Practice and Discipline in Kashmir Shaivism — Do I need to be a vegetarian to practice?
“…that animal will not release you. He will follow you even to other worlds... “
My reflections and contemplation
Well, in my next life I’ll be born as a professional scuba-diver(or a mermaid if I’m lucky) with a school of fish following me. It’s my preferred form of protein in my current lifetime.
As I make progress in satiating my sustained inquisitiveness for everything Kashmir, Shaivism is my newest lure. Now what I find is I might have to make the choice. It’s going to be Kashmiri gaad-batt (fish with lotus root) and roganjosh (lamb dish) or, well, my Self. Hmm. What a dilemma.
Now look, I was quite happy when I read the Lal Vaakhs the other day — it basically says eat everything in moderation. That’s making sure you’re spiritually well and you also appear physically hot. Totally ok with that.
Alright, but I also know most of the gurus and spiritual people are vegetarians, perhaps it helps with the best spiritual body composition. It’s like I am in a video game: eat vegetarian and you gain 20000 spiritual coins.
Except for my maternal grandfather who is also my family guru who I know for a fact was some kind of an elevated being. For that matter also my paternal great great (I don’t know how many greats) grandfather is mentioned in the spiritual books of sages. The legends are kind of crazy to even read about. But it’s fun. For a reader like me, it’s meat! ☺
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The snapshots included in this post are meant to simplify references and the original artifacts (source of screenshots) linked below are protected by Creative Commons license.
[1] Screenshot 1: Courtesy — https://archive.org/details/LecturesOnPracticeAndDisciplineInKashmirShaivismSwamiLakshmanJoo/mode/1up
[2] Screenshot 2: Courtesy — https://archive.org/details/laldedrevisitedjawaharlalbhat_202001/mode/2up
