Chapter 2 - Land of the Sacred Cow

"an engaging, amply illustrated chatty survey of Famous Names who have also been vegetarian.." The Times (London)

CONTENTS

1. Roots
2. Land of the Sacred Cow
3. Orpheus Ascending: Ancient Greece and Rome
4. Judeo-Christian Ethics
5. Da Vinci and the Dietetic Renaissance
6. British Advocates
7. Wagner, Hitler, and Germany
8. Back—and Forth—to Nature
9. Tolstoy and the Doukhobors
10. Nutritional Controversies
11. Summing Up and Contemporary Trends

List of Illustrations

Selected Sources

Acknowledgments

Index

Land of the Sacred Cow

This chapter is excerpted for educational purposes only. It may not be reproduced for any reason without written permission of its author, Jan Yager, E-mail: jyager@aol.com. Although The Vegetable Passion is currently out of print, a revised edition is in preparation. If you wish to be notified when the revised edition is available, please e-mail Dr. Yager with your E-mail and regular mailing address information.

Hinduism

Mahendra sat in a lotus position on his bed-a mattress extending between the walls of his spacious bedroom in an upper-class house outside the congested Indian city of Benares. A Hindu of the Brahman caste, he had just completed his daily sunrise meditation. Mahendra, a sari merchant, is a lactarian and, being very religious, prays several times each day.

"How important is the sacred cow?" I asked.

Mahendra preferred to retell a story to answer my question.

"I was driving my car along the main road of Benares," he said, "when all of a sudden a cow got in the way. It happened so quickly that my driver hit it. He stepped on the gas, but still the villagers ran after us. I could feel them pounding their fists against the car, screaming names at me. Finally we had to stop because the crowd encircled us. They rocked the car back and forth. We locked all the windows and just had to sit there until a policeman arrived. They actually would have killed us for hitting a sacred cow."

Mabendra explained that in most parts of India, sacred cows, vegetarianism, and Hinduism are synonymous. Yet liberal Hindus, who defiantly eat meat, quickly point out that the sacred cow is a later development in Hinduism-origin ally, the cow was sacrificed and eaten.

It is difficult to trace the development of vegetarianism in India since even Hinduism is arduous to explain. Unlike Christianity or Islam, Hinduism does not have one sacred text or a distinct founding father. Instead, it developed over thousands of years as the result of a fusion of non-Aryan and Aryan doctrines and cultural patterns.

The excavations at Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa provide some insight into the pre-Aryan culture of about 2800 BC. Ancient seals reveal the importance of sacred animals in the religion of the Indus people. This animal worship, particularly of the bull, is probably related to the primitive idea of the totem. The totem became a symbol of fertility. Taboos were associated with it: to destroy it might lead to the ruin of a harvest, either by drought or locusts, and could foster disease or floods.

Then the Aryans invaded India through the northwestern passage and settled in the upper region of the Indus Valley. Later, in about 1200 BC, they moved to the central Ganges River region known as Madhadesa where the Vedic developments, occurred, the first major literary doctrines of the Hindu religion, and the Upanishads were written. Some of the Aryan contributions were the introduction of the Sanskrit language and animal sacrifices. These elements merged with the non-Aryan attitudes of extreme asceticism, a world negating and suffering belief, and image worship.

The dynamic history of Hinduism can be simplified by dividing it into several distinct periods: the FDIC period, during which the FDIC hymns were composed and collected, which lasted from 2000 to 800 BC; the Upanishads phase, which lasted until 400 BC, when beliefs such as karma and rebirth were incorporated into a more monastic image-worshiping religion; the classical phase that lasted until 500 AD, when Hinduism acquired its typical form; the fourth, or medieval period, important for the further evolution of bhaktic cults, especially in the Dravidian south, and for the elaboration of major theological and philosophical positions within the orthodox tradition; and the modern period resulting from the impact of Western colonization.

During the Vedic period, Hindus were extremely liberal in their diet, eating not just fish and cattle but sheep, horses, and the entrails of dogs as well. A guest was called goghna, one for whom a cow is killed. Oxen were also slaughtered for food at weddings. Indra, a Vedic god, is described as a relisher of beef. He is also master of lightning and thunder and often depicted as being drunk with the fermented drink offered to him in sacrifice.

However, the cow was beginning to acquire a special sanctity because of its value for purposes other than flesh food, and was called aghnva-"not to be slain." In Rig-Veda, still considered the most sacred of the numerous religious texts of the Hindus, offerings of milk, ghi, grain, and the intoxicating liquor known as soma are of equal importance to the animal sacrifices. However, these offerings as the best food man had to offer were replaced by the blood sacrifice as the most honored.

The Aryans lived in a society that was both agricultural and pastoral. Cattle was vitally important, even serving as a form of currency. It was the reward to a priest for his sacrificial activities and payment for a warrior. Clearly, however, oxen and cattle are also food during the historical period of the Rig-Veda, written from about 1500 to 1000 BC.

From that time to the age of Buddha, a period of four or five hundred years elapsed. These important years of change are eclipsed in written history, except for texts written from a literary and religious point of view-the later Vedas, Brahmanas, and Upanishads.

The Battle of Kuruksetra, which is situated close to modern Delhi, is the basis for the epic poem, the Mahabharata. This poem, said to be the longest poem in the world, consists of 24,000 verses. It describes a war that enveloped all India, and there are already references to sparing animals. Some examples are: "Who can be more cruel and selfish than he who increases the flesh of his body by eating the flesh of innocent animals?"; "All that kill and eat and permit the slaughter of cows rot in hell for as many years as there are hairs on the body of the cow slain"; and "Those who desire to possess good memory, beauty, long life with perfect health, and physical, moral and spiritual strength, should abstain from animal food."

Excesses in drinking, gambling, and the development of the sacrificial cult mark this later period of Aryan culture. Although not mentioned in the Rig-Veda, much of the Brahman literature is embellished with instructions for the careful performance of new sacrifices, such as the rajasuya, or royal consecration, the vajapeya, a strength-drinking rejuvenation ceremony, and the asvamedha, or horse sacrifice, the ambition of each king. A horse was chosen to roam free for a year and a band of warriors would follow. Wherever the horse went, chieftains and kings were forced to pay homage or to fight. If, at the end of the year, a neighboring king did not capture the horse, it was returned to the capital and sacrificed. Because each king wanted to perform a horse sacrifice, this custom had a definite effect on relations between states.

India was already divided into castes by the time of the Rig-Veda: the priest, brahmana; warrior, kshatriya; peasant, vaisya; and serf, sudra. Priests set the standard for the society and they were actively involved in animal sacrifices, which supposedly reached 2,ooo cattle each day. In this phase of Hindu history, the importance of the Brahman caste is demonstrated by the name for that period: Brahmanism. However, after the spiritual and cultural forces transformed religious teachings--by 200 AD--the main religion of India is known as Hinduism.

Hinduism would have remained a typical meat-eating way of life if not for the broad and sweeping moral reforms inspired by Jainism and Buddhism. The effect of those influences is pointed out by the later Laws of Manu, composed about the year 200 BC, where there is still ambivalence regarding the slaughter of cows and meat-eating. However those contradictions are proof of the new ideas that were emerging as

a result of Buddhism and Jainism, which had been introduced three hundred years before and were to have a lasting cultural impact.

