1. In order to get an initiation, why do we have to be a vegetarian?
M: Yes, to be a vegetarian is a requirement or prerequisite to get an initiation because it is good for the progress of your meditation practice. We cannot go up or ascend to the holy worlds or sublime realms by carrying too much burden of karma. Eating meat/flesh creates too much bad and serious karma although sometimes We don’t kill the animal. However, it is undeniable that the slaughterer kills animals because there are people who wants to buy or eat them. So it is like the karmic circle which very horrible and fearful.
I think the enlightened masters throughout the ages observe a strict discipline of vegetarianism
and they also encouraged their students to become vegetarian.
For example Sakyamuni the Buddha has said in the lankavatara sutras “All creatures originally came from the same source and have gone around and surrounded repeatation intertwined cycle of birth and death and have become six close relatives to each other (father, mother, child, brother, younger brother (male and female). Therefore, if we love our brothers and sisters, we must refuse not to eat meat “.
Guru Nanak has said in the Adi Granth holy book, verse 140, “Just as a shirt stained with blood becomes dirty then someone will not have pure awareness if he consumes blood and flesh of other creatures”
Sri Krishna has said in the Bhagavad Gita, “satvik (pure) food is good for both body and spirituality”. Satvik meaning is vegetarian food.
In Hinduism being a vegetarian is one of the practices of ahimsa (non-violence) because meat is derived from the killing of animals.
I think there are many excerpts from various scriptures that discussing vegetarianism. All saints and sages carry out a strict vegetarian diet, so by serving and walking on vegetarianism, it means we follow their path towards perfection.