To be a vegetarian, or not to be a vegetarian, that is the question. Most serious practitioners of 
Yoga choose to become vegetarians for two reasons
principally, one is ethical, and the other one is nutritional. We shall examine these two guiding principles for adopting the vegetarian life style
in this essay.
Ethical Reasons for Vegetarianism
Lets first address some of the ethical objections to eating meat. In the course of human history mans ethical attitudes towards each another and towards the animals has continued to evolve. In the past men used each other as slaves, there was rampant cannibalism and human sacrifices which were considered morally acceptable behavior. Through many thousands of years of social evolution our ethical standards have developed to this point in history when slavery and human sacrifice have almost completely disappeared, and when we are at last beginning to respect and honor animal rights. Animals have not as yet been given the same social status as human beings, but they are beginning to be thought of as emotional and intellectual beings, and so using their flesh for nourishment has now been called into question.
It is now become acceptable to think that animals have real emotions, that they feel love and hate, that they rejoice, worry, mourn, suffer, and feel the same kind of feelings we feel. Certainly animals display an intellect, they obviously learn and remember, and so it can be safely assumed that they have souls. Though the intellectual capacity of most animals is much more limited than in human beings, none the less, they do experience a very rich sensual reality (the experience of the sences) which is in many ways is more complex than our own. Animals do not posses the psychological compartment of the ego, so animals are not generally self reflective, but because of their sensual acuity they are able to respond to the world more directly, giving the animals a more intimate and passionate relationship with nature. If you have ever loved an animal you can attest to the fact that each animal is a sentient being with an individual personality. To a practicing yogi who has cultivated a sensitivity to all life, the killing of any animal for sustenance or sport is the equivalent to the killing a human being for sustenance or sport, it is absolutely abhorrent and completely unconscionable.
An objection to vegatarianism which is often suggested is that animals themselves will kill one another for food, so why not then live by the same ethical standards and kill the animals for food. It is argued that it is impossible to imagine that the routine slaughter which goes on in the animal kingdom everyday is a violation of any divine moral imperative. This statement is true because animals are innocent, they are driven by a natural instinct to kill one another for food. The bushman is also not cruel when he kills and eats his enemy, for him this is normal behavior and completely within the bounds of his moral code. So then how is it that for some of us our sense of morality can be so offended by the killing of animals for any reason. Is there a moral imperative that can only be appreciated by a few men and women who have developed their sympathies to include the animals.
The answer to this question is, yes, the progress of our moral values is usually the labor of ages, because there is always just a small minority of the
human race,
at any given time, 
who ever achieve genuine moral progress, their values are then eventually adopted by society.
When man learns to recognize the divine
within himself, when he begins to recognize himself as an eternal spirit which is but temporarily experienced flesh, then his feelings and emotions
will become more complex and subtle, more broad
and deep, and he will be able to feel for all of life equally. This evolution of feeling will profoundly effect our behavior towards the animals
and towards all the other creatures who share our world. If you have natural empathy for animals and if you can not bear eat their flesh, then you must
have the courage of your convictions and lead this moral evolution by proudly displaying your feelings and empathy for the animals. There are some spiritually advanced Yogis
have developed their moral feelings to such an extent that they can not harm even a littlest mosquito or ant. There are tales of great mahatmas or
gurus who had the road in front of them gently swept as they walked, for they feared that they might accidentally step on an insect on the road.
Choosing to be a vegetarian can come from a moral desision that holds the animals in such high regard that you can find it immpossible to eat them.
Nutritional Reasons for Vegetarianism
The other major motivation for vegetarianism is nutritional, first of all, fresh vegetables and fruits are the most important sources of vitamins and minerals in a diet. All flesh foods which are commonly consumed today are highly imbalanced nutritionally containing an excess of protein while almost completely lacking in calcium and growth promoting vitamins, which are all originally derived from vegetables kingdom. Calcium is absorbed from the soil and changed by plants (with the aid of photosynthesis) into organic or food calcium and vitamins are manufactured by the green leaves in plants.
It has been found that a large number of diseases suffered by modern man are caused by the uric acid deposits which can be found in the muscle fibers of meat. When this extra uric acids is introduced into the body it must then eliminate its own naturally manufactured supply, plus the extra supply taken from the meat source. For example a pound of liver contains 19 grains of uric acid, a pound of beef contains 14 grains, but the body can only eliminate 6 grains through the kidneys and liver the uric acid which has not been eliminated becomes the seeded for gout rheumatism, headaches, nervous diseases etc. By not eating meat you can reduce your chances of getting Gout or Rheumatism, two very crippling diseases as well as a host of other ailments linked to uric acid imbalance.
Meat putrefies or more graphically it rots very quickly. Animal protein putrefies twice as fast as vegetable protein. Animal muscles are tender but after death they stiffen from the coagulation of the muscular tissues, the muscles toughen and they do not become tender again until they putrefy. This is the reason that meat is kept for sometime to ripen or in other words to decay. During the process of purification poisons are released these poisons are then absorbed by the human body when the meat is consumed. Some meat may also be contaminated with with the eggs or even adult parasites Ordinary cooking will not destroy these parasites because they are able to withstand high temperatures. Several types of animal parasites can be found in the human intestine, the most common are beef, pork, and fish tapeworm, roundworm, hookworm, pin worm, and liver fluke. Certain species of parasites in their embryonic form are absorbed into the human blood stream and may travel throughout the body, sometimes lodging in the liver, lungs, brain, muscles and in the intestines.
These parasites may not produce symptoms for a very long time, so people are not immediately aware that they have them. Some of the symptoms that will show up later are, irregular evaluation of the bowels, itching of the rectum, abdominal pain, vomiting, severe headaches, loss of appetite.
All food was originally produced by the vegetable kingdom which absorbs and stores the suns energy, the energy which we and other carnivores are getting from eating the flesh of an animal is the balance stock of energy that the animal has not used. Vegetable food is the original energy source for all animal energy. By being a vegetarian you eat from the most direct source of the suns energy, not the second hand source. So by not eating meat you can prevent many debilitating diseases as well as maintain a clean, nontoxic physical system, and you will be absorbing the suns energy from its most direct source, the bountiful world of the vegetable kingdom.
If you should decide to become vegetarian please go to the (Diet Nutrition and Yoga) section of this web site for further nutritional guidance.
Written by Ava