Agathiyar has asked that I write a piece stating clearly that being a vegetarian is not a prerequisite or condition for following the path and teachings of the Siddhas. If we must consume meat, one can and is allowed to consume it. He asks that we give priority to our health and well-being first instead.
I had already written about this sensitive issue in several posts in the past. I wonder why he asked that I write about it again. Agathiyar never spoke about attaining Mukti and Jeeva Samadhi to all those who stood before him. Instead, he wanted them to adopt a healthy lifestyle and not zoom in on the menu. He asks that we exercise and go for walks.
It was a tradition for my father's family members in Karaikudi, India, to observe eating meat twice a week, on Saturdays and Wednesdays, often accompanied by an oil bath on these days. Arriving in Malaya and marrying my mother, the tradition continued with him. But things took a change for the worse with the coming of the Japanese occupation, with only tapioca available. The hard times continued even after the war, into the post-war period. Even after independence, we hardly saw meat on the table. Serving and eating meat was pretty rare then. It was a delicacy to be savored only when relatives turned up at our homes or during festive days.
My wife's great-grandfather, on the other hand, was chased out of his village in India for the sole reason that he consumed meat. Father, son, and daughter made their way to Rameswaram to make a living. They eventually boarded a ship that brought them to Malaya. The irony is that they eventually made a livelihood peeling and cleaning prawns for a factory making shrimp paste.
As I grew up with my siblings, we would have a proper meal only once a day, at lunchtime. My mother would have us sit in a circle and pass on whatever leftovers from the midday meals for dinner. Although we were not well off, there was always food on our table. We never went hungry.
I turned vegetarian overnight for no reason. No one insisted that I become one. No teaching lured me to become one. I did not become vegetarian for health reasons. I did not become vegetarian for religious reasons. It just happened. It had to happen, for the time had come. The time was right.
Jay Lakhani quotes Swami Vivekananda as having said that "when something within you tells you that you do not want to eat meat, you are ready to give up meat. It must come from within you; then you will give it up."
Turning vegetarian, I never did peer at the small and fine print on the packaging of processed food to see if it had animal products in it or traces of them. It was not a problem to me if cakes, biscuits, and other confectionery contained them. I knew if I looked into the fine print, my choices would lessen till I would not have anything to eat. I was quite comfortable with just dropping my intake of cooked red meat, poultry, fish, seafood, and eggs.
Back then, as eateries that only cooked vegetarian food were rare, I would head for the nearest food stall and inquire if they could prepare something acceptable to my palate. My nose would tell me if I should consume it. Next, my tongue would decide if I should swallow it. Of course, I could not expect the eateries to provide separate cooking utensils and crockery. But I survived because Malaysia, being a haven for food where we can savor a wide range of dishes from a wide spectrum of races- the Indians, Malays, Chinese, Portuguese, Baba Nyonya, Thais, Mediterranean, Middle East, English, European, and many more- someone will have something for me. I never went hungry.
A senior friend of mine from an adjacent block would come over to my cubicle at the office each time his colleagues hosted a party. The reason was that he would claim that he did not have anything vegetarian to munch on at the function. I told him it was the company that mattered and not the food. On the contrary, I joined all my office functions although I knew pretty well I would not get vegetarian food. I would make do with fruits and salads. But I never boycotted these functions. Soon my officemates who were of the Muslim faith began to take notice that I was not eating. Then they began to inquire about the reason. Slowly, they began to understand the context of vegetarianism. They began to notice, acknowledge, and respect the food choices of others too. They started to cater vegetarian meals for me. At other times, they began to cook separate vegetarian dishes for me. They prepared dishes for all and would serve me the same dish too, minus the anchovies or prawns, etc. Whenever I was out for lunch, they would ask me to bring back vegetarian food for them too. Our bond grew closer as a result.
Once, I accompanied my boss and a Major in the Army for an assignment to Penang. As Penang is a well-known destination for good food, they planned to head for the beach to try out the Ikan Bakar, or grilled fish, after we finished our assignment. They had already decided what they would want to have and which stall by the time we reached the end of the long row of stalls laid out on the long and sandy beach. Suddenly, they remembered that I was with them. Realizing that I could not take any of the food sold at the stalls, they insisted that we head back to the hotel where I could have something vegetarian. These wonderful souls sacrificed their much-awaited delicacy for me. Now, who are they? I asked.
Once, I was traveling to Kuala Terengganu with my office mates for a three-day course. As most of them were already hungry, and it was way past lunchtime, the bus pulled up at a roadside stall just on the outskirts of the town. My friends had a whole lot of choice before them, but I had none. I asked the stall owner if she could prepare me something vegetarian. She replied that they took à la carte orders only in the evening. I was told that I had to manage with what they had prepared and displayed before us. I told her I could not take any and returned to my table with a drink. As everyone was digging their fingers into their food, I was left staring at my drink. Shortly after, the stall owner came up to me and asked me what I wanted. She would prepare it for me, she said. I was delighted. I told her the things that I avoided, and she then came up with a simple vegetarian rice dish. I thanked her for her compassion, for how else would you explain the change of heart in her?