Jainism

Although Jainism had a crucial influence in transforming Hinduism from a cow-sacrificing to a cow-sanctifying religion, there are only about 2 million followers in India today. Yet the number of jams is disproportionate to the impact of this unique religion on both Hinduism and the cultural development of India. Jains are followers of Jinas, persons who attain immortality and happiness by righteous thoughts and deeds. A Jina is someone who preaches Jainism and is known as a Tirthankara. There were twenty-four Tirthankaras: the first was Shri Adinath, who supposedly lived about 800 BC and attained nirvana in 772 BC, when he was renamed Parsva.

Contemporary Jains are followers of the twenty-fourth Tirthankara, Mahavira, who flourished about the same time as Buddha, around 500 BC. Mahavira is often credited with the founding of Jainism, but the religion extended many centuries earlier than Buddhism. Mahavira, however, was a definite historical figure. He was born of the kshatriya or warrior caste; his parents strictly worshipped Parsva. Mahavira married and bore a daughter, but in his thirtieth year, when his parents died, he asked his guardian and older brother, Nandavirdhana, to allow him to become a monk. After receiving his permission, Mahavira spent the next twelve years wandering through the forests, practicing denial, and becoming a nudist. Because at seventy-two he obtained release from the dreaded Hindu fate of constant reincarnations, Mahavira proved that such release was possible for men and women who were not Brahmans. Mahavira died by a method that became an example for later ascetics: self-starvation, a symbol of his oneness with all life, including plants.

Ahimsa, or non-violence, is not just the foundation of Jainism but a daily principle for every thought and deed. Jains do not actively seek converts, but anyone who wishes to follow their road to self-awareness is free to do so, regardless of caste or nationality.

"How many American Jains are there?" I asked the president of the Jain Society in New York.

"We have four."

There was a long pause. "No," he added, "there are only three. One member died last year."

Yet Jainism is more of a philosophy than a religion-it is an ideology of non-violence. There are five strict principles that a Jain monk must follow, which are also guidelines for the lay Jains:

ahimso---to avoid all killing; thus a Jain must walk carefully to prevent destroying unseen creatures

asatya tyaga-never to lie, be greedy, or lose one's temper

asetya vrata-never to accept what is not given

brachmacarva---to practice celibacy and chastity

aparigraha vrata-to avoid attachments to any living or dead objects

Jain ascetics wear masks to avoid breathing in microscopic organisms and the same principle forces the avoidance of beverages that are fermented. There are further taboos against gambling, hunting, adultery, thieving, debauchery, fur or feathers, silk, and woolen garments. In addition to a strict avoidance of fish, flesh, or fowl, a principle that is adhered to even in contemporary times, Jains will not eat kandamulasI--underground vegetables such as potatoes, garlic, radish, turnip, carrot, beetroot, or anything similar that has to be uprooted.

Until the year 300, Jains were a unified group, but then a rift resulted in two factions: the Shutambaras, or "white-robed," a liberal sect that included women in the priesthood and encouraged typical dress; and the Digambaras, or "sky-robed," a stricter branch that considered women evil and practiced nudism as a symbol of freedom from worldly possessions.

Because of their deep belief in ahimsa, lay Jains for centuries have consistently made their living in certain professions since they are unable to have any connection with agriculture, butchery, fishing, or brewing. As a result, their careers have been limited to business and therefore the Jains in India are on the whole far more successful and prosperous than the Hindu majority. Jains have also contributed hospitals for birds and animals as well as rest homes, operated for free, for travelers.

Jainism is considered a heretic religion because it does not recognize the authority of the Vedas scriptures. Furthermore, Jains do not believe in one god but that god is within each man. Strict asceticism is recommended as a means to finding the god within.

A Jain layman must go through two preliminary stages if he is to follow Jain principles. They are:

1. Having faith in Jainism by studying the doctrines and believing in them.

2. Becoming a Pakshika Sravaka, a layman intent on following the path to salvation. There are twelve duties involved, as described by Pandit Asadhara in the Sagara-Dharmarita, written in the thirteenth century:

To have faith in Jainism.

To abstain from intoxicants.

To abstain from flesh foods.

To abstain from fruits which contain or are likely to contain

insects; to abstain from honey.

To abstain from taking four kinds of food at night: eatable,

tastable, lickable, drinkable.

To drink clean, filtered water.

To abstain from gambling.

To follow the five small vows such as that related to killing.

To abstain from hunting.

To abstain from adultery or lasciviousness.

To perform daily religious exercises.

To abstain from making a living by any of these means: agriculture, trade, military, crafts, singing, and music.

Munishree Chandraprabli Sagar, known as "Chitrablianu," was the first Jain ascetic, or sadhu, to leave India in the religion's thousands of years of history. This was a radical step since Jainism expressly forbids travel for priests because of the fear of hurting a living creature in the locomotive process. However, Munishree left India in spite of riots that occurred at the airport. In addition to his unconventional departure from the rule against travel, be also took a wife.

Now, the word of Jainism is beginning to spread outside India. Munishree, who is fifty years old but appears no more than forty, attributes his youth to three principles: good will with all, ill will to none, and his philosophy that Karma determines what will happen so there is no reason to fear tomorrow. Although conversion has never been an active goal of Jainism, there is a growing inclination to spread its basic principles. The proposed Jain temple to be built in Queens, New York, symbolizes this trend toward worldwide practice of Jain attitudes. However, the basic difference between Jainism and most other religions is the extreme to which the sadhus actually practice the two principles which are supposedly part of every religion--love thy neighbor" and "Thou shalt not kill."

Buddhism

In contrast to Jainism, which began in India, maintained a firm foothold there, but until recently did not expand outside its birthplace, Buddhism originated in India but within a few hundred years showed influence there only in the changes it provoked in Hinduism. In fact Buddhism exerted a far greater historical effect on the religious developments of Ceylon, Burma, Cambodia, Siam, China, Japan, Korea, Tibet, and Mongolia.

Gautama Buddha lived about the same time as Mahavira and was also a member of the warrior caste. He too was disgusted with the excesses of the Brahman priests and the doctrine that only they might find nirvana. Buddha set out at the age of twenty-nine to discover his own path to salvation. For several years he practiced severe asceticism and starvation, but unlike Mahavira, he did not feel self-denial would lead to nirvana. Instead, Buddha found a middle path based on complete awareness of himself and his environment. That middle path had eight turns: right views, right aspirations, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right efforts, right mindfulness, and right contemplation.

Buddha was overwhelmed by the suffering he saw to be an unavoidable part of life. Kindness toward all creatures was one of his fundamental principles and he spoke two maxims that relate to vegetarianism: "Do not butcher the ox that plows thy field," and "Do not indulge a voracity that involves the slaughter of animals."

