Key of Knowledge

SR No.: 006702
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1919
Total Pages: 1204
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
can we say that our slaughter of cattle for the sake of filling our stomachs which can be filled just as well, even if not better, with non-animal dainties, is a proper and becoming act for the soul that aspires for freedom and bliss?
If we would but ponder a little over the matter, we should find that the slaughter of animals is not only sinful, but quite unnecessary as well. Taste, of which we make so much in insisting upon an animal diet, is not at all in the things which we take in or absorb. The æsthetic pleasure which simple, wholesome, non-animal food affords to the soul on account of its natural purity, cannot be equalled by the most sumptuous and expensive preparations from dead entrails and carcasses of birds and beasts, however much we might endeavour to conceal their sickening stench by condiments and spices. Besides, taste for flesh, is only an acquired something like all other tastes. When a man takes to smoking, his instincts revolt from the fumes of nicotine, but with each repetition they become more and more blunted till they lose their natural delicacy altogether, and actually long for that which they had abhorred before. the case with all other evil things; they not only vitiate the natural instincts of the soul, but also tend to harden one's heart.
The same is
Ahimsa is the only means of removing the impurities arising from evil tastes and inclinations. He who wishes to enjoy immortality and ever-lasting bliss must first
We give below the lineage' of himsa to show its evil nature. It is taken from the Bhagavata Purana (see Eng. Trans. by P. N. Sinha, p. 52). The names in italics denote the feminine gender.