When a doctor friend who actively engaged in our rounds to feed the homeless on the streets followed his fellow medical team into the interiors of Sabah, the locals who served meat to the entourage, in coming to know that my friend was a vegetarian, rushed to gather roots, tubers, and plants and prepared a simple meal to his liking. The Dr was moved by their love and compassion.
It has been some 28 years now since I stopped consuming meat, fish, and other animals. I am not the least allured by it. If some twenty years back, I could not stomach the smell emitted from cooking meat and fish, I could not stand the smell of scrambled eggs, I could not walk into a fish market nor walk past it, then even the smell and taste have faded since then, for I could not distinguish between fish curry, sardines, and vegetable stock and ate them. It all smelled and tasted the same too. If I had unknowingly consumed them earlier, not wanting to waste food- another thing that Agathiyar had stressed to us- I willingly ate the fried noodles that came with egg some weeks ago. Agathiyar did not reprimand me, nor did he kick me out of the path.
Looking back now, I recall all that Agathiyar had told us earlier. I remember when my daughter said that she could feed her children vegetarian meals at home, but things were beyond her control once they were with her in-laws and in public, Agathiyar told her not to worry, for he shall change whatever they had consumed! That surprised us; how is that possible?
Though my wife was asked to become a vegetarian when Tavayogi initiated her into Agathiyar's Teecha Mantra, surprisingly, a friend of mine who went for the initiation too with Tavayogi was told not to consume the meat of those winged species only. Not everyone is to be coerced or forced into adopting either. Understanding the difficulties in opting for a vegetarian diet in a multiracial society like ours, Agathiyar has never taken up the subject of choice of food with my children. He has given leeway to them to come over on their own without any persuasion or instilling fear in them or establishing a deadline. Similarly, all those who converged at Agathiyar Vanam Malaysia (AVM) were not required to be vegetarians to worship and participate in the group prayers. Neither was there a need to switch over before taking up Yoga.
Yesterday Agathiyar, coming through a devotee, told a family that if the body shows signs of decline and one has to take in protein, by all means do it. The Siddha physicians have been known to prescribe fish for many ailments. Agathiyar surprised us by telling a devotee some time back that she needed meat in her diet. A Siddha physician and friend told me that Bhogar had advocated taking fish meat for certain disorders. When a couple of newlyweds stated their fear that they had to comply and succumb to the pressure from their respective families to take meat as they were soon to step into parenthood, Bhogar, understanding society and its pressure on women, did allow her to consume only fish for the duration of pre and post-delivery.
A senior colleague at the office was warded when he was in Sabah on official duty. He had just turned to being a vegetarian. The doctor who diagnosed him advised him to start eating at least the meat of fish, for he lacked protein and iodine in his body. However much he wanted to continue being a vegetarian, he had to give it up for health reasons. As a child, I remember asthmatic patients being told to eat the meat of bats. We read that Swami Nityananda of Ganeshpuri, as a baby of 18 months, had a rare skin disease. A stranger asked that the blood of the crow be applied to his skin and that he would be healed. Looking through the Siddha books, I was surprised to find, in the pages of K.Venkatraman's "Yugangal Kadandhu Vazhum Unnathak Kalai," published by Vijaya Pathippagam, Coimbatore, 2007, the preparation and protocol for picking the root of the Vellarukku was that one has to sacrifice a white fowl.
We can afford to speak a lot on meals and menus because we live in a comfort zone where we are spoilt for choice and where everything is available at the touch of a button. Throw us into a desperate situation, a famine or war zone, or drop us off in countries where hardly any greens grow, or where food is scarce, we would have no choice but to eat what was available or made available to us, including meat for survival as the Tibetans, hold a yak and slit its throat as they need to feed themselves and their families in the cold of winter up in the high mountains. I keep reminding myself that in times of calamities and disasters, we might end up having to opt for processed canned food and sardines distributed by NGO's to keep ourselves alive. I tell myself that if I were left with nothing else but meat and fish and I had to survive, I would eat them even if I were to throw up after that. In the face of death and the need to survive, all principles that we uphold vanish. We could either die of hunger or choose to eat anything available to stay alive. A dying man could only take a mouthful of the fish dish that he had asked for. The daughter, who was a vegetarian, not wanting to waste the remainder, took the rest. Many hold on to their diet with passion and love, not willing to let go of their favorite foods. Many have supported the vegetarian cause with scientific backing and findings, while equally many have silly reasons about vegetarianism unsubstantiated by facts.
When arrogance steps into religion and spiritualism, we see it raise its hood in diet and the menu. Those who climb the religious and spiritual ladder, at one point, out of arrogance, tend to look down on others below the rung as less devoted or spiritual. Similarly, it is with regard to the menu. They tend to look down on others just because they eat meat.
Jay Lakhani cautions us about passing judgment on others. He strongly cautions us not to judge a person's spiritual standing based on his menu and the food he eats. He strongly makes a statement that we should not classify people purely on their diet:
"Do not reduce religion to the menu in your kitchen. Do not reduce religion purely to the idea of diet. It is not what you eat but how you lead your life that truly dictates whether you are truly religious or not."
