Is it okay to eat meat?

According to the Akal Takht, an amritdhari Sikh may only eat Jhatka meat, the quick killing of an animal so that they don't feel the pain, rather than Halal or Kosher meat which makes the animal die a slow and painful death. To quote Guru Nanak,"The fools argue about flesh and meat, but they know nothing about meditation and spiritual wisdom". A vegetarian lifestyle will not send you to Heaven alone, and it is the spiritual wisdom that Guru Nanak speaks of that will. Bhagat Kabir was very much interested in this topic and stated, "When the One God resides in all why do you kill the bird?" Guru Nanak did agree that it won't determine you in being saved in the end all that much when he was speaking to those followers of his who were of Hinduism and Islam. We must remember that at Guru Nanak's time, Sikhs (who were then called Sishyas) were not a defined faith but a grouping together of Islam, Honduism, and other faiths.

Bhagat Kabir seems much more angry at the meat-eaters than Guru Nanak like when he says "Those mortals who consume marijuana, fish and wine; no matter what pilgrimages, fasts and rituals they follow, they will all go to hell," When Kabirji says "fish" he means "meat" and not only fish, which he probably did because he is a poet. By not looking deeply at certain gurbani passages, it will seem as if Guru Nanak and Bhagat Kabir contradict each other about the eating of meat. But Bhagat Kabir too had followers who treated his teachings as a full religion (Kabirpanthi), rather than Guru Nanak's original followers who kept their religion but also followed him. He set out the religious law for his followers, the Kabirpanthis (who later acquired this name near modern times), rather than how Guru Nanak decided to let the Muslims eat meat because they follow the ritual of Halal slaughtering. But, when Guru Arjan compiled the Adhi Granth, he selected certain passages of anti-meat eating by Kabir because Sikhs weren't allowed to eat meat according to the law he taught. Sikhs will go to Hell if they eat meat (without repentance), but Christians, Jews, and Muslims won't because they are adhering to their path.

As wise as he was, Guru Nanak pointed out that vegetation too was treated poorly (not just meat), and it too is living and breathing. He wrote, "Look, and see how the sugar-cane is cut down. After cutting away its branches, its feet are bound together into bundles, and then, it is placed between the wooden rollers and crushed. What punishment is inflicted upon it! Its juice is extracted and placed in the cauldron; as it is heated, it groans and cries out. And then, the crushed cane is collected and burnt in the fire below. Nanak: come, people, and see how the sweet sugar-cane is treated!" By saying this he also expressed his wish for ... (more)