Vegetarianism

The last time I ate an animal was in 1994. More specifically, it was fish on Good Friday.

I went to bed that night, but wasn’t quite sleepy. Since I was on spring break, I looked at my desk to see the books I had set aside for leisure reading, and chose The Science of Self-Realization, by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. (I’ve regaled many friends and acquaintances with how this book came to me. I’ll post it in the future.)

I was so captivated by the book that I read it overnight, from around 10:00 PM until 4:00 AM the next morning. I fell asleep and woke up around 10:00 AM. When I went downstairs to prepare my usual breakfast (a ham sandwich), my hand froze midway as it went for the ham. In a moment that felt like an eternity, I saw the pig that had been slaughtered for my enjoyment. I heard the squealing of pig I witnessed being slaughtered when I was 12.

That was the beginning of a spiritual and healthy diet. My wife (in the picture below) and children are a testament of the wonders of the way we choose to nurture our bodies.