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make and sell products (right in the store) that contain animal flesh. Nearly ninety percent of their inventory is of meat of various kinds. It is a very profitable and cash sale business and more and more Jains are either expanding or going into this. Here are some examples of business desires overcoming ahimsa.
◊ I personally know several Jains who own liquor stores, 7-11 stores, gas stations, and convenience stores with meat shops within. Practically most of them sell meat, fish, and egg-based products. Even to confess that such things are happening within the Jain community puts us to shame. Is this ahimsa in practice? Surely there is a major disconnect here.
◊ About fifteen years ago, I was at a social gathering of Indians (desis) in a town in US. When I was meeting the participants, I went to one lady and asked her name. She said, "You don't know me but my husband who is a Jain did athaayee [eight days continuous fast] during paryushana last year." Earlier I had come to know that this very person owned at least five to six Subway fast food stores (and I am sure he owns many more now) at that time. I have also come to know that this very person became a role model and as a result more Jains have followed suit and gone into this business.
◊ One of the Subway stores owned by a Jain used to donate (and probably still does) free veggie sandwiches to the