Although Buddha stressed the importance of compassion and ahimsa, neither he nor his followers had any firm objections to the use of meat. Buddha himself ate boar's flesh and it is even alleged that lie died from some rancid pork. Buddhist monks took many vows, such as to accept nothing unless given willingly, to live in absolute moral purity, to speak only the truth, to kill no living thing, to eat no animal and drink no alcohol, to eat only at prescribed times, to abstain from all unnecessary contacts with the world, to use no ornament, to have no luxuries, and to live in voluntary poverty. However, the injunction against meat was a complex one based upon how the meat was obtained. For example, they were not allowed to eat the flesh of any animal they had actually seen put to death or that tbey knew, or even suspected, had been slaughtered just for their benefit. But where these circumstances did not apply, meat-eating was generally practiced.

Even if vegetarianism was not a basic tenet of Buddhism, as it was for Jainism, Buddhism did introduce a strong wave of asceticism and heightened morality which made a permanent impression oil a country with cross-cultural roots in the Harappa and Aryan cultures.

King Asoka

Before Buddhism left India in the twelfth century, it made one major convert-King Asoka. That conversion is as important to Buddhism in the East as the persuasion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity in tile West.

Asoka, who reigned from about 264 to 232 BC, seemed to have reached a turning point in his life after the conquest of Kalinga, a victory gained only after the slaughter of tens of thousands of Indians. According to Buddhist sources, Asoka's own rise to power was equally bloody: be killed all possible rivals in order to begin his despotic reign. Asoka’s own words inscribed in various edicts, the first written Indian documents of historical consequence, describe the actions that led to his conversion. He relates how he took 150,000 people captive and killed 100,000 although many more died. At that point, "Righteousness" enveloped him. Of course, Asoka's account is just one of many colorful tales, but instantaneous conversions are not uncommon. Through legislation and persuasion, Asoka proclaimed that certain species of animals were to be spared. He tells how hundreds of thousands of living animals have been slaughtered, but now: "At the time of writing this inscription . . . only three animals are killed, two peacocks and a deer, and the deer not invariably. Even these three animals will not be killed in the future. . . ."

Not only was Asoka a vegetarian, but he refrained from hunting and banned it for his subjects. Forests which might injure living creatures were burned. Medical care became available for animals as well as people; trees were planted to provide shade and to ease travel for creatures and men. Yet Asoka remained a benevolent dictator, employing Buddhism briefly so that he might be a better king. Although the Asoka experiment with Buddhism was not entirely successful, since it did not replace Hinduism with Buddhism, his example was a powerful influence on the evolving Hindu ideology which gradually adopted non-violence toward animals as a unifying principle.

As we have seen, Buddhism left lndia to become far more influential in other countries, such as China, Tibet, Japan, and Korea. Whether vegetarianism is a contemporary practice of laymen or priests depends on the particular Buddhist sect. Thus in the three major areas of Mahayan Buddhism-China; Tibet, including Mongolia, Sikkim, Nepal, Bhutan; and Japan-only the Chinese monks abstain from animal flesh. The Jodo Shin school of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism does permit the consumption of flesh. On the other hand, Theravada Buddhism, the faith of the majority of the people in Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Ceylon, encourages vegetarianism among those who live in a wat, or religious compound, as well as silence, meditation, and fasting from noon until the following day. Vows are taken that also require avoiding sexual activity, sleeping on a soft bed, alcohol or drugs that would clutter the mind, or accepting anything that is not freely given.

Vegetarianism Develops in India

Probably because of Asoka's high position in Indian society, in an extraordinary about-face, the very priests who were the avid practitioners of ceremonial animal sacrifices became the strictest vegetarians. Even in contemporary India, it is the Brahmans who are consistently vegetarians, whereas in the other castes eschewing meat is less imperative; in the flesh-eating castes, only Sanyasis, or holy men, and widows abstain.

Thus Jainism and Buddhism were slowly absorbed; the Laws of Manu have contradictory advice: "Meat may never be obtained without injury to living creatures and injury to sentient beings is detrimental to the attainment of heavenly bliss. A twice-born man must therefore shun the use of meat." "He who permits the slaughter of an animal, he who cuts it up, he who kills it, be who buys or sells meat, he who cooks it, he who serves it up and he who cats it must all be considered slayers of the animal." Yet in the same chapter, there are several statements that recognize the acceptability of animal food without any attempt at reconciliation with the earlier conflicting moral decrees. The Laws of Manu are a good example of the state of flux of the growing national identity of India. As late as the fifth century AD., the orthodox did not eat meat but most other Indians did. The kshatriya class enjoyed not only hunting but eating what they caught. Although oxen, cows, elephants, horses, pigs, dogs, foxes, lions, frogs, and monkeys were not generally part of the diet, they did eat goats, tortoises, deer, parrots, peacocks, porcupines, alligators, and giant lizards.

Yet most Hindus today who adhere to vegetarianism fail to explore the historical development of a meatless diet and attribute their practice to the "will of God." Others feel that the sacred cow developed because of a high regard for milk as a food for babies: forbidding the killing of cows ensured the continuation of a milk supply. Today, cow manure and urine are also believed to be purifying. "I feel that vegetarianism probably originated as our saints felt that this was the ideal diet for a .sound mind," says a college-educated Brahman girl. "It helps in concentration and meditation, besides being good for one's physical welfare."

Hindus divide food into three categories: satvik, rajsik, and tamsik. Satvik should provide peace of mind and therefore all foods which excite the senses and contain spices are forbidden. This kind of food is for Brahmans, sages, and old people. Rajsik is also essentially vegetarian, but includes onions and garlic, various spices, as well as light wine; it is intended for the average family. The third type of food, tamsik, is meant for the kshatrivas and the lowest caste, meats and liquors are allowed.

Food has as much symbolic meaning in a Hindu household as in any other part of the world. While in Bcnarcs, I decided ' to fast for two days as a means of undoing the drastic effect of weeks of spicy, rich foods. Of course, to refuse food would displease a host in any country.

"You must eat," Mahendra said.

"Tomorrow, Mahendra."

"You do not understand," he continued. "My wife will not eat until you do. You are her guest. If you do not eat, she will not either."

It was useless to argue with such sincere hospitality. Mahendra and his family were pleased that I shared their vegetarian habits, but rather confused. They had to be vegetarians because they were Brahmans, but I was not forced to follow such a custom. In India today, numerous younger persons are turning away from a meatless diet. Their rebellion is against a custom they see as part of the old tradition. They are confused by the growing Western emulation. In Delhi, parents who were members of vegetarian societies were eager for a Westerner to speak to their children who had forgotten that ahimsa is a timeless belief and not necessarily another reactionary custom.

Mahatma Gandhi

The worldwide focus on vegetarianism in India was accomplished through the efforts of one man: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. To Gandhi, a meatless diet was not Just a religious principle but an obsession that consumed a great portion of his energies: his writings on the subject alone fill five volumes. But it was through self-analysis, struggle, and sacrifice that Gandhi reaffirmed his Hindu-derived ritual of vegetarianism, developing the idea of a meatless diet from a simple dietary taboo to an overall philosophy of non-violence toward men as well as animals.

