks anyway. Do you think there are many more - have I missed that?
I am a vegetarian by choice. I turned vegetarian since about 50 years of age. Before that, from age 16, I ate every non-vegetarian item I wanted to eat. I come from a traditional Hindu family not given to eating non-vegetarian food. I was asked by a distantly related aunt to taste a mutton Patti when I was about 16. Thereafter, progress was rapid. I ate even a piece of beef from Muslim colleague's tiffin box, at age 23. I found beef to be stringy and leathery. I did not eat beef ever afterwards, both because of the poor taste and the feeling that I had done something very wrong.
I started on alcoholic drinks also, on or about age 24.
I started smoking on age 28. Gave up smoking at age 33 on health reasons.
When I was about 50, I thought I had just about enough of non vegetarian eating. I saw one day a van carrying chicken to be slaughtered in Mumbai (aka Bombay ). The birds were shivering in the van, due to the rain driving right through the wire- screened sides of the van. I had a thought these poor birds will be slaughtered in the morning and will be eaten by people like me slavering over their pieces and getting a big gastronomic kick. I thought I must stop being the cause of any further death of an animal. Just there about, I stopped my alcohol intake also.
I thank my genes , my upbringing and God for what I did.