Question: Is God a vegetarian? I read that Lord Rama used to hunt deer for His food.
Answer by Romapada Swami: There is no mention within any authorized accounts of Lord Rama’s pastimes that He hunted deer for His food. This might be a corrupted acccounts of the pastime in which Sitadevi was once attracted by a golden deer (which was actually a demon in disguise); Lord Rama went to get the deer for His beloved consort to have as a pet. It is clearly stated in many places in Ramayana that while in the forest, Lord Rama and His brother collected roots and fruits from the forest for their food.
As we have discussed before, vegetarian food is in the mode of goodness while animal flesh induces ignorance. In general, the majority of the population in Vedic civilization was vegetarian, what then to speak of the Supreme Lord, Who is situated in pure goodness, transcendental to three modes of material nature. With very little exception, it was only in the limited case of people who were addicted to a life in the lower modes of nature that sometimes animal flesh was allowed under restriction.
