There have been many doubts on the question of eating egg.
As far as pure vegetarianism goes – one must abstain from eating both types of eggs – farm egg and factory egg.
As the most eminent spiritual authority on vegetarianism, the great Yogi and Maha-Siddha Kyabje Chatral Rinpoche emphatically stated,
“As a means of attaining world peace, I have given up eating meat, as well as cakes since it contains eggs. Eating meat and eating eggs is the same. An egg will hatch into a chicken. A chicken is a sentient being. For example, there is no difference between killing the unborn fetus in a pregnant woman and killing the child after it is born; the killing is the same negative action. This is the reason why I don’t eat eggs”.
The rational for abstaining from both farm eggs generally and factory eggs in particular is clearly evident in the process of factory eggs production. In atrocious conditions, thousands of chickens are cramped together in constricting cages or coops causing immense daily suffering on a large scale. The chickens are then fed with all kinds of chemicals and antibiotics in unnatural quantities of double their own bodyweight, which causes harm to not only chickens but also those who consume these chickens. In standard factory practice, all male chickens are killed en-masse upon hatching – by being buried alive in Bhutan or grounded to death by machines in technologically advanced nations.
Therefore, anyone who is conscious of negative karma and does not want to be responsible for the sufferings and killings of these innocent chickens, and be free from all kinds of diseases caused from eating chicken should not eat eggs.
