Purusharthsiddhyupay English

SR No.: 001105
Original Sutra Author: Amrutchandracharya
Author: Ajit Prasad
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1933
Total Pages: 160
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_English, Ethics, & Principle
File Size: 11 MB

Page 19

( 6 )
generation would look back with horror and disgust at a practice which was now so general as hardly to excite comment or question. The benevolent intentions of many societies, seeking to relieve suffering of all kinds, were sadly hampered by the prevailing hardness of heart towards animals which hardened us even to our fellow men. It is no doubt an increditably hard task to place before an indifferent, and pre-occupied world the message that all life is one, human, sub-human, and super-human, one in essence and destiny, moving slowly but steadily, however unconsciously, towards a glorious destiny. There is one great ladder for all living beings, whether they walk the earth on two legs or on four, whether they thread the waters with fins or stretch their wings to the air. The world is not deliberately cruel. It is but custom and thoughtlessness that support a cruel practice(1).
The Flesh Food.
While the principle of Ahimsa is gaining ground in the West, and vegetarianism is flourishing, we find that the evil habit of taking animal food is on the increase, spreading far and fast in India. There is at present a craze for moving in high society, and eating and drinking form the chief attractions of the upper social circles. The days of Epicurus seem to have returned. It looks as if we live to eat, and not that we eat to live. Wherever one meets a friend, some dish or drink is as a rule offered, insisted upon, and a refusal is considered rude. And further the eatables must be of a nonvegetarian character, for fashion so dictates. No body ever thinks, reasons out, considers, or decides, what he should eat or drink, how many times, and at what hours in the day or at night. Precious hours of life are frittered away in eating, drinking, smoking, talking and thus keeping the mouth ever engaged. The trade of the butcher, the confectioner, the keeper of hotels, restaurants, cafes and refreshment-rooms is flourishing. Millions of living beings are daily killed to provide food and pleasure for the upper classes. The consequence (1) Revd. E. F. Udny, in the Ahimsa Journal.