________________
( 20
)
distance of miles.
Meat-eating, wine-drinking, the habit of taking ice and aerated waters, smoking, eating too much and too often are the evils of the present day. It is a preconceived notion that strength of body comes from meat diet alone. Flesh diet may bring about brute strength and animal passions but real power proceeds from the mind and not from the body. It is the soul-force which counts, and not physical weight or muscular appearance.
Kill, Kill, Kill, is the cry of the day. Millions of lives are killed every day in the name of religion as sacrifices, in the name of health, for food, in fun or sport, in the name of science, for experiments, for rejuvenation to supply glands to man and woman, in the name of sanitation, and prevention of diseases, or with the ostensible object of protection and prosperity of agriculture, horticulture, arboricul. ture, and fruitculture. And the result is that the world is deteriorating day by day, in physical prowess, intellectual strength, and spiritual development,
Is Killing ever an Act of Mercy? There is yet another form of Himsa, however, which is commonly considered to be an act of mercy, and applauded as such, and it may well be considered here. It is a prevalent practice these days to shoot a horse, a cow, or a dog, which has been seriously injured or which has contracted a "dan. gerous or incurable” disease; and such killing is acclaimed an act of mercy. Is not the unfortunate animal killed because it is not profitable from a mercenary or economic point of view to spend money and attention over it, and the sight of its sufferings is too painful to be tolerated. If killing under such circumstances be an act of mercy, why should not charity begin at home, and why should it not be extended to one's own relations, friends and mankind in general. We hear of suicides under such conditions, which means moral weakness. We have heard that soldiers hopelessly wounded in battle, and passengers mortally injured in railway accidents have been thrown in a hollow and buried, or
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