I think it what we really need to do is minimise the pain and damage we cause to this planet and to various forms of life.
The key word is minimise.

Some of us humans like to assume that everything on this planet is provided for us to exploit and destroy. But our own philosophy tells us that we are all linked together somehow; we are all part of the same reality.

I do not believe there is any “god” sitting somewhere and watching us every second and taking notes about our behaviour. That is not the reason for being vegetarian.

I think we can be practical on this issue. We may kill animal life in order to satisfy our hunger. After all, animals also kill other animals to satisfy their hunger. Life and death are part of existence. We do kill various kinds of pests like mosquitoes, flies and cockroaches, and also rats that may spread disease.

However, we do not need to inflict cruelty on animals in order to satisfy our tastes. Food has no taste before entering our mouth; it has no taste on entering the stomach. Taste arises only when the food hits the two-inch piece of flesh called the tongue. And yet, to satisfy that little tongue we indulge in all kinds of cruel practices, like beating animals slowly to death, cutting them and bleeding them to death slowly, eating them alive, raw or partly cooked, etc. In many countries they make the meat softer, or tenderise it, by injecting the animals with certain chemicals which dissolve the tough tissues in the body even while the animal is alive.

Taste itself is usually acquired. Usually because of your culture, you learn to like something, and you learn to dislike something. Why do we need to condition ourselves to believe that meat is tasty only when we are cruel to the animals? It is only your belief system, clever marketing by the sellers of those foods, and beliefs followed by crazy religions. You can also easily teach and condition yourself to believe that food is tastier if you kill the animal painlessly. And then you will find that that kind of food is tastier.

We also need to avoid cruelty to animals in the way we breed them, hold them, feed them, and turn them into food. Most meat industries practise extreme cruelty in the name of cost cutting. Many animals have no space to move throughout their lives. However, most of the profits go to the board of directors of the companies, and the consumers still pay high prices for the products.

Vegetarians may also consume milk and other dairy products because these do not require harming or killing animal life. Again, we must avoid using methods to increase milk output which are cruel, like injecting the cows with various chemicals and so on. And we should not be depriving the calves of their mothers’ milk. We need to maintain a balance in everything we do.

Ranjhith above has raised a few questions to vegetarians. Let me address them in order:

Will not consume Diary products.
As I have already mentioned, it is fine to consume dairy products if there is no cruelty to the animals.

* Will not purchase/use leather products.
Again, avoid products involving cruelty, where the animal is skinned alive, for example, like they do in China. Anyway, I hardly use any leather products these days. I am reducing my attachment to unnecessary material things as I grow older

* No to pesticides as it kills insects/rodents/birds for the sake of food.
Agree, and not only for ethical reasons. It is practical too. Pesticides are causing a lot of sickness to humans as well as to other species, and are destroying our environment. We need to do organic farming and use natural insect repellants.

We Indians have the tradition of snake worship, which protects snakes and thereby protects our crops because the snakes eat the rodents which eat our crops. But we are stupid, and we kill the snakes in the fields. So the rodents multiply, and then we use pesticides to kill those rodents.

It is our own stupidity, because we don’t understand our own culture. Our farmers are also stupid. They know that the snakes come out in the fields at only particular times. If they stay away from the field at those times, the snakes can easily kill the rodents. But yet these farmers and their kids wander in the fields at those times, and the snakes bite them and they die, then everyone cries and kills those snakes. Our own stupidity is killing us.

* Will stay away from cosmetics that use animal fat.
I don’t use any cosmetics. But again it’s all about cruelty. Many so-called testing labs inflict lots of pain in the name of safety research, and that needs to be stopped.

* Dislike Lord Shiva as he always poses sitting on a Ox.
Surely you know that this is purely symbolic and metaphorical? Don’t you know anything about your own philosophy?! Do you really think he spends his time 24/7 sitting on a bull? Then when does he have the time to dance? Or do yoga?

Shiva is also seen carrying the moon on his head. Did you wonder about how Shiva is looking bigger than the moon but he is the same size as the Ox? So, don’t you wonder how the Ox is bigger than the moon? Please! These things are all symbolic. You have learnt something useful today! Stop wondering about how some gods have ten heads, four arms, etc. All these are purely symbolic. Hope you will remember that.

* Dislike Lord Ganesha - makes parody of a mighty elephant.
Again, your poor understanding of your own philosophy is embarrassing. What parody? It is just a story. You insult your own intelligence, by giving this as an example to justify your stand on eating meat. And why should you dislike ganesha? He didn’t take that head. Someone else put it there for him. How is it his fault?

* Dislike Lord Muruga - done cruelty to Peacocks.
Same thing: it is all symbolism in our philosophy. Do you really believe a peacock has the strength to carry a person? Do you really believe there is someone called Muruga flying around in space on a peacock? And, if Muruga is divine, so is his peacock, and we can expect that that peacock will not feel pain the way we may do. And also, if Muruga needed to get around, surely he can find a faster and more efficient way to do that? Really, please think a little more before you write.

* No to horse riding/elephant safaris.
Again, avoid cruelty and pain. If these things are painful to the animals, avoid them. By the way, I’ve never ridden on one of these things myself.

* Pay no visits to Zoos/Circuses.
I think zoos and circuses with animals should be completely banned. Indian zoos are useless, the circuses are cruel to the animals, the officials steal all the food and meat meant for the animals and give them rubbish to eat, the animals are starving, they spend their entire lives in horrible concrete cells or cages with iron bars. Just ban all these things and let the animals go free.

* A straight no to pets including fish in tanks.
I would say, don’t keep birds at home in cages. Let them fly freely. Anybody who puts birds in cages is committing a crime against nature.

Similarly, don’t keep fish. Let them swim freely outdoors, to live and die as nature meant them to.

Don’t fool yourself into believing that you are somehow “saving” them by imprisoning them.
If someone says they want to save you by putting you in a cage, would you agree?

I don’t have a problem with having dogs and cats as pets, as long as they have freedom and are looked after well. The domestic dogs have actually evolved over thousands of years, and have become such that they depend on man for their survival. They also enjoy the company of humans. We have a symbiotic relationship with them. It is of course unnatural to lock them up in your apartments all day.

Let us all learn to live ethically. Please look at the PETA website: people for the ethical treatment of animals.

Rajesh

This topic seems to have generated a lot of response!!!!!…I have at last commented in your blog