Question on SamaashrayaNam: Food Habits

[Guest guest]

sri:

 

One of the things that has been really bothering me personally is the food

habits of the SriVaishnavas.

If we are really serious about our sampradsaya, we should ofcourse start with

the food habits. It is a given these days that people take Samashrayanam as some

kind of a "stamping process" which is due to them anyway, with scant disregard

for the expected habits.

 

Worse, for all our lack of control and "the pressure to blend",

some people even define egg to be vegetarian as it can't be "fertilized", and

they munch on cakes and pastry to glory.

 

Eating at places like Pizza Hut, eating Indian "Veg/Non-veg" restaurants

(never mind the utensils are mixed).... the list of avoidable things go on.....

Most of the people are even ignorant (or is it denial?) of the fact that the

cheese that we eat outside contains rennet that is taken from the stomach of a

calf after killing the helpless soul.

 

Samshryanam is a very important step, it is a step towards Vaikuntha, and it

should never be taken lightly. Food habits should be restricted and regulated,

no matter what. In my humble opiniont, even little compromise leads to

degenration.

 

We can take inspiration from the Hare Krishna devotees. ISKCON boasts of

devotees in Siberia as well as in Ghana who remain purely vegetarian, avoiding

things like Onion, Garlic, Mushrooms etc. If a person born in some foreign land

can follow the practices that were followed by our forefathers, it should be a

matter of shame if us Srivaishnavas can't. Also, their reverence to their gurus

and determination to follow the words of their AcharyAs is indeed laudable.

 

Adiyen,

 

Kidambi Soundararajan.

[Guest guest]

sri:

 

And one of the other things that one could/should avoid is encouraging "echchal"

resulting from self serving from left hand while eating/holding half-eaten plate

in both hands which is prevalent even while the gathering is of "satsangh" type

and the food being taken is none other than the sacred prasadam....