LANHAM, MARYLAND, November 9, 2018 (RNS) At 4 a.m. on a recent Saturday, two specially trained Hindu cooks arrived at the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. They took a quick look at the menu and got to work preparing four kinds of rice, alongside masala vada, a crispy lentil pancake; sambar vada, a kind of fried doughnut with a lentil base; and idli sambar, a savory rice cake made from a batter of rice and fermented black lentils. All the food they prepared was strictly vegetarian and freshly made. “Food blessed by God stimulates the mind and body with holy thoughts and holy energy and promotes divine qualities,” said Sri Narayanachar Digalakote, a priest born and trained in India, who believes this diet, rooted in Hindu sacred text, is God-given.
The Hindu tradition of ahimsa, or nonviolence and compassion, includes a deep commitment to vegetarianism. “Our forefathers started partaking in those foods for which they had no need to kill any sentient being,” said the temple’s general manager, Atul Rawat. The idea is to bring the wisdom of traditional Hindu culture to address environmental degradation — specifically greenhouse gas emissions caused by animal waste. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its most recent report recommends “less resource-intensive diets” to keep emissions in check. These findings have spurred a global climate action campaign called “Living the Change.” Launched by a coalition of faith partners this September at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, the initiative calls for people from diverse religious and spiritual backgrounds to pledge to live more sustainable lifestyles, including eating less meat.
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