Born in 1869 to a middle-class Bania family of a father who became the dewan or prime minister of Kathiawar and married four times, Gandhi grew up in Porbandar-a seaport trading center in Ahmedabad where Jainism exercised a strong influence. In his Autobiography, n1btitled The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Gandhi describes his father Karamchand as "a lover of his clan, truthful, brave and generous, but short-tempered. To a certain extent he might have been given to carnal pleasures." It was to his deeply religious mother, Putlibai, who always prayed with her meals and often kept two or three consecutive fasts, that the thin, awkward boy gave his increasing devotion. Sometirnes Putlibai would vow to fast until she saw the sun set. Her children would run outside, stare at the sky, and catching a glimpse of the blazing disc, would hurry inside to assure her that she might then cat. But when Putlibai came outside to check, the sun would be hidden behind a cloud.

"God did not intend for me to eat today," she would calmly say.

Gandhi was the youngest of four children, all born during a period of seven years. He was the pampered baby, extremely close to Ills mother and fond of imitating her. Throughout Gandhi's Autobiography, his intense guilt feelings and rigid superego are apparent. However, it is not unusual that a son would have such a severe sense of righteousness with a mother of such intense, uncompromising piety.

One year, under the influence of an older friend, Sheikh Mebtab, Gandhi experimented with meat-eating. At that time Indian youths were questioning whether the British were able to dominate their country because they ate strength-giving meat. Gandhi actually violated vegetarianism only six times, but be suffered deeply from the shame of keeping such a dreaded secret from his parents and from his dramatic deceptions to avoid outright lies. Although his memoirs were written decades after the events, Gandhi was able vividly to recall the nightmare be bad during the meat-eating phase of his life.

"Every time I dropped off to sleep," be wrote, "it would seem as though a live goat were bleating inside me, and I would Jump up full of remorse. . . .

To tempt Gandhi further into meat-eating, his friend disguised the flesh. But still Gandhi vowed never to eat meat again, until his parents were no more and he had found his "freedom." "This decision I communicated to my friend," writes Gandhi, "and I have never since gone back to meat."

As was customary in those days, Gandhi married at thirteen; he writes that be was a lustful and jealous husband. "I was passionately fond of her. . . . Separation was unbearable. . . ." Shortly thereafter came the circumstances surrounding his father's death whicb were to leave indelible scars on Gandhi's adolescent psychosexual development. As his father lay dying, Gandhi was in his own room in bed with his young wife. When be learned the next day that his father had died while Gandhi was enjoying hedonistic sensual pleasures, he suffered intense remorse and self-hatred. Sex and guilt were eternally bonded in his mind and no doubt had a direct bearing on his later renunciation of sexual intercourse.

To pursue his law studies, Gandhi at eighteen decided to travel to England, despite the angry protests of the leaders of his caste, who forbade crossing the ocean. Putlibai insisted her son take vows against women, wine, and meat. When Gandhi took those vows, he gave more of a commitment than just a promise. To an Indian, a vow is intended to increase one's willpower. A punishment, such as fasting, is enforced for breaking a vow to enhance self-discipline. But to break a vow and demonstrate lack of self-control is severely condemned by Indians, since restraint is a highly treasured virtue.

The long boat trip was a hardship for Gandhi since little vegetarian food was available. He had to rely on the meager fruits and nuts his family had provided him for the voyage.

After arriving in London, Gandhi tried outwardly to imitate the British but appeared ridiculous in morning coat, double-breasted vest, dark-striped trousers, leather gloves, boots, spats, and a silver-mounted cane. It was not long before he realized his comic garb was pointless and his expensive living habits draining his small funds. Abandoning his European affectations, be found a room in West Kensington where he cooked his own breakfasts and suppers of oatmeal porridge and cocoa.

Numerous influences in England reasserted Gandhi's traditional beliefs in vegetarianism, for it was a new and radical philosophy there that had become part of several movements, including the Theosophists. In 1889, Gandhi met Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the founder of the Theosophical Society, but he was unimpressed by her. Annie Besant, however, was a vegetarian Theosophist whom lie admired; he would later cross her path when she lived and organized in India. Gandhi also met a Christian vegetarian who convinced him that neither drinking nor meat-eating were advocated in the Bible.

London was a difficult testing ground for Gandhi's vows since the atmosphere was far more liberal than his native Porbandar. But he managed to keep his vow against women, wine, and meat. He lived very simply on lentils, boiled rice, and raisins, studying bard, taking long walks, associating with people who lived quietly, and constantly reminding himself of his vows.

"I launched out in search of a vegetarian restaurant," Gandhi writes.

I would trot ten or twelve miles each day, go into a cheap

restaurant and eat my fill of bread, but would never be satisfied.

During these wanderings I once hit a vegetarian restaurant in

Farringdon Street. The sight of it filled me with the same joy that a

child feels on getting a thing after its own heart. I saw among them

Salt's Plea for Vegetarianism. This I purchased for a shilling and

went straight to the dining room. This was my first hearty meal since

my arrival in England. . . . From the date of reading this book, I lay

claim to have become a vegetarian by choice. I blessed the clay oil

which I had taken the vow before mymother. I had all along

abstained from meat in the interests of truth and of the vow I had

taken, but had wished at the same time that every Indian should be a

meateater, and had looked forward to being one myself freely and

openly some day, and to enlisting others in the cause. The choice was

now made in favour of vegetarianism, the spread of which henceforward

became my mission. . . .

Gandhi, a rebel against vegetarianism in his own country where it was all expected duty, took up the unpopular cause in London and became very active in the vegetarian movements. He even founded his own Vegetarian Club in Bayswater with Dr. Josiah Oldfield as president, Sir Edwin Arnold the poet as vice-president, and himself as secretary. Dr. Oldfield was vital to the British vegetarian movement as editor of The Vegetarian and author of most of its articles. Gandhi and Oldfield developed a strong friendship, rooming together and spending their spare time lecturing at clubs and public meetings. Thus Gandhi, a vegetarian by birth, became reconverted to a meatless diet on new ethical and nutritional grounds.

Upon returning to India in 1891, Gdhi was met by his brother Laxmidas.

"Mother is dead," Laxmidas told the grieving lawyer. The family had decided to save the news until Gandhi had passed his examinations.

Within a short tim after his return, Gandhi met Shrimad Rajchandra, a young Jain completely involved in pure Hindu doctrine. Although a jeweler by profession, Rajchandra was equally renowned as a poet and a Shatavadhani, one who call accomplish numerous tasks at once. Because of superior concentration, he was able to play musical instruments, recite from a book or play, and excel in mathematics and chess. Here was someone, like his recently deceased mother, whom Gandhi could respect. Later Gandhi would cite Rajchandra as one of the three most influential persons oil the formation of his ideas. The other two were Leo Tolstoy, through his book The Kingdom of God Is Within You, which Gandhi read in 1893, and John Ruskin through Unto This Last, which he read in 1904.

Gandhi tried unsuccessfully to be a barrister in Bombay. His first two court cases ended in disaster and humiliation. Then Abdul Karim Jhaveri, a partner in a firm with important interests in South Africa, asked Gandhi to go to Durban to advise the firm in a lawsuit against another merchant from Kathiawar. Assured that he would have to stay "not more than a year" Gandhi went at once in April 1893, leaving his young family behind once more.

