Guest (6): Can you explain the reason why yogis don't eat meat?
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Guest (2): Why shouldn't they eat meat?
Prabhupāda: Meat-eating, and if you believe in Bhagavad-gītā, is not the..., against the, our purificatory process. You cannot kindle fire, at the same time add water on it. If you want to kindle fire, then you have to keep that place very dry and fan it. Similarly, there are rules and regulations. Out of that rules and regulation is jīva-hiṁsā. Jīva-hiṁsā means unnecessary killing of animals. Now, if you have got sufficient foodstuff—a state I see in America... You have got sufficient grains, sufficient fruits, sufficient milk, milk products. Then if you can live on these things which are meant for human beings, why should you kill animals unnecessarily? If there is no alternative, that you cannot live... Just like in the desert, Arabian Desert, there is no food, no grain, for them animal-eating may be permissible. Because after all, we have to live. That is a different thing. But when you have got very nice foodstuff, and a very nutritious, palatable, sweet, why should you indulge in this unnecessary killing of animals? That is, will go against your purification. Therefore it is prohibited.
Guest (6): Is the unnecessary killing of animals part of, say, in relation to the incarnation, evolution to manual(?) forms. The objection to doing it is...?
Satsvarūpa: Is the objection to eating meat based on transmigration from animal to man?
Prabhupāda: No, animal can eat... The tiger, he is... By nature, he does not eat food or grain. He simply eats animals. So he can do that.