The following points explain that vegetarianism is not essential for spiritual practice of all paths.

• For spiritual growth, purification of the body, mind, intellect and ego are important. Out of these, the purification of the physical body has relatively less importance, especially depending on one’s spiritual path.

• According to the science of Spirituality, eating vegetarian food increases one's spiritual purity (sattva component) only by 0.0001%. In comparison, on the Path of Guru's grace or the Path of Chanting*, chanting can increase one's spiritual purity by as much as 5%..

• Mental worship such as chanting The Lord's Name purifies the body, mind, intellect and ego, whereas physical worship such as refraining from consuming non-vegetarian food mostly purifies the physical body. Since physical purity is a necessary prerequisite on paths involving physical worship, such as the Path of Ritualistic Worship (Karmakanda) or the Path of Deliberate Rigor (Hathayoga), vegetarianism holds importance in those paths. However, it is not necessary on other paths involving mostly mental worship, such as the Path of Devotion, Path of Guru’s Grace, etc.