Food is a personal choice, and an individual’s right to choose must be respected. Spirituality is all about finding your own path and purpose, which begins with self-knowledge. Since the paths are non-linear, it is wise not to tell anyone what he or she should follow. I have seen clowns hating and targeting originality while behind the scenes lapping up the sloppy seconds unabashedly without an ounce of shame. The choice must happen from within. As far as food choices go, it doesn’t matter whether you are vegetarian or non-vegetarian. Most of the spiritual leaders that even I know of were non-vegetarian. And I hail from a Bengali family, it is in my roots of being a non-vegetarian. The whole idea of food is segregated into Satvik, Rajasic and Tamasic because inherent qualities in them, and it is as per Ayurveda. For a better analogy, assume the saying: “You become what you eat.” We are not in the same era when these books were written, so the idea was; if one has chosen a profession of a Brahmin (knowledge, teaching, research etc) anything with pen and paper. They used to have protection from the Kshatriya (Police, Army, warrior etc.). And in today’s era, which is referred to as Kali Yuga we don’t operate in the same fashion. So if you try to implement food as a choice of being vegetarian because someone else is guilt tripping you about it, don’t do that. Only proceed if the decision is genuinely and entirely your own. In today’s world, if you don’t have tamasic food (non-vegetarian), you will lose the strength to deal with the struggles of life. There is a saying: “You only get to be liberal when someone else is holding the barbarian at the gates.” And those who preach being vegetarian to be the benchmark of their devotion to God probably have an entourage to take care of them when things go south, but those luxuries will not be available for you.