Sri Bhagavan’s Grace shining through a blog: an end to the consumption of creatures

Last September, I found http://end-to-suffering.blogspot.com/ while surfing. As I was reading it for the first time, I knew I had found my favourite blog, but I did not know some change was being worked on my body. The next day I went out to a restaurant for breakfast and ordered something called the Ranch Scramble. Many times before I had eaten this mixture of eggs and sweet peppers and cheese and little pieces of ham and bacon. On that morning, it still smelled delicious, and it even tasted delicious, but something was making it very, very hard to swallow the little nips of meat.

A couple of days later, some carefully prepared (organic, free-range) chicken was set in front of me at home. I took a bite. That sensation in the restaurant had greatly gathered force. I did not know how I was going to choke it down. Revulsion battled with politeness. Smiling to cover the awful almost-gagging sensation in the throat, and praising the food in case a look of recoil was showing around the edges, I got down several small bites. (Much effort had gone into the making of the meal.) As the last of these bites went down, I sensed that revulsion had won that battle and I felt obliged to say, “I do not think I will be able to eat meat again.”

That was the last time I was able to swallow a bite of a creature. Whatever mysterious force had moved from the end-to-suffering blog to my throat then spread through my house, claiming others. “I will not allow anything in my mouth that Bhagavan would not put in His,” one little person said. All trace of desire for anything but satvic food left him and has never returned.

Glory to our Beloved Ramana who so gracefully adjusts the palates of his devotees. Even as a child, He could swiftly and permanently turn a carnivore to a vegetarian:

In Ramana Leela, Krishna Bikshu describes this interesting incident: "From his very childhood, Venkataraman's words had an authority of their own. Abdul Wahab, a Muslim, was the captain of the football team of the boys. Once Venkataraman went to Wahab's house and on learning that they ate non-vegetarian food, expressed his revulsion. With that pronouncement, Wahab gave up non-vegetarian food forever! Wahab later served in the Police Department and retired as a Superintendent of Police." [http://bhagavan-ramana.org/sriramanaslife.html]

Please see ananda’s recent posts. http://end-to-suffering.blogspot.com/2007/06/bhagavan-on-vegetarianism.html
and surrounding posts.

An aid to the practice of Self-enquiry

In general [the Maharshi] refused to give instructions for physical discipline.

When asked about postures for sitting in meditation he replied simply: "One-pointedness of mind is the only good posture."

When asked about celibacy he would not enjoin it but said that married persons also can attain Realization.

But when asked about diet he quite emphatically prescribed vegetarianism: "Regulation of diet, restricting it to sattvic (i.e. pure and vegetarian) food taken in moderate quantities is the best of all rules of conduct and the most conducive to the development of sattvic qualities of mind. These in turn help one in the practice of Self-enquiry."

The passage quoted continues with a Western lady pleading that a concession should be made for Westerners and with Bhagavan refusing to do so. It should be added that in 'sattvic food' he included milk, though an animal product, but not eggs, which are considered too stimulating or rajasic.

It was characteristic of Bhagavan that he would never enjoin vegetarianism on any devotee unless asked, but if asked he was quite categorical about it. It often happened in his lifetime, as it still does today, that even without asking, his devotees would develop that aversion to animal food which I have mentioned as a general feature in the aspirant in modern times.

In conclusion, it can be said quite definitely that vegetarianism is beneficial to those who follow a spiritual path in the conditions of the modern world, and especially to those who aspire to follow the path of the Maharshi.

~ Arthur Osborne