South Africa was a time of trials and tribulations. However, it is probable that that chance to prove himself to the Indian community of Durban, a far easier task than ill competitive Bombay, allowed Gandhi to develop and test his unorthodox views of righteousness and his revolutionary political methods. In South Africa Gandhi encountered Michael Caotes, a young mail who tried to convert him to Christianity. Perturbed, Gandhi wrote to Rajchandra, asking twenty-seven questions, such its: What is God? What is the son? What is salvation? What is duty? Who wrote the Vedas and the Bhagavad-gita? What will finally happen to the world? Who were Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva? Is there any merit to be gained by sacrificing animals to the gods? Can we obtain salvation through faith in Rama and Krishna? Can a mail be reborn as all animal, a tree, a stone? Were all the Old Testament prophesies fulfilled in Christ and was He an incarnation of God? If a snake were about to bite me, should I allow myself to be bitten or should I kill it?

Gandhi was disappointed in Rajchandra's replies because they were not absolute statements providing the clear-cut answers he bad desired. For instance, to Gandhi's question about the snake, Rajchandra vvrote: "The question is not what I would wish you do, but what you wish your choice to be. That choice will depend on the degree of your illumination and enlightenment."

Rajchandra died a few years later in his early thirties. A true ascetic, he perished as a mere skeleton, still devoting himself to contemplation and the hope of seeing God face to face. Rajchandra lived his Jain beliefs; the outward signs of compassion, such as sweeping a floor to avoid injuring any living creatures, did not impress him. Instead he viewed every lie, each act of hypocrisy, every oppression and injury inflicted on another human being as an act of violence. It was this deepest and more subtle type of non-violence that later became part of Gandhi's major contribution to the materialistic twentieth century, the age of the mass war machine-his concept of ahimsa. Though Gandhi did not immediately employ Rajchandra's views, the ideals of his philosophical mentor would remain in his collective conscience to be revived when Gandhi's intellectual development had progressed to the point where he could utilize them.

Practicing law was just one of Gandhi's numerous activities during those twenty South African years, from 1893 to 1914, except for brief intervals abroad. He became executive director of the Natal Indian Congress" and of the colonial-born Indian Educational Association, an agent for the Esoteric Christian Union, and a representative for the London Vegetarian Society. His zealous need to save souls was apparent in his club affiliations and the leadership he commanded in his own home. There were then twelve people on his staff and one employee was Sheikh Mehtab, the school friend who had once taken him to a brothel and tempted him with meat-eating. Gandhi had invited Mehab to South Africa for he had an unusually intense concern for the activities of his former playmate. But Mehtab was still a rebel. First Gandhi wrongly dismissed a law clerk because Mehtab, who was employed as a handyman, had pinned the guilt on him. Gandhi would have continued to tolerate Mehtab's abuses if be had not discovered him at home with a prostitute and been forced to dismiss him. But his concern for Mehtab lingered and he was pleased when Mehtab later married, settled down, and fathered a daughter; still later Mehtab became a champion of Satyagraha, or truth-force, Gandhi's method of releasing India from Britain.

Once again, Gandhi started a law practice in Bombay in 190l, determined to be a successful lawyer on the homeland. But a second brief, one-year stay in India since law school again proved frustrating and unsatisfying. Gandhi's second son Manilal came down with a severe attack of typhoid, but Gandhi refused to allow him to be fed meat or given drugs. Using naturopatbic techniques, Gandhi managed to save his son's life and so became even more committed to a natural diet without the use of drugs. Throughout his life, Gandhi would wrestle with doctors over the necessity for providing one of his sick relatives, either his wife Kasturbai or his sons, with beef tea. It now seems illogical that the medical profession would make an issue of beef tea, such a pointless cure, and all the more credit to Gandhi that he would protest violating his principles for so trivial a point.

"It is necessary to correct the error that vegetarianism has made us weak in the mind," wrote Gandhi, "or passive or inert in action . . . I do not regard flesh-food as necessary for us at any stage . . . I hold flesh-food to be unsuited to our species. . . ."

Gandhi soon returned to Johannesburg, South Africa, intent on improving the conditions of the lower classes, which had regressed since the Boer War. It was at vegetarian restaurants, where he enjoyed having his morning and evening meals, and at meetings of the South African Theosophical Society, that Gandhi met persons who would give up their chosen professions to follow his uncompromising ways. One such person was Albert West, who ran a printing shop but cast aside his salaried job to take charge of the Indian Opinion press at Durban at petty wages. 'Gandhi met another European, twenty-two-year-old Henry Polak. Their mutual vegetarianism bound them closer as they discussed the principles of Adolf Just's Return to Nature, a treatise advocating a diet of fruit and nuts, mudpacks, and regular bowel evacuation. Constipation was one of Gandhi's problems and he took Eno's fruit salts each morning. He was also addicted to onions; Polak humorously began the Amalgamated Society of Onion Eaters, a membership of two, with Gandhi as president and Polak as treasurer.

The next step in Gandhi's asceticism was his decision in 1904 to become a celibate, brahmacharya, enacted in 1906, during the Zulu Revolution when he was a sergeant major working as a medic for the British. His reasons for giving up sexual pleasure were that a public figure should be devoted to the people, rather than to his personal pleasures or his own family. By remaining chaste, he also retained the seminal fluids which were otherwise lost, along with mental vigor, during sexual intercourse. This is not an uncommon belief among old-fashioned Indians; now many will seek the help of psychiatrists who use diagrams and sex education to eradicate an age-old superstition. However, Gandhi held firmly to his conviction and felt that brahmacharya would have only good effects. That celibacy was a struggle for Gandhi is apparent in the amount of writing he devotes to trying to advise others as to the best food to eat to reduce sexual passion.

"Six years of experiment," Gandhi later wrote, "have shown me that the brahmachari’s ideal food is fresh fruit and nuts." Milk and milk products, he concluded, aroused the sexual passions and therefore were to be avoided.

In becoming a celibate, Gandhi further severed his cultural ties with Europe as he merged the harsh restrictions for ascetics or sadhus of Hinduism and Jainism. Yet Gandhi was the product of so many religious and philosophical influences that lie was not really a prophet of any specific one. "All religious are like different roads leading to the same goal," he wrote. "All religions are founded on the same moral laws. My ethical religion is made up of laws which bind men all over the world."

The next major step was the implementation of ahimsa, or nonviolence, as a political weapon. The first time Gandhi employed it was in the Empire Theatre in Johannesburg on September ii, 19o6. After several speakers bad been cheered at the mention of going to jail on behalf of the cause, Gandhi rose and said that all Indians in South Africa should take a pledge that they would refuse under any conditions to submit to fingerprinting or to carrying registration cards. A name had to be coined for their defiance because it was more drastic than civil disobedience or even passive resistance. It was an active movement, and they gave it the name satyagraha.

After the first campaign, Gandhi compromised with the British; his countrymen accused him of being a traitor and lie was even physically assaulted. Gandhi tried to get other concessions for the Indians, but even a trip to England in 1909 proved futile.

Upon returning to South Africa, Gandhi was presented with two important gifts: money for the families of the satyagrahas who were in prison, and a track of land outside of Johannesburg.

