Overwhelmingly, Srila Prabhupada preached that vegetarian or non-vegetarian was not the issue.*  He nearly always took the opportunity to preach Krishna bhakti no matter what food a person chose to eat.  At the same time, he indicated that eating foods in the mode of goodness helps one become wiser.

The effect of developing the mode of goodness in the material world is that one becomes wiser than those otherwise conditioned.

Bhagavad-gita, Purport Chapter 14, Text 6

As preachers, we are often challenged with the idea that a meat-centered diet is inherently more healthy.  Instead of engaging in a fruitless argument about the benefits of plant-based cuisine, let the non-devotees convince their own.  Produced in 2018,  the documentary, “Game Changers,” currently available on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu, blows away the ISKCON Television “Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise” vegetarian video produced in 1985 and the equally dated documentary, “A Vegetarian World.”  Krishna has arranged the ultimate preaching weapon to shut the mouths of those who proclaim meat as the best and necessary source of protein to grow bigger muscles and last the distance.  The elite athletes and Olympians, special ops soldiers, scientists, cultural icons, and everyday heroes prove conclusively that human beings perform far better on a plant-based diet and that mankind, even from the distorted perspective of evolution, was not physically designed for meat-eating.  Features the “Terminator,” Arnold Schwarzenegger, among many other well-known sports personalities, promoting vegetarianism/veganism.  The evidence that consuming meat lowers strength, recovery, and endurance is empirical and palpable.  But don’t take my word for it. Watch the trailer and make up your own mind:

I am pleased to note your description of the increasing interest in vegetarian diet in this country. Actually, the practice of meat-eating is very detrimental to spiritual life, because in spiritual life the goal is to become free from all sinful reactions, and meat-eating means simply to force oneself to suffer the sinful reactions of killing our fellow living entities.

Letter to Krishna Devi, June 15, 1969

Śyāmasundara: Mr . . . Lord Brockway has been a vegetarian his life long.

Prabhupāda: Oh, that’s nice. That’s a good advancement for spiritual understanding.

Lord Brockway: Yes, I became a vegetarian, oh, seventy years ago.

Prabhupāda: Oh, I see.

Lord Brockway: All from aesthetic ideas, humanitarian ideas. And I’ve proved one can be just as healthy.

Prabhupāda: Yes, you look very healthy.

Lord Brockway: Over eighty-five years. I’m very fortunate.

Prabhupāda: Yes, he’s older than me. Still, he looks very nice.

Conversation London, July 3, 1973

Pañcadraviḍa: “But even if I become vegetarian still, I will be . . .”

Prabhupāda: No, no, that is not questioned. God says that you shall not kill. But you are killing. Where is your love? You cannot argue with God. Then you do not love. You cannot put your argument, logic, “What God has said I must do.” That is love.

Pañcadraviḍa: “But God did not mean us not to eat. We must eat.”

Prabhupāda: God did not . . . that means you have to eat only meat? You have nothing to eat?

Pañcadraviḍa: But if I eat a plant, it is also killing.

Prabhupāda: That is your argument. But God says that, “Thou shall not kill.” You cannot argue. This is the first theory. Suppose if I say something to you, order, you cannot argue. That is not obedience. Obedience means without argument accepted. That is obedience. That is love.

Morning Walk, Hyderabad, April 22, 1974

Devotee (8): Śrīla Prabhupāda, if we’re performing devotional service and an insect is in the way, like if you’re painting the walls and you find this ant and you must paint this wall to please the spiritual master, what is the attitude?

Prabhupāda: I have already said. You cannot kill even an ant without permission. So if you want to kill, you should take permission of higher authorities.

Lecture Atlanta, March 2, 1975

The people of this country are gradually taking this idea very seriously for vegetarian diet and stopping cow killing in a practical way.

Letter to Krishna das Maheshvari, New York, July 11,1976

On the other hand, let us not squander precious time:

*So our business is, so far we are concerned, Kṛṣṇa conscious people, we are not advocates of vegetarian and nonvegetarian. Of course, vegetarianism is very good, even for health’s sake. But we do not take vegetables even, if it is not offered to Kṛṣṇa. That is our principle. If Kṛṣṇa said that, “You give Me nonvegetarian diet,” then we can eat also.

SB 1.2.06 Lecture Delhi, November 14, 1973.

*Sometimes this morning we were talking about Sometimes this morning we were talking about vegetarian and nonvegetarian. Our mission is not to make a nonvegetarian a Sometimes this morning we were talking about vegetarian and nonvegetarian. Our mission is not to make a nonvegetarian a vegetarian. No. Our mission is that “Either you are vegetarian or nonvegetarian, it doesn’t matter. You become Kṛṣṇa conscious.” That is our mission. To become vegetarian is not very good qualification. It is better than the nonvegetarian, but that is not the ultimate solution. The ultimate solution is when you become a lover of God. That is ultimate solution.. No. Our mission is that “Either you are vegetarian or nonvegetarian, it doesn’t matter. You become Kṛṣṇa conscious.” That is our mission. To become vegetarian is not very good qualification. It is better than the nonvegetarian, but that is not the ultimate solution. The ultimate solution is when you become a lover of God. That is ultimate solution. and nonvegetarian.

Lecture 6.1.2 Honolulu May 6, 1976

 Nrsimhananda das

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