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

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

Page 39

6. - VEGETARIANISM - A COMPASSIONATE APPROACH TO LIFE
Pramoda Chitrabhanu Jain Meditation International Center, New York
06 - Vegetarianism - A Compassionate
Approach to Life
"Unseen they suffer, unheard they cry. In agony they linger, in silence they die. Is it nothing to you, all ye who pass by?"
-Anonymous These lines express the pain and suffering of the animals that are being exploited and tortured for the need of the human greed.
It is a sad picture of the innocent, dumb and defenseless creatures that are subjected to cruel pain far from the human eyes. The thought itself makes one's heart bleed with anguish and grief. How can we as human beings sit quietly when our younger brothers and sisters are in a terrible state? Is it not our duty to protect and help them? But how difficult it is to predict man for, "Man is an actor. He acts all manners of men, and each one is a lie. Only the animal in him is real," says William Saroyan. Probably he is right by saying that, for the bestiality in the man has created a violent and destructive world in which we live today. There is so much suffering going on in this world behind the curtain that it is kept a highly guarded secret. How long shall we pretend that animals have no soul and so it feels no pain. Is it not the time to wake up from our slumber and find the truth and stop being violent and act to end the cruelty that is meted on the dumb and innocent creatures? For violence begets violence and love begets love. The first thing to end violence is to see animals as living beings and not as things that are made for human beings to use and consume. For they are lives full of emotions that feel pain and pleasure as we do. As Dr. Albert Schweitzer the Nobel Peace Prize Recipient in 1952 said in his book "A Place for Revelation that "wherever you see life - that is you. What is this recognition, this knowledge apprehended by the most learned and most childlike alike? It is
THE BOOK OF COMPASSION
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