Is Honey Non-Vegetarian?
Question : Is honey a
non-vegetarian product?
(Meenashi,
Madurai)
Sage TGN :
Honey is an
insect-product and hence per se non-vegetarian.
In a beehive there is one queen-bee, which
is slumbering most of the time; and there are hundreds of worker-bees that do
the fetching and carrying. These worker-bees buzz out at daybreak in different
directions in order to collect nectar from flowers. Nectar is the raw material
and honey is only the finished product. Just an infinitesimal quantity of
nectar is to be found in a flower, which the bee ingests. In return the bee
spreads the pollen of the plant and thus renders service in helping for the
continuity of the plant-species.
After labouring for hours, the bee stores
the nectar in the hive where it is processed through months in order to be
converted into the golden-hued honey.
Wily man surveys the beehive high up on
the tree or a promontory. When the hive starts dripping, that is the indication
of fullness and man stokes a fire underneath on the ground. The intense heat
and smoke billowing upwards drive away the bees and even kill many of them. The
queen bee inside is now identified, taken out and placed in a clod of beeswax on the branch of
another tree. The evicted worker bees instinctively make a beeline to their
ruler and they lose no time in commencing to construct another hive,
cell by cell, in the new location.
The honeycombs in the deserted hive are
now taken out and squeezed to yield their contents into a vessel. Eggs and
embryos of the bees also get crushed. The honey thus collected is then filtered
and bottled to reach your table.
The bees had toiled to collect and process
the nectar for their own food-requirements and man robs them of the fruit of
their hard labour, apart from inflicting pain and death on the innocent
insects.
If you value your spiritual progress,
eschew honey.
After listening to me on this topic in
some of our recent programmes, many persons have forsworn honey. May their
tribe increase!
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