Life Changing Experience, Becoming Non-Vegetarian: How my trip to India made me change my perspective on my food choices?

A few years ago I had the opportunity to travel to India, with the help of very generous people who I will always have in my heart. At that time I was already a vegetarian, which required some work because at that time this was not so common in my city, finding a vegetarian restaurant was almost impossible, like looking for a “needle in a haystack.” So I had to prepare almost all the food at home. Meeting a Kriya Yoga teacher motivated me to further radicalize my eating habits, giving up eating sweets almost completely. This decision was motivated by my desire to reach the much desired “enlightenment” through my practice. This is a process that took time, but one in which I felt very happy and satisfied. But everything changed on that trip to India that I made, when one day I visited a temple where I met a monk. When he saw me for the first time he asked me in astonishment: Are you eating meat? My spiritual ego swelled up like a peacock and I proudly replied that no, that I was a vegetarian. To which he replied: “Well, that is the problem, you are pale, extremely thin and your skin does not look good, so right now you will eat meat.” That night my dinner was a meat meal. He later explained to me that generally in India they are vegetarian for reasons such as religion, or because many times people are undergoing treatment with Ayurvedic medicine. Explaining about Ayurvedic medicine would be too long and I will not do it, but this monk told me that at that moment my body needed to eat foods that connect me with the earth, because since I practiced a lot of yoga and did a lot of meditation, I was living in the “clouds” and that Yoga was not about disconnecting from your environment, distancing yourself from society or your reality, but rather, living in harmony with it in a conscious way. At that moment I did not understand it well, because I could not believe it, a monk was telling me the opposite of what I imagined it should be, but with time, I have understood it better. Eating meat and dressing in white would not give me the ticket to enlightenment, if I did not face and heal my traumas and emotional wounds, etc. Practicing yoga is connecting with yourself and your environment, but it is also action, it is having the courage to accept and take the step to heal your problems, through therapy. Currently I do not intend to reach enlightenment, but I continue with my regular practices, I eat meat without exaggeration, but when I feel that I do not need it I eat more vegetables or other types of food. I also understood that there is a spiritual ego and that this is terrible, so I always try not to fall into it. Being vegetarian or not is a choice that is up to each person, and no one has the right to judge another simply because they do not act according to their ideas. This is my personal experience, and I share it not so that you change your eating habits, but to see if it can inspire you and make you reflect. After all, cultivating love for ourselves, for nature and for those around us is the most important thing in life.