Q152. Are you what you eat?

If a person eats animals, then the qualities of animals will manifest in the person. These qualities include aggression, intolerance, and violence. The animals are aggressive, intolerant of others who intrude in their self-assigned territory and will kill or hurt others when they are bothered or not in agreement with them. People who eat plant food only (vegetarians), will manifest the qualities of plants. Thus calmness, peaceful, tolerant, and non-violent. The plants provide fruits and vegetables to all living beings. The tree provides shade and fruits to all living beings, even if we try to chop the tree down or don’t water it, still the trees will not hit back, and try to provide for all. The plants and plant eaters are calm, tolerant, non-violent, and helpful to all living beings. “Just as the air carries a particular smell from one place to another, the living entity will be carried to a particular body at death, based on the consciousness developed by him during life. On taking a new body, the living entity will get a particular set of senses, like ears, eyes, tongue, smelling potency, sense of touch, and mentality. The foolish persons cannot understand how a living entity quits one body to take another. But those with knowledge can see this.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-Gita 15.8-10) Due to the increase in animal eating in the world, the animal propensities of ignorance, violence, intolerance, and hatred are also increasing. This can be proven by the fact that all the violent criminals and terrorists in the world are meat eaters. The scientists are beginning to realize this truth about the relationship between human diet and human mentality.