[Advaita-l] more on food habits

[ravi chandrasekhara]

Pranam to all:

I asked some of the questions below but I don't think there was any answer/discussion:

1.Meat as food is different than animal used in yagna.

2.There are passages in Manu Smriti 5:48-51 that admonish against meat eating and 5:15 that mentions buying, eating meat,etc is as sinful as killing the animal. I think there is a similar passage in Mahabharata. How do these statements reconcile with the contradictory statements of Dharmashastras allowing some jaathis in some varnas to eat meat ?

3.Shri Satish Arigela mentioned that Dharmashastras allow meat eating based on jaathi/varna regardelss of locale or profession that may have changed for the individual born in that jaathi.

4.Examples for #3: 
a. A Bengali Braahmana (commonly considered allowed to eat fish as Ganga nadi floods that area often reducing ability to grow crops) working as a physician,IT professional etc and residing in Bengaluru or Western urban area would still be allowed to eat fish despite availability of veg food and not being affected by floods.

b. Similarly a Rajput Kshatriya no longer a king/soldier or a Reddy Shudra working as a physician as opposed to a farmer doing heavy labor would also be able to eat meat despite again the availability of veg food and that their lifestyles/occupations being different from their ancestral professions. Even if they followed their ancestral professions in the current era, one can argue it possible to be veg and do so.

c.Now a Gujarati Nagar Braahmana or Tamil Iyer/Iyengar Braahmana working in Kolkata would still be not able to eat fish based on Shastras. Similarly if these same individuals served in the military, would they be allowed to eat meat ?

5.What specific shastric reference is there that allows/or not allows meat eating despite change in locale of residence or change in occupation ?

Ravi Chandrasekhara