He says, "You can be a strict vegetarian but with all the basest and lowest attributes and character. On the other hand, you might be a noble person who eats meat. It is not what you eat but how you behave that is more important."
Why are some then slaves to their tongue? The lure of meat is too great a challenge for them to surpass. All desires, including the lure of the flesh and tongue, have to die a natural death. If restrictions are imposed and fear instilled, it would lie dormant only to take up its hood when the situation and conditions were conducive for it to flourish. Hence the need to exhaust all worldly desires, never leaving even a seed to germinate later. Please let people evolve in their own time. God is not in a hurry, so why are we rushing to convert and change others to comply with our choices?
I know of a guru who doubled as a priest in a temple, trading anchovies and dried and salted fish for a living. I received Agathiyar's very first message to me from my nephew, who is a student of his. What do you have to say to that? The lesson here is to look at the message and not the messengers.
Looking back into the past, early man, before he learned to farm and tame animals, must have fished if he lived near a water source or hunted small animals in the wild. Moving ahead to several centuries ago, we are told that meat was introduced into the diet of our forefathers when invaders invaded their lands.
When people try to split and divide society over racial matters or language, I ask: what about the air, water, blood, and milk? Is the air that we breathe vegetarian? Is the water that we drink vegetarian? Is the blood in us vegetarian? And is the milk we took from our mothers' breasts and the cows, buffaloes, camels, yaks, and goats vegetarian? Our very body is meat.
What's in the river? The water that we drink that has its source from the rivers is part of the "freshwater systems carrying water, sediment, and nutrients toward a larger body of water, like an ocean or lake. They contain diverse ecosystems featuring fish, aquatic plants, invertebrates, and mammals (e.g., otters, beavers)." (AI Overview)
What's in the ocean? "The ocean that covers 70% of Earth, containing 97% of its water, has massive biodiversity and vast, uncharted depths. It holds trillions of tons of salt, over 240,000 known species (including fish, mammals, and corals), microscopic plankton, and vast, unexplored deep-sea habitats. It also contains shipwrecks, volcanic ridges, and significant amounts of human-made waste." (AI Overview)
What's in the air? "Air is primarily composed of nitrogen (~78%) and oxygen (~21%), with the remaining 1% containing argon, carbon dioxide, water vapor, and trace amounts of other gases. It also contains natural and man-made particles, such as dust, pollen, spores, and microorganisms." (AI Overview).
What is in the soil? "Soil is a complex, living mixture typically composed of four main non-living components and a vast community of organisms." (AI Overview). This is where even vegetarians get their vegetables.
It is in the waters of the streams, rivers, and ocean that small organisms and fish, amphibians, and mammals thrive. It is this water that is held in the Kumbam, or pot, that Mantras are chanted into and used to bathe the deities' statues.
I was enjoying my food when the question arose whether it was the food that was tasty, or whether it was because of the taste buds on the tongue. Then it struck me that it was the salt that brings out the taste in food that is otherwise bland. Now, where did the table salt come from? Of course, from the ocean. The ocean that holds trillions of tons of salt is the source of our table salt, which gives taste to all our cooking.
Then there is the question of tiny microbes in the air, water, and all around us, on our skin, on our scalp, and inside the body. There are tiny organisms in the air, on the ground, in our path, and in water. We drink the water and inhale the air. Can we refrain from inhaling, stepping on, or taking in these lives? The air that one breathes out is in turn inhaled by another. Can we shut out the expelled air from a meat-eater from arriving at the nostrils of a vegetarian? The very body is a mass of meat that is food for wild animals and food to microbes, ants, worms, larvae and maggots once we die.
Can we, and do we, classify blood according to race and religion, faith and belief, or whether it is from a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian? Is the blood from the blood bank separated and labeled as from vegetarians and non-vegetarians? In the event of an emergency and in a matter of life and death, are we going to wait to seek a blood transfusion from a vegetarian or depend on the blood bank?
It is said that first there were microbes that aided plants in photosynthesis. These microbes are trapped in leafy plants. So when we eat vegetables and plants, we are digesting these microbes too. Microbes live in bread, yeast, and yogurt too. The digestive tract has bacteria that are vital to digestion. So are these apt for vegetarians?
In the event of famine, and when there are no crops and grain, would we shy away from taking meat or take it to survive? Let us be practical about this issue. Coming back to the question asked of me many years ago, "Are we required to become a vegetarian in pursuing the path of the Siddhas?", Agathiyar says, "No". He asks that we show the same amount of discipline and adherence in other matters and not solely on the menu.
I guess the reason Agathiyar and Lord Muruga made our home their home and claim it as their temple is that we are not fanatical. We are open to views and new findings. We have covered a lot of ground in bringing changes at AVM in the past with regard to Puja, often taking the cue from the Siddhas when they came to conduct it, which was acknowledged by them coming later in the Nadi and through devotees over the years. I guess this is the reason Lord Muruga says we would do it differently.