Chapter 26: Abstaining from Eating Meat

Verse 256
A butcher holds his hand on his head, dejected that his shop is empty. His helper tosses aside the killing knife and runs away, setting the chickens and goats free. He is drawn to the opposite shop, a vegetarian store where the crowds are abundant and lots of fresh vegetables are available.

TAKA Presents the Tirukural

You can access the entire text, in Tamil and English here:
Weaver’s Wisdom

Verse 251

How can he practice true compassion
who eats the flesh of an animal to fatten his own flesh?

Verse 252

Riches cannot be found in the hands of the thriftless,
nor can compassion be found in the hearts of those who eat meat.

Verse 253

He who feasts on a creature’s flesh is like he who wields a weapon.
Goodness is never one with the minds of these two.

Verse 254

If you ask, “What is kindness and what is unkindness?”
It is not-killing and killing. Thus, eating flesh is never virtuous.

Verse 255

Life is perpetuated by not eating meat.
The jaws of Hell close on those who do.

Verse 256

If the world did not purchase and consume meat,
no one would slaughter and offer meat for sale.

Verse 257

When a man realizes that meat is the butchered flesh
of another creature, he will abstain from eating it.

Verse 258

Insightful souls who have abandoned the passion to hurt others
will not feed on flesh that life has abandoned.

Verse 259

Greater than a thousand ghee offerings consumed in sacrificial
fires is to not sacrifice and consume any living creature.

Verse 260

All life will press palms together in prayerful adoration
of those who refuse to slaughter or savor meat.