In the Hindu Dharma Sutras (Code Books), rules of conduct and duties right and obligation is pescribed, the eternal way of living wherein happily in this world, we do not have the moral right to take away a life or to cause any unhappiness or sorrow to others. This is a simple dharma to understand. Therefore, if we destroy other beings for the sake of our own pleasure, we are cutting at the very root of the glory of human life and degrading ourselves.

Even though there is life in all beings, in both the vegetable and animal kingdoms, there are degrees of evolution and of the manifestation of intelligence. The degree of feeling and understanding, of mental and physical pain, is much less developed in plant-life as compared to animal-life. According to our dharma sastra, the purpose of human life is to know the Truth. In order to know the Truth, we must sustain our lives, but it needs to be done with proper discrimination. Although life must be sustained with life, it should be done by causing the least pain and disturbance to nature. This means that even when eating vegetarian food we should eat moderately and with discrimination. From a medical standpoint also many people today are advised to reduce their fat and cholesterol intake, which generally means the reduction of red meat in the diet.

When we hear these scriptural injunctions, we may wonder whether people were eating meat in the Vedic period. Yes, people were eating meat then, as they are now, and they also will be in the future. Under certain circumstances even the Vedas and dharma shastra gave this permission. However we should not eat meat was the injunction given to us. The permission to eat meat in other situations is only a concession due to our human weaknesses, which sometimes make us incapable of living up to a higher ideal. The shastra places many conditions on a particular action. It explains, for instance, which animals can be eaten, the days of the month when eating meat is prohibited, and what special rituals are to be performed before eating. But the very fact that so many restrictions are laid down shows that the ideal in the shastra is to rise above this craving.

Non-vegetarian food was also allowed for a particular class of people, the kshatriyas, rulers of kingdoms. For other classes, such as the business people (Vaisyas) or the philosophers/teachers (Brahmins), hunting and eating meat were not allowed. Why was this distinction made? Because the kshatriyas type of work required that they have the courage to fight to protect the nation. They underwent training in defense (hunting) and needed animal protein for physical strength. Yet the kshatriyas were told that after a certain age even they should renounce that type of life, take sannyasa (the order of renunciation), and go to the forest for contemplation.