Naming it Tolstoy Farm, Gandhi set out to model this farm into all ideal community. Everyone would eat the same simple vegetarian food from a single kitchen at a group table. Hindus had to observe pradosha, fasting till evening, whenever there was all appropriate religious occasion. "Fasting can help to curb animal passion only if it is undertaken with a view to self-restraint," Gandhi wrote.

It was no coincidence that Gandhi named the farm in honor of his political mentor. He had even started a correspondence with the elderly Tolstoy and sent him a copy of his first biography, written by Reverend Doke. Tolstoy replied by agreeing to allow Gandhi to reprint his explosive "Letter to a Hindu" and by praising his views on passive resistance. However, Tolstoy's failing health prohibited a more extensive contact between the two kindred spirits.

With the beginning of World War 1, Gandhi left South Africa forever. He arrived in England and was unable to shake off an attack of pleurisy; still he was determined to maintain his dietary experiments and his meals now consisted of ground nuts, ripe and unripe bananas, lemons, tomatoes, grapes, and olive oil. He refused the advice of his

doctor to include milk and cereal in his regime. Milk was as severe a violation of ahimsa as meat-eating.

Gandhi consulted a well-known vegetarian doctor who had been forced out of the London Vegetarian Society for advocating birth control. Dr. Allison agreed that milk was unnecessary for good health and he suggested raw vegetables and fresh fruit. Though Gandhi agreed to the fruit, he found the grated raw vegetables disagreeable to his system. He did agree that fresh air was essential and since none was possible in his London boardinghouse room, which had French windows, he broke one pane of glass to let in some air.

However Gandhi had to admit his dietary experiments were failing: "Just now my own health seems to have been completely shattered," lie wrote, "I feel that I hopelessly mismanaged my constitution. . . ."

Gandhi returned to India and soon settled down at his ashram at Sabarmati. He was unable to interest even one Indian in being a recruit for the medical corps of the British Army, a participation that Gandhi did not feel was in violation of satyagraha. After a month of walking from village to village delivering numerous discourses while subsisting oil all inadequate diet of groundnut butter and lemons, he contracted dysentery and was ill for seven weeks. This was his most severe illness so far and Gandhi, though ashamed that he broke his vow never to drink milk, began ravenously to drink goat's milk: a necessary step for which lie was to chastise himself until he died. He called for a new doctor and submitted to a treatment using ice packs, massage, and deep breathing. Another doctor injected him with arsenic, strychnine, and iron, while a third ordered an operation to remove his piles. Gandhi was bedridden for the rest of the year.

For the remainder of his life, Gandhi used fasting as a means of punishing the world and him for the injustices he witnessed, as well as those for which he felt personally responsible. The reasons for his starvation periods ranged from political to moral to personal. In 1919, there was a massacre in Amritsar when Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer decided to teach the Indians a lesson for their disobedience and ordered the Gurkhas and Baluchi soldiers to fire for ten minutes on men, women, and children. About 400 died and at least 800 were injured in that blood bath. Gandhi fasted for three days and vowed to fast for twenty-four hours on the massacre anniversary for the rest of his life.

His next fast, lasting only two days, followed the riots and murders in Bombay caused by the hostility between Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, Christians, and Jews. Then, early in the morning of September 17, 1924, he began his longest fast to date in response to another Muslim and

Hindu blood bath. Gandhi reaffirmed his belief in the power of fasting as a weapon as all India waited for the fast to end; Hindu and Muslim leaders assured Gandhi of peace, although it was to prove short-lived.

The seven-day fast in November 1925 had a different purpose: some boys had been caught practicing homosexuality and Gandhi accepted full responsibility for their moral shortcomings. Though a shorter fast than those in the previous year, it proved a painful and exhausting one. A year of silence and meditation followed; Gandhi contemplated his next actions and reassessed his goals for India. By now a loincloth was all he wore: his material poverty a symbol of his moral strength.

At the end of January 1928, an incident occurred at the ashram that caused a commotion throughout India. An injured calf lay in agony. What should be done? Should they kill the calf? Vallabhai Patel, a lawyer who joined Gandhi at Sabarmati, explained that since the calf would be dead in a day or two anyway, nature should take its course.

"We cannot sit still and do nothing while the calf writhes away its last moments in agony," Gandhi said. "I believe that it would be sheer wickedness to deny to a fellow-creature the last and most solemn service we can render it."

Gandhi's will prevailed, in spite of its superficial contradiction to his solemn doctrine of ahimsa. However, rather than shoot the calf, a Parsi doctor came and instantly killed it by injecting poison into its veins. Significantly, Gandhi was becoming more flexible about ahimsa and permitting exceptions to his moral condemnation of all killing. In an article entitled "The Fiery Ordeal," he dealt with the entire controversy surrounding the killing of the calf and his loyal followers responded to his thesis with outraged cries that Gandhi had abandoned ahimsa. It seemed be was finally answering for himself the questions lie had posed years before to Rajchandra: Gandhi now believed in killing snakes that could not be rendered harmless by any other method, or destroying mosquitoes with kerosene.

He returned to Europe intent on solving the Indian question through legislative means. While in London, Gandhi addressed the London Vegetarian Society on November 20, 1931; in his speech, lie outlined his ethical conversion to vegetarianism during his student days. Then, "What I want to bring to your notice," he continued, "is that vegetarians need to be tolerant if they want to convert others to vegetarianism. Adopt a little humility. We should appeal to the moral sense of the people who do not see eye to eye with us. If a vegetarian became ill, and a doctor prescribed beef tea, then I would not call him a vegetarian. A vegetarian is made of sterner stuff, Why? Because it is for the building of the spirit and not of the body. Man is more than meat. . . ."

Gandhi explained the reason he limited his daily number of foods to only five was not because of vegetarianism but as a means of combating a pampered childhood. All his eating was completed by sunset because this was healthier. ". . . I discovered that in order to keep health," be said, "no matter what you ate, it was necessary to cut down the quantity of food, and reduce the number of meals. Become moderate; err on the side of less, rather than on the side of more. When I invite friends to share their meals with me I never press them to take anything except only what they require. On the contrary, I tell them not to take a thing if &y do not want it. . . ."

He left England, disappointed by the indifference of the British government to the real issues at hand and the seriousness of the pleas of the Indians, and traveled to France. There he met Romain Rolland, writer, humanitarian, and a vegetarian, although Rolland does not seem to have impressed Gandhi as much as the Frenchman was moved by that shriveled, curious Indian. Gandhi was also able to catch a glimpse of Benito Mussolini; afterwards he described the Italian leader in the most condemning words that a Hindu can utter: "He looked like a butcher."

The years from 1932 until Gandhi's death in 1948 were filled for the controversial leader with discussions of fasts, actual fasts, long marches, and experiments in dietetics. The reasons for his fasts ranged from the horrid conditions of the untouchables to violence in Calcutta to the moral failings of others to fasts as prayer. But be was weakening from his severe deprivations and once tried to alter his program of total abstinence.

"Why are you adding the lime Juice, when you say you are putting yourself entirely in God's hands?" asked Rajagopalachari, who was then governor of Bengal.

Gandhi agreed that he should continue drinking only water during his fasts; any record of that suggested change was deleted from the public announcement of his fast. Like numerous public figures, Gandhi was locked in by the expectations of his followers.

