Question about Su vegetarians

[sleepydvdr]

I ran across a question raised why Su vegetarians (Buddhist/Hindu) do not eat field vegetables (garlic, onion, shallots, etc). I have not found an answer for that. Does anyone know?

 

[sleepydvdr]

Thank you for the explanation. I was pretty curious about it.

 

[jeneticallymodified]

it's not about killing the whole plant then?

 

[led.boots]

My friend from Taiwan told me once that certain monks and others consider onions, garlic, and coriander to be unclean because they have an offensive odor. It is that the monks don't eat any animal products because then all creatures will be able to sense or smell death on them. In the same way, the offensive odor from the onions and garlic will be off-
putting to others, to the world.

I'm not describing this very clearly! And I'm in no condition to look it up, it is 3:30 AM and I'm watching for meteors in a mostly overcast sky.

 

[Dave in MPLS]

onions, garlic, and coriander to be unclean because they have an offensive odor

I'm familiar with Vedic Indian cuisine, which doesn't use garlic/onion either. I was lead to believe these were avoided because they stimulate base instincts, as was said earlier. I'm sceptical about odor being an issue, because Hindus (at least) who cook according to vedic principles use asafoetida (a positively foul smelling powder) for an onion/garlic type flavor.

I found these two stories from Hindu sacred texts that provide a more colorful rationale for avoiding alliums:

The Vedas state that onion and garlic came from the dead body of a murdered cow and therefore they are considered like eating meat. They break the non-vegetarian principle from the strict Vedic shastric point of view. Strict vegetarians don’t eat onion nor garlic. Since meat is tamasic (mode of ignorance), onions and garlic are also tamasic and rajasic food (mode of ignorance and passion). They may have some medicinal value like even wine is used in medicines sometimes but no one will die without eating them. Devotees do not eat onion and garlic also for the reason that they cannot offer the food cooked with onion and garlic to the Lord as per the principles of Bhakti yoga. So if the Lord does not accept it, then the devotees do not get prasadam.

“Once, in Satya Yuga the rishis were performing gomedha and asvamedha sacrefices for the welfare of the whole universe. A cow or a horse would be cut into pieces and placed in the fire. Afterwards the risis would utter mantras and the same animal would come alive in a beautiful young body. One time the risi who was about to perform a gomedha sacrifice, his wife was pregnant. She had a very strong desire to eat and she had heard that if, during pregnancy one has a desire to eat and does not fullfil this, then the baby that will be born will always have saliva coming from its mouth. Very strangely, she desired strongly to eat meat, thus she decided to keep one piece of meat of the cow’s body that was offered in sacrifice. She hid it and was making a plan to eat it very soon. At that time the rishi was finishing the sacrifice and uttered all the mantras for the new young cow to come to life. However when he saw the new cow, he noticed that there was a little part missing from her left side. He went into meditation and realized that his wife had taken away a piece of meat during the sacrifice. Now his wife also understood what happened and quickly threw the meat far away in a field. Due to the effect of the mantras uttered by the rishi there was now life in this piece of meat. Then the bones in that piece of meat became garlic and the meat became onions in that field. Thus these foods are never taken by any Vaishnava devotee because it is not vegetarian. Plus it is in the mode of ignorance."

Here is another story, from Puranic Encylopedia by Vettam Mani (under CANDRA VI.), (Kamba Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda and Bhagavata, Astama Skandha. Kamba Ramayana is a Tamil text by poet Kambar):

“Solar eclipse according to the Puranas. The Devas and the asuras jointly churned Ksirabdhi wherefrom emerged Dhanvantari with the Amrtakumbha (pot of nectar). But an asura mayavi (magician) called Saimhikeya absconded to Patala with the Amrtakumbha which nobody noticed as everybody was busy with dividing other divine objects. Only after the mayavi’s disappearance was it noticed that the Amrtakumbha was missing. At once Mahavishnu assumed the figure of a beautiful woman, got back the Kumbha and gave it to the devas. The devas began drinking the amrta when, at the instance of some other devas, Saimhikeya, the mayavi, assuming the form of an old Brahmin reached svarga, got a share of the amrta and began to drink it. Surya and Candra (Sun and Moon) who were on guard at the gates divined the secret of the ‘old Brahmin’ and informed Mahavishnu about it. He cut the throat of the pseudo-Brahmin with his Sudarsana Chakra. But, half of the nectar he had drunk stayed above the throat and the other half below it. Therefore, though the head and the trunk were severed they remained alive. These two parts, in course of time, evolved as Rahu and Ketu.

When the throat was cut some blood dropped on on the ground, and became the red onion and the white onion (garlic) respectively. So both onion and garlic originated from the throat and blood of the demons or asuras, thus their consumption brings us closer to tamo guna (mode of ignorance) which characterizes the nature of the demons and thus is detrimental to Bhakti.

 

[led.boots]

Dave, great stories. I remember my work friend (a Su buddhist) talking about onions and garlic stimulating the 'baser instincts', like anger and lust. I think the offensive odor was bad because it told all living creatures that you were now more dangerous and less enlightened? We had a really interesting talk about it, and her food was always delicious.