Is it true that in olden days, sages used to eat meat?
There is an incident of ‘Agasthya’ eating meat in ” Vathapi – Ilvala” story. SWAMIJI: Yes, we can see some mention about such things in very old stories. We need to understand clearly why and under what circumstances they used to consume meat. Firstly they used to take meat, not as their regular food. The animal would be offered to ‘yajna’, the sacred fire and then the sages, having high yogic power would consume the meat as prasad of the yajna. Due to this auspicious activity, the animal would go to heaven. In the story of ‘Augusthya’, when he said ‘ Vathapi jirno bhava’, he got digested immediately. Such was the power in those days. But now meat is not approved to Brahmins. First we need to understand why we consume food. It is to have good health. Health means not only the physical health. The mental health plays a very important role. That’s why in Sanskrit it is known as “swasthya” means mental peace, purity and health. Meat or non-vegetarian food improves body and but not the min