What were some of Gandhi's other habits? He went to bed about nine o'clock and awoke about four in the morning. He regularly took a brisk walk before bed and early the next morning. Gandhi was a disciplinarian in most aspects of his life: he regulated his reading habits, avoiding passion-breeding novels and magazines, denounced cigarettes, and praised the soybean, unpolished rice, and skimmed milk. Gandhi's strength was so awe-inspiring that Vincent Shean, the noted journalist, abstained from smoking when in Gandhi's presence. I experienced a similar sense of reverence when I sat before Vinoba Bhave, known as Gandhi's "fifth son" and present leader of the land reform movement in India, and felt that I would not do anything to offend that thin, righteous, ascetic man.

Much has been written about Gandhi's harsh parental methods and it is true that one of his sons denounced Gandhi and drank excessively. Gandhi was rigid and resentful of any remembrance of his own sexual guilt. Throughout his almost fifty years of celibacy, Gandhi tried to repress his guilt by devoting all his passion to mother India. Scientific

methods of birth control were not acceptable as means of controlling a multiplying people-to Gandhi only abstention and self-discipline were permissible. Therefore, at a crucial period in the population explosion of India, the advice of the revered leader hampered progress. By contrast, Gandhi was instrumental in improving the social status of women by advocating the end of child marriages and the development of equal education.

Of course, the austere controls in Gandhi's life were unattainable to the average Indian. In a letter to Young India in 1929, Gandhi listed his daily diet:

8 tolas of germinating wheat

8 tolas of sweet almonds reduced to a paste

8 tolas of green leaves pounded

6 sour lemons

2 ounces of honey

Gandhi was called "Mahatma" or "great soul" because to the people of India he was a saint. Yet he was the first to acknowledge the inconsistencies in his ideas:

"In my search after Truth," lie wrote, "I have discarded many ideas and learnt many new things. . . . What I am concerned with is my readiness to obey the call of Truth, my God, from moment to moment, and, therefore, when anybody finds any inconsistency between any two writings of mine, if he has still faith in my sanity, he would do well to choose the later of the two on the same subject."

Gandhi's fasts were far from peaceful: lie used his physical deprivations to manipulate the minds of men and the affairs of state. His suffering and torment became a symbol of the suppression of his people. His ability to channel men toward non-violent actions is as inexplicable as the reverse talents of Hitler. Merely to label both qualities as "charisma" minimizes the monumental effect of these two men. Gandhi's example in fact reaffirmed faith in vegetarianism in a people who were beginning to see it as an outdated and regressive way of life and a possible cause for their oppression by the British. Many Indians readopted a meatless diet in admiration of their spiritual mentor and leader. It is regrettable that the very people that he fought for, the lowest castes and the uneducated, today wonder who this man might have been.

So ingrained was Gandhi's concept of ahimsa that be expected the Jews to pray for Hitler to help him realize the error of his ways. On December 24, 1941, Gandhi wrote an open letter to the Fuhrer, reprinted in The Life and Death of Mahatma Gandhi. The communication begins:

Dear Friend,

That I address you as a friend is no formality. I own no foes. . . .

During this season when the hearts of the peoples of Europe

yearn for peace, we have suspended even our own peaceful struggle.

Is it not too much to ask you to make an effort for peace during a

time which may mean nothing to you personally, but which must

mean much to the millions of Europeans whose dumb cry for peace I

hear, for my ears are attuned to hearing the dumb millions. . . .

Although Gandhi's applications of satygraha were often shortsighted and childishly imagined, as in this letter to Hitler, lie did institute realistic measures that demonstrated humane alternatives to satisfying material needs. Perhaps the most original was the establishment of the Kora Kendra slaying works outside Bombay, which flourishes even today. This is the only place in the world devoted to the production of leather goods, such as sandals, shoes, and pocket books, made from the carcasses of animals that died of natural causes, proof that leather may be rendered useful without painful slaughter and premature death.

In Gandhi's writings on health and nutrition, he tried to re-educate Indians who bad long blamed their malnutrition and poverty on the absence of meat from their diet rather than poor education. He tried to demonstrate bow comfortably and healthfully anyone might live oil simple foods, such as nuts and pulses. That his dietary theories were unsuccessful in reaching the masses is clear in the current situation ill India. In fact, even the wealthy in India who can afford all the food they need and want are symbols of the very excesses Gandhi preached against, enjoying diets of Carbohydrates and starches rather than high-protein, uncooked foods. If Gandhi's dietary theories were truly heeded today, most of the nutritional diseases caused by sheer ignorance would be eradicated.

Gandhi deeply regretted that Rabindranath Tagore, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet of India, gave up vegetarianism. However, Tagore acknowledged the moral issues involved. Tagore wrote:

As I was looking out on the river I saw all of a sudden an odd-looking bird making its way through the water to the opposite bank, followed by a great commotion. I found it was a domestic fowl which had managed to escape impending doom in the valley by jumping over-board and was now trying frantically to swim across. It had almost gained the bank when the clutches of its relentless pursuers closed on it, and it was brought back in triumph, gripped by the neck.

I told the cook I would not have any meat for dinner. I really must give up animal food. We manage to swallow flesh, only because we do not think of the cruel and sinful thing we do.

Though Gandhi disliked the label of "Mahatma," he could not avoid it. Right before his death, he said that he would be qualified to be called Mahatma only if he remembered to say the name of God and blessed his murderer should he die at the hands of an assassin.

That was exactly what happened. He was shot by a Hindu fanatic, a vegetarian named Nathuram Godse. Godse believed he was doing a service to India by eliminating Gandhi, who stubbornly insisted that Hindus and Muslims could live in harmony. Gandhi died calling "Ram" with a smile on his face, which indicated to many that he bore no ill will toward his executioner.

Krishna Consciousness

In the 1970s the strict asceticism of Gandhi was carried on by the followers of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the spiritual master of the Hare Krishna Movement, who came to the United States from India in 1965. The Hare Krishna Movement, based on the doctrines of love of God, ahimsa, and the Bhagavad-gita, has been growing steadily and setting up centers throughout the Western world. An article by Mary Rourke in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in July 1996 estimated the number of temples throughout the United States and Canada to be 45 with about 100,000 members.

Hare Krishna followers do not eat meat or wear leather products. In fact, vegetarianism is essential to Krishna Consciousness, a philosophy according to which man must live strictly in cooperation with the laws of god Krishna in order to be peaceful and prosperous. All unnecessary violence must be avoided.

Food has further religious overtones since nourishment is offered to Krishna and is another way of bringing a disciple back to Godhead, the spiritual goal after death. Hare Krishnas base their vegetarianism on the Bhagavad-gita, the sacred Vedic text of Krishna, where it is written that only four foods are to be offered to him: a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water. These gifts are interpreted as vegetables, grains, fruits, milk, and water. Followers of Prabbupada are generally middle-class youths who forego comfort and material gains to lead simple, often celibate, lives. They cat Indian food with their hands and use a minimum of spices. Small puris substitute for bread; green vegetables (bhaji) and halivah, consisting of farina and raisins, are other offerings. There is an abundant supply of milk since it is considered a complete food that also constitutes a mal . or part of the Hare Krishna diet.

A former Catholic newspaper journalist who has been a member of the movement for five years explained why garlic and onions are forbidden. "These foods excite the animal passions," he says passionately. "We also prohibit all stimulants, such as coffee, tea, alcohol, drugs, meat, fish, and eggs. Gambling and illicit sex are also taboo."

Krishna Consciousness divides life into three modes: goodness, passion, and ignorance, Foods of goodness, such as milk, increase the duration of life, Passionate foods arc hot and spicy. Foods of ignorance include old and decayed food as well as meat.

The married devotees of the movement wear white robes; those in saffron are bachelors. "Marriage has a different meaning to us," a married devotee explained. "We see it as a duty to be fulfilled when we are ready. Our marriages are not based on passion or romance; therefore there are few divorces. My wife decided she wanted to marry at the same time that I did. We went to the Master and he agreed to our betrothal."

There is little sex in the Hare Krishna Movement; most are allowed to indulge about once a month. "But we have a higher passion," the youth continued, "God."

Cleanliness is another basic principle for these followers, as it was for Gandhi, since the body is a statement of their spirituality. "I shower every time I go to the bathroom, although many devotees are not as rigid and only shower or bathe twice a day."

Finances for the Hare Krishna Movement come from their incense business, the largest in the world and one that grosses several million dollars annually. They are also taking over churches throughout the United States. The building in Los Angeles where the Master lives during the three months he is away from India was a former Methodist church.

The devotees carry symbolic beads. "Hearing begins spiritual life," a visiting Swami explains in a gentle tone. "If you are inattentive during the chanting, that is an offense. The goal is to become completely absorbed in the Krishna mantra. There are sixteen words and each word has two syllables. You should listen very carefully to every syllable."

The Swami pauses for a moment and asks, "Are there any questions? If there are no questions, you all must agree that the goal of human life is chanting 'Hare Krishna.' Good. Then I'll continue.

"What do the beads mean? There are one hundred and eight beads. The beads help you to achieve some regulation in your life. Each day, you should chant and meditate for one complete round. Those who live in the temples meditate for two hours a day or about sixteen rounds. But if you are only beginning, five minutes a day is a good amount of time. If you regulate your life, Krishna will reciprocate and your whole life will change."

Unlike Gandhi, who rejected and despised the Hindu caste system, followers of Prabhupada accept the four castes as the law of god and they yearn to reach the level of Brahmana-the intellectual-in this life or the next as the soul transmigrates. The goal is an eternal reunion with Krishna in a spiritual corner of the universe known as Viakunta. Hare Krishnas incorporate vegetarianism as a non-violent way of living. It is a worldwide community of doing for others and denying your own passions.

The next chapter will explore vegetarianism during ancient Greek and Roman times including the lives and writings of such notables as Pythagoras, Ovid, Plutarch, and Porphyry.

Selected Sources

The published sources listed below were particularly helpful in researching those chapters. The acknowledgments that follow this bibliography recognize the sources for unpublished information obtained through the listed personal communications and interviews including the interviews conducted during research trips to India, England, Germany, and Canada.

Chapter 2. Land of the Sacred Cow

Some good overviews of the evolution of vegetarianism in Hinduism may be gleaned from chapter 4 of Frederick J. Simoons's Eat Not This Flesh: Food Avoidances in the Old World (U. of Wisconsin Press, 1967); Max Weber's The Religion of India (Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1958); the entry for "Diet" in The Hindu World, ed. by B. Walker (NY: Praeger, 1968); Heinrich Zimmer's Philosophies of India (Cleveland: Meridian, 1951); Louis Renou's The Nature of Hinduism (NY: Walker, 1962); Thomas Hopkins's The Hindu Religious Tradition (Encino, Ca: Dickenson, 1971); Michael Edwardes's Everyday Life in Early India (London: Batsford, 1969); Eleanor R. Williams, "Vegetarianism," vol. 23, Colliers Encyclopedia CD-ROM (1996); and Melwani Lavina, "United States of Little Indias: The Veggies Are Coming! The Veggies!" Little India, March 31, 1995.

Pertinent primary sources include:

Abhedanda, Swami, "Why a Hindu Is a Vegetarian," a lecture before the New York Vegetarian Society, 1900.

Prabhupada, A. C. Bhaktivedanta, Bhagavad-Gita As It Is. NY: Macmillan, 1972.

Bubler, Georg (trans.), The Laws of Manu. NY: Dover, 1969.

On Jainism, see Jaini Jagmanderlal's Outline of Jainism (Cambridge U. Press, 1916), C. R. Jain's What Is Jainism? (Madras: Jaina Mission, 1950), and Balwant Nevaskar's Capitalists Without Capitalism (Westport, Conn: Greenwood, 1971).

Other excellent background references on India and vegetarianism are:

Basham, A. L., The Wonder That Was India. NY: Grove Press, 1959.

Berry, Thomas, Religions of India: Hinduism, Yoga, Buddhism. Beverly Hills, Ca: Benzinger, 1971.

Burtt, E. A. (ed.), The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha. NY: New American Library, 1955.

Harris, Marvin, "The Cultural Ecology of India's Sacred Cattle," in Current Anthropology. Vol. 7, Feb. 1966.

Ling, Trevor, The Buddha. NY: Scribner's, 1973.

Zinkin, Taya, India. NY: Walker, 1965.

Gandhi's writings are the best primary source for his struggles on dietetics (all of the following are published by Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad, India): An Autobiography (1969), The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism (1959), Satygraha (1958), Diet and Diet Reform (1964), Drink, Drugs and Gambling (1961), Women and Social Injustice (1970), Key to Health (1972), Fasting in Satygraha (1965).

Of the multitude of biographies of Gandhi, I found the most useful to be Robert Payne's comprehensive The Life and Death of Mahatma Gandhi (NY: E. P. Dutton, 1969), Geoffrey Ashe's Gandhi (NY: Stein and Day, 1969), Joseph J. Doke's M. K. Gandhi (New Delhi: Gov't of India Press, 1919), George Woodcock's Mohandas Gandhi (NY: Viking Press, 1971), Vincent Sheean's Mahatma Gandhi (NY: Knopf, 1962) and Lead, Kindly Light (NY: Random House, 1949), and Erik Erikson's Gandhi's Truth (NY: Norton, 1969).

Other Gandhian sources of interest are:

Jack, Homer, The Gandhi Reader. NY: Grove Press, 1961.

Kripalani, J. B., Gandhi. New Delhi: Government of India Press, 1970.

Nag, Kalidas, Tolstoy and Gandhi. Calcutta: Sree Sarawaty Press, 1950.

Pyarelal, Nair, The Epic Fast. Ahmedabad: Navajivan Pub., 1932.

Sutterland, H. R., "Diversities of Mr. Gandhi," in The Dalhousie Review. Vol 13, April 1933.

On Hare Krishna:

"Hare Krishnas Mature and Change Public Image." All Things Considered. Transcript of NPR interview by Robert Siegel and Linda Wertheimer. (Electric Library Personal Edition Document)

Rourke, Mary. "Hare Krishna’s Mature Face the Movement and Its Members Have Changed." St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 10, 1996, page 03E.