$JES 921 Book of Compassion Reverence For All Life Reference Book

Author(s): Pramoda Chitrabhanu, Pravin K Shah
Publisher: JAINA Education Committee

Page 33

4.- MILK - ITS IMPACT ON HEALTH, CRUELTY, AND POLLUTION
Indians have been drinking milk for centuries. Why all of them did not fall sick?
It depends on what you call illness. Most people disregard arthritis, osteoporosis, asthma, headaches, and indigestion as normal for the body and cancer as an act of God.
By looking at milk as evil, are we not turning our back on our tradition and culture?
For thousands of years, people thought the sun went around the earth. Copernicus was the first person who said it did not. There was a huge backlash against him. In the past, in India there exist tradition of sati (cremating living widow with her husband's dead body) and thugee and opium eating. Should they be legal now?
I have written a book on Hindu names for which I had to read every single Hindu scripture (Shästra). Nowhere is there any milk drinking mentioned. There is ghee (liquid butter) mentioned and that too for havans (fire used in Hindu ritual).
Unfortunately, our memories are short and the things we are most adamant about are those we know the least about. Dr. Spock was the guru for child nutrition, now apologizes for having advocated milk and says that children must be kept away from it.
Cruelty to Cows
Dr. Kurien has described the dairy industry as the gentle industry. You claim it is just the opposite?
The dairy industry is not gentle. The fact that supplies cater to demand makes the cow the ultimate victim. It may have been gentle when each household had its own cow and treated it as a member of the family. This is no longer true.
How is milk now produced in India?
The cow is forced into yearly pregnancies. After giving birth, she is milked for 10 months but will be artificially inseminated during her third month so that she is milked even when she is pregnant. The demanded of production of milk is more than her body can give. So, she starts breaking down body tissue to produce milk. The result is an illness called ketosis.
THE BOOK OF COMPASSION
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