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were kept was a church. And that reminds us that sometimes we can tolerate and stand by a great evil even as we think that we are doing good.” What went on downstairs did not bother the consciences of the same people when they
worshipped upstairs. The two are inseparable. o Similarly, I want to share another real incident that will
explain the same kind of hypocrisy that exists in many cultures including in Indian culture. About twenty two years ago, Dr. Michael Fox, Vice President of the HSUS (Humane Society of United States) and a US Jain organization called Mahavir Vision, Inc. collaborated in making a video about the cruelty to animals in India. The filming crew first went to a Hindu temple in southern India (near Ooty/ Nilgiri Hills) and saw many animals being worshipped there inside
the temple. o For example, they saw people worshipping the cow and
bull in the form of a statue/idol of Nandi, a monkey in the form of a statue/idol of Hanuman, and an elephant in the form of a statue of Ganesha. Next, the camera moves out of the temple and within about a mile or so away from the temple, the crew saw cows and bulls being marched long distances to slaughterhouses, monkeys being made to dance, and elephants being captured and killed for their tusks and ivory. The commentator in this one-hour long video says “To the best of my knowledge, the Hindu religion is the only one that actually worships animals so long as they are made of stone and are in the temples. The same animals are tortured and killed when they are real and outside the temples. What a disconnect between worship and actual practice.”
THE TATA COMPANY GESTURE
A few years ago, I read a news report from an American journalist who said that the biggest and most moralistic temple in India is not any single religious temple but in Jamshedpur where Ratan Tata (the former head of the Tata Empire) has
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An Ahimsa Crisis: You Decide
