Yudhishthira said You have told it many times that abstention from injury is the highest Religion. In Shraddhas, however, that are performed in honour of the departed Manes, persons for their own behoof, should make offerings of various kinds of meat. A doubt has, therefore, sprung in our mind about the duty of abstaining from meat. What are the sins that one commits by eating meat, and what are the merits that one acquires?
युधिष्ठिर उवाच अहिंसा परमो धर्म इत्युक्तं बहुशस्त्वया। जातो नः संशयो धर्मे मांसस्य परिवर्जने। दोषो भक्षयतः कः स्यात् कश्चाभक्षयतो गुणः॥