FOR. VEGETARIANISM

For Vegetarianism

Vegetarians are called grass eaters sarcastically. But many do not understand that whatever meat supplies to the human body is effectively available in plenty in vegetable food! There is a saying in Sanskrit, -”mamsam mamsena vardhate”-eating meat or flesh increases flesh only. Our ethical principle of nonviolence necessitates the intake of vegetarian food. Manu Samhita forbids humanity from taking to nonvegetarian food as it entails violent killing of animals for human consumption. According to UNFAO, globally, the number of animals slaughtered for food in 2003 alone is a staggering 52.7 billion. Since we cannot create we have no right to kill any living entity. According to  laws of God killing an animal is as punishable as killing a man. Genesis(9:4-5) also directly forbids meat eating. “ But flesh with the life there of,shall ye not eat” The Ten Commandments reinforces the same: “ Thou shall not kill”.

From ancient days people have realized the efficacy in taking vegetarian food. Pythagoras, the famous mathematician laments, “ O my fellowmen, do not defile your bodies with sinful foods. The earth affords a lavish supply of riches, of innocent foods and offers you banquets that involve no bloodshed or slaughter.” According to Leonardo da Vinci “ He who does not value life does not deserve it.” Bodies of meat eaters are ‘ burial places’, graveyards for the animals they  eat. Rousseau, the French philosopher says that vegetarian diet would produce a more compassionate person. According to Benjamin Franklin flesh eating is 'unprovoked murder’. Shelley the later Romantic poet in his poem “Queen Mab” describes an Utopian world where men do not kill animals for food!

Why should man eat animal food? It is because of his insensitivity to the suffering of the voiceless innocent creatures.  While he reacts with pain to the minutest injury he suffers, he doesn't care for the torture and decapitation of the animal and it's harrowing cries! We are all the children of God including animals and other creatures. Are we justified in killing our own animal brothers for the sake of our food? There is the same atma or Spirit in every being created by God. The Gita advocates eating ‘satwik’ food which is vegetarian. Man eats the dead food of the animal which is ‘rajasic or tamasic.’ Man’s conduct and character depends on the food he takes. Thus meat eaters are prone to be rude and violent in behavior in general! Animals too have emotions and love for their young ones like human beings! Man, as a social animal has to remember these aspects before taking to animal foods!

From times immemorial to the modern times illustrious writers, philosophers and scientists have decried the habit of consuming animal food or nonvegetarianism! Tolstoy calls it “simply immoral. Man suppresses in himself,unnecessarily, the highest spiritual capaciy--that of sympathy and pity towards living creatures like himself and by violating his own feelings becomes cruel.’’ Thoreau questions, “ Is it not a reproach that man is a carnivorous animal?” Why should this rational animal become a carnivorous animal like the wild beasts when God has provided him with wonderful natural fare? In our own days the Father of the Nation,Mahatma Gandhi advocated healthy vegetarian food.

“ I do not regard flesh food as necessary at any stage. I hold flesh food to be unsuited to our species. We err in copying the lower animal world if we are superior to it” says the Mahatma in his writings.With a contempt for the meat eater George Bernard Shaw says, “ What can you expect from people who eat corpses? Famous authors, philosophers, scientists and many others like Sir Isaac Newton,  Albert Einstein, St Francis of Assisi, George Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain and many others were vegetarians. Many film stars like Brad Pitt, Models and Sports persons recognized the merits of vegetarian food and followed it in their lives. More and more people all over the world are impressed with the advantages of vegetarian food and have converted themselves to its regimen! Can we not do the same and save the animals from being slaughtered mercilessly just to satisfy our never dying hunger