Question - Gurudev, What is your take on the meat industry? Why is the Vegetarian diet getting more popular these days?
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Ji - Meat industry, I would say is outdated now because people have started understanding how our whole system is made for vegetarian food. We are herbivorous because our immediate ancestors, the monkeys, are vegetarians. There is a substance called Ptyalin in our saliva, which is only present in the saliva of herbivores. If you were meant to be carnivorous, your teeth and enzymes would be different. Ptyalin, which is only found in herbivorous animals, would not be in your saliva.
A horse is vegetarian; have you ever seen it eating meat? Elephant, the most powerful among animals, is vegetarian. As you can see, most domesticated animals are all vegetarians – mostly!
You should look into the mechanics. Our human system is made for vegetarianism! Vegetarian animals have long intestines, which is not the case for carnivorous animals. Your intestine is taller than you; you have a 6-foot-long intestine, all coiled up. If you were meant to be carnivorous, your intestine would be half the size, only 3 feet long. All this indicates somewhere that the diet most suited for you is vegetarian.
Personally, if you see the way the animals are tortured to make food for you and you look into their eyes, nobody will touch that food because we all have a human heart, compassion and sensibility. The meat industry keeps unaware of how it is produced and they only give you the meat to consume it. But once you see how it is produced and how much torture the animal undergoes, you will abstain from it. Today with the growth of natural food, people have changed their preferences. In North America, a large section of the population has found health in vegetarian food.
If you want to do some intellectual work or you want to be a genius, then non-vegetarian food is not good. Scientists like Einstein were vegetarian. For a healthy body and lightness in mind, vegetarian diet is best.
