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Jainism: The Cosmic Vision
which summarises my theme of the dayWe are the living graves of murdered beasts, Slaughtered to satisfy our appetites, We never pause to wonder at our feasts, If animals, like men, can possibly have rights, We pray on Sundays that we may have light, To guide our foot-steps on the paths we tread. We're sick of war, we do not want to fight, The thought of it now fills our hearts with dread, And yet, we gorge ourselves upon the dead. Like carrion crows, we live and feed on meat, Regardless of the suffering and pain, We cause by doing so, If thus we treat Defenceless animals for sport or gain How can we hope in this world to attain The PEACE we say we are so anxious for ? We pray for it, O'er hecatombs of slain, To God, while outraging the moral law, Thus cruelty begets its offsprings
war.
We may not have generations any more, but we do have a few years to accomplish the task.
Jain Education International
[Lecture delivered at the Parliament of the World's Religion, Cape Town, South Africa on 2nd Dec. 1999]
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