Did Swami Vivekananda eat fish and meat before he turned a sannyasi?
Did he continue eating fish and meat after?
What were his views on consumption of vegetarian or non-vegetarian food?
PS. Please don't answer citing blogs or Wikipedia.
Did Swami Vivekananda eat fish and meat before he turned a sannyasi?
Did he continue eating fish and meat after?
What were his views on consumption of vegetarian or non-vegetarian food?
PS. Please don't answer citing blogs or Wikipedia.
Before turning into a Sannyasin, there is a greater possibility that Swamiji might have taken the fish at least as it is a chief diet in Bengal.
After becoming a Sannyasin; when Swamiji was in America, some orthodox Hindus accused him of taking forbidden diet. Here is an excerpt:
To the accusation from some orthodox Hindus that the Swami was eating forbidden food at the table of infidels, he retorted: Do you mean to say I am born to live and die as one of those caste-ridden, superstitious, merciless, hypocritical, atheistic cowards that you only find among the educated Hindus?
On other similar accusation by Christian missionaries to bring infamy to him, he wrote this:
I am surprised that you take the missionaries' nonsense so seriously....If the people of India want me to keep strictly to my Hindu diet, please tell them to send me a cook and money enough to keep him....On the other hand, if the missionaries tell you that I have ever broken the two great vows of the sannyasin — chastity and poverty — tell them that they are big liars.
Therefore, it seems from this excerpt that Swamiji did take the non-veg diet when he was in the west. But, as Swamiji wrote, chastity and poverty are the ideals that a Sannyasin should never deviate from (and he upheld these ideals in their true sense), food habits are secondary.
"About vegetarian diet I(Swami Vivekananda) have to say this - first, my Master(Sri Ramakrishna) was a vegetarian; but if he was given meat offered to the Goddess, he used to hold it up to his head. The taking of life is undoubtedly sinful; but so long as vegetable food is not made suitable to the human system through progress in chemistry, there is no other alternative but meat-eating. So long as man shall have to live a Rajasika (active) life under circumstances like the present, there is no other way except through meat-eating" (Complete Works, 4.486-7).
So,as one can see Swamiji is atleast in support of meat eating.But this passage does not clear our doubts regarding whether he himself took meat or not.
So,consider this as a partial answer.