Sikh vegetarianism

In Sikhism, only vegetarian food is served during religious occasions, but Sikhs are not totally bound to be meat-free. The reason for serving vegetarian food during religious occasions is that the Sikh communal kitchen (Langar) is open to all. Since, many faiths and people have varying taboos on how meat should be prepared etc, and since some of the sikhs accept these restrictions the safest option thought by the Sikh Guru's was to adopt vegetarian food for Langar. Most Sikhs believe that they are only bound to avoid meat that is killed in a ritualistic manner e.g. Halal, Kosher etc. [ [http://www.sikhs.org/meat_au.htm Misconceptions About Eating Meat - Comments of Sikh Scholarsby Sandeep Singh Brar] [ [http://www.faithandfood.com/Sikhism.php Faithandfood Fact Files - Sikhism] ]

Sikhism argues that the soul can possibly undergo millions of transformations as various forms of life before ultimately becoming human. These life forms could be a rock, vegetation or animal. Sikhism does not see a difference between mineral, vegetation and animal. The only distinction made is that between these (mineral, vegetation and animal), and human. [ http://www.srigranth.org/servlet/gurbani.gurbani?Action=Page&Param=176&english=t&id=7349 Page 176 Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji]

Sikh Guru Nanak said it was a pointless or fools argument to debate the merits of either not eating or eating meat in the context of religion [ http://www.srigranth.org/servlet/gurbani.gurbani?Action=Page&g=1&h=1&r=1&t=1&p=0&k=0&Param=1289 Page 1289 Sri GuruGranth Sahib Ji]

References