“We are what we eat”. In Vedic culture, food and food preparation is extremely important. The Vedic attitude of deep love and appreciation of the divine in nature becomes Ahimsa, or “non-injury”, to any living creature. Subsequently, the inhumane and cruel slaughter of innocent beasts, especially the sacred cow, is not tolerated.

“Yoga and Ayurveda emphasize a pure vegetarian or what is called a sattvic diet – a diet to encourage the development of sattva, the higher qualities of peace, love and awareness. Eating is our first interaction with our environment. If that is not based upon love and compassion, all our other actions are bound to suffer.
Ayurveda emphasizes right diet as the foundation of all healing therapies. Food is the first and most important form of medicine.” David Frawley from his book Yoga and Ayurveda.

At New Rishikesh food is lovingly prepared for the Creator, it is then offered to Him in the form of sacred mantra, after which it is distributed to our guests. ALL the food prepared is strictly vegetarian (no meat, fish or eggs).

Purport by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

"According to “Manu”, the great author of civil codes and religious principles, even the killer of an animal is to be considered a murderer because animal food is never meant for the civilized man, whose prime duty is to prepare himself for spiritual emancipation. He says that in the act of killing an animal, there is a regular conspiracy by the party of sinners, and all of them are liable to be punished as murderers exactly like a party of conspirators who kill a human being combined. “He who gives permission, he who kills
the animal, he who sells the slaughtered animal, he who cooks the animal, he who administers distribution of the meat of the animal, and at last he who eats the cooked animal food are all murderers, and all of them are liable to be punished by the laws of nature.”

No one can create a living being despite all advancements of material science and therefore no one has the right to kill a living being by one’s independent whims (eating meats supplied by slaughterhouses which are ghastly places for breeding all kinds of material afflictions to society, country and the people in general). The material world is itself a place always full of anxieties, and by encouraging animal slaughter the whole atmosphere becomes polluted more and more by war, pestilence, famine and many other unwanted calamities.

These poor animals are bred to artificially huge numbers (we are talking billions!), kept in horrible conditions on factory farms, fed food filled with chemicals and animal by-products, treated as if they had no intelligence or feelings, and then inhumanely slaughtered, just to satisfy our desire to taste animal flesh.

When you partake of this suffering you not only ingest all these chemicals, but also the tremendous fear the animal feels just before being put to death (the emotion is stored in the tissues).

Every time a person participates in the heinous activity of slaughtering and eating animal flesh, they are making the choice of suffering, not only for the innocent animal, but for themselves. The choice is ours!