Eating eggs in Sikhism.

[Dhan Guru Nanak]

Also some good points regarding the production of milk. Unlike India overseas milk production involves such practices as keeping the calves away from the mothers and feeding them artificial milk, slaughtering all male calves for meat production and killing the cows at a later date when they stop producing milk. So really there is probably more cruelty which goes into milk production compared to free range eggs. And that is the reason that vegans choose to not eat any animal products.

So it makes you wonder whether Indian vegetarians drinking milk while not eating eggs is more of a cultural influence as opposed to a religious one. Because in India we know we take care of cows but that is not necessarily the same overseas.

[Sherdil]

Dudh, makhana de naal paaleh gabroo...bruah!

[N30S1NGH]

The potential for life is still there. In the wild, all those eggs would be fertilized. And the reason we Indian's believe that milk is okay, is because people raised the Indians raised the cows themselves, so there was no animal cruelty. So now, we should make sure to get milk from organic, free range, places.

Or otherwise if we stop milk usage, there will be no prasaad, as it is made from butter.............

Eggs unfertilized or not, contain animal proteins, which are sort of like cannibalism.

This is great point ..i never thought of it that way..but i know do after you mentioned it...it is sort of cannibalism eating female eggs which she withdraws every month from the body...its just grosses me out may be natural parallelism comes in mind with human female.

[Singh559]

This is great point ..i never thought of it that way..but i know do after you mentioned it...it is sort of cannibalism eating female eggs which she withdraws every month from the body...its just grosses me out may be natural parallelism comes in mind with human female.

I heard this in Punjabi, but i'll explain it the rough concept of the saying in English (hope I don't mess it up): "You take a life from an animal to extend your life, but unnaturally extending your life at the sacrifice of another you start living like that animal latter in life"

Like if you take meat from cows, eggs from chickens or anything else, when you reach bardapeh (old age) you sit around and do nothing just like those animals.

With that said, life also is in plant life. Unethical agricultural practices in many cases are worse than eating meat if you look at the whole picture. There's a reason why our buzurag are all strong even in their old age - they never over consumed and if they did consume a lot it was directly proportional to their hard working life styles.

[SunSingh]

eggs are meat, whether they are fertilised or not. we are not allowed to eat it in our dharm. it is part of a category of food that we cannot consume. simple as that. i remember someone once asked this question to gyani thakur singh ji and he just cracked up. the mind makes up a lot of justifications to get what it wants. don't let your mind manipulate you like that.

as for milk, milk makes animals grow big. eggs, however, ARE the animal in an early stage of development.

even if there is cruelty to dairy cows, i don't think you would get as much negative karma from drinking that milk as you would get from eating eggs, b/c they are different categories of food. just like sharaab can be consumed, no animals are killed to make it, but consuming that category of food/drink will create a fair bit of bad karam.

[Dhan Guru Nanak]

eggs are meat, whether they are fertilised or not. we are not allowed to eat it in our dharm. it is part of a category of food that we cannot consume. simple as that. i remember someone once asked this question to gyani thakur singh ji and he just cracked up. the mind makes up a lot of justifications to get what it wants. don't let your mind manipulate you like that.

as for milk, milk makes animals grow big. eggs, however, ARE the animal in an early stage of development.

even if there is cruelty to dairy cows, i don't think you would get as much negative karma from drinking that milk as you would get from eating eggs, b/c they are different categories of food. just like sharaab can be consumed, no animals are killed to make it, but consuming that category of food/drink will create a fair bit of bad karam.

Eggs are not the same thing as meat. That is the whole point of the discussion. If they are not fertilised please explain to me how they "ARE the animal in the early stage of development"? Unfertilised eggs do not have an embryo. There is no way they can form an animal.

You say that "it is part of a category of food that we cannot consume. simple as that." but provide no justification to back this up. This is exactly the reason why I started this thread so people more knowledgeable than me could point me to the evidence where it says we are forbidden from eating eggs (either in the form of specific Shabads or the Rehat Maryada).

The issue is also entirely separate from alcohol. There is absolutely no question that alcohol is not permitted in Sikhism. Besides the many bad effects on general health it also affects your mind and when you are intoxicated you cannot keep your mind on God. The same thing with other drugs.

Just because something has been considered a norm for sometime does not mean that we cannot try to find out the reasons behind it or be inquisitive. The definition of a Sikh is a learner. Guru Ji did not want us just to be blind followers who never ask any questions and there are several examples of Guru Ji going against certain traditional practices of their times to prove this point.

For example, Guru Nanak Dev Ji visiting Haridwar and offering water in the opposite direction to all the Hindu pilgrims. Another example is Guru Gobind Singh Ji on his way to Deccan when he bowed to the grave of a Muslim saint, in violation of his own instructions to The Khalsa. However, the Sikhs protested and Guru Ji agreed to be judged and fined by the Panj Pyare. Later he disclosed that he did all this to test his Sikhs to see whether they cared more for their principles.

Now I am not trying to compare myself to the actions of Guru Ji (which would be one of the stupidest things one can do) but my understanding from these Sakhis are that Guru Ji encouraged Sikhs to not only be humble but also to think for themselves if something does not seem right. That is why I was humbly requesting that if someone can actually point me to anywhere where it says that eggs are not to be consumed by Sikhs I will be very grateful. Like I said already I am not here to convince people to eat eggs and neither do I eat eggs myself. I am here to learn.

Sorry for the long reply and I apologise if anything came out the wrong way.

WJKK WJKF

[SunSingh]

Are fish meat or not?

[luckysingh99]

Are fish meat or not?

Well what do you really think they are ??

[Gurpreet14]

*Deleted*

[kullykhalsa]

sun singhs response really ties this thread for me.

You have people providing scientific description of how eggs ARE NOT in the slightest meat and how unfertizled eggs in this country which are free range really are no problem. then you have the response of sunsingh who insists questioning is wrong? that eggs are in development stage when clearly just a GSCE knowledge of biology would tell you that without a rooster that is incorrect!