Tradition states that serious yoga practitioners should eat a pure vegetarian diet, promoting purity and peace to body and mind. But how realistic is this ideal? Does eating a vegan or vegetarian diet really matter that much? Meera Vohora takes in the pros and cons.
Many traditionalists take the view that in order to practice yoga and follow the spiritual path you need to adopt the lifestyle shown in ancient Indian texts.
In yogic philosophy, the mind is formed from food: if the food we eat is pure, the mind, body and spirit are in harmony, leading to spiritual progress.
The theory runs as follows: all of nature including our diet, is categorized into three qualities, or Gunas: sattvic (pure) food promotes clarity and calmness of mind and is favourable for spiritual growth.
A rajasic (over stimulating) diet feeds the body, but promotes activity and therefore induces restlessness of mind and is generally avoided.
Tamasic (darkness and inertia) food induces heaviness of the body and dullness of the mind.
All the great saints and yogis lived on a yogic diet - a process meant to eliminate animalistic tendencies from the mind and personality.
By contrast it's believed that a simple sattvic diet helps refine body, mind and nature. Swami Sivananda said: "A vegetarian diet can produce supreme powers of both body and mind and is highly conducive to divine contemplation and the practice of yoga."
Following a spiritual path
Manoharan, founder of Om Yoga and a Sivananda trained yoga teacher in London, feels strongly about the issue.
He says: "Yoga is not aerobics, it's not a sport. It is a spiritual path. If you have a student who just wants to do some postures and incorporate it into their lifestyle then it's fine to eat meat and drink alcohol.
"However, if you want to practice yoga for the rest of your life and teach it, you must be vegetarian. When beginning a spiritual practice, a vegetarian diet really helps to detoxify the body first.
"Certainly, the moral principle of ahisma, or non-harming, would make you question being non-vegetarian and this is why most yoga schools and teachers favour vegetarianism."
Peter Bernard is a vegetarian life coach catering exclusively for the lifestyles and needs of vegetarians and vegans. Bernard began to reduce the amount of meat and fish in his diet in the early 90s and is now a committed vegetarian.
Bernard agrees. He says: "As a teacher you ‘should ideally' be a vegetarian. Part of being a teacher is being a role model for whatever you are teaching.
"So, for example, it would be immensely hypocritical of me to help others make their life better if I hadn't already done so with my own life. People have a right to know where their teacher sits on the ethical spectrum, and for them to then decide if they feel comfortable learning from that person."
Part of the purification process
Ben Ralston, founder and yoga teacher at Prem Yoga School in Slovenia, has been vegan for the last six months.
He adds: "There are many reasons why people who practice yoga prefer to be vegetarian: the process of practising yoga purifies the practitioner. This purification is essential to the higher goals of yoga. Without it the student cannot progress.
"Part of this purification includes having a 'clear' conscience - free from the doubt and guilt that comes from doing something in a way that they know could be better."
London-based medical herbalist and ayuverdic practitioner, Ashish Paul argues that keen yoga students will, in time, naturally question the diet they are consuming.
"I wouldn't say you need to be a vegetarian" she says: "but if you begin to practice yoga seriously and spiritually, you will eventually get to the point where you will be questioning your beliefs.
"You will be looking at what you eat, what you're putting into your body and how certain foods make you feel. Nobody should force their beliefs onto you but once you begin to follow your spiritual journey, you will slowly find yourself becoming vegetarian naturally."
Bernard echoes this. "If someone is a serious yoga student I would assume that they will be starting to understand some of the deeper philosophical issues behind yoga, and as part of that they will begin to understand more about the issues surrounding vegetarianism.
"I think it is important to be aware of a vegetarian lifestyle and be making steps towards this, but it is not imperative to be a vegetarian."
By contrast, yoga master, TKV Desikachar, who has devoted himself to teaching yoga for over 45 years, says strict vegetarianism is not imperative.
While his views are controversial, he has been quoted as saying: "Nowhere in the Vedas or in the ancient teachings is it said that you must be a strict vegetarian...for some individuals, it may even be unhealthy.
"To choose to be a vegetarian, indeed may be essential to health for some individuals, or a matter of taste, environmental conviction, philosophy or religious belief. But it is not a commandment embedded in Yoga."
The role of Karma
Life-long vegetarian and Raja Yoga student, Priya Hiranand says we need to focus on Karma.
"Animals have real emotions; they feel love, hate, worry and suffering. They have souls. I truly believe, if you eat meat, you are taking on all the pain and suffering that the animal went through during its dying moments".
Indeed it is believed that Mahatmas or Gurus had the road in front of them gently swept for fear of stepping on any living creatures.
Globally, there has been more awareness around meat consumption and its consequences in recent years. Ralston points out that most meat contains artificial chemicals such as growth hormones and antibiotics.
"It also contains the energy of the animal from which it came", he says. "Most of these animals are reared in conditions which cause them to be full of fear and stress hormones."
So, while most practitioners choose to be vegetarian on ethical and nutritional grounds, it shouldn't be forgotten that one of the most important aspects of yoga is to be non-judgemental.
As Bernard says, vegetarianism should be an individual choice. "I believe in educating people about the practical benefits of a healthy vegetarian lifestyle as well as the additional ethical and compassionate issues. But people have to decide for themselves."
Meera Vohora is a life coach and freelance PR. She can be contacted at: m.vohora@btinternet.com or on 0845 833 1374
Note: There are around 3 million vegetarians in the UK - equivalent to around 5% of the adult population. For more information see The Vegetarian Society
Picture source: The Vegetarian Society
Great article. Would love to
Great article. Would love to see more of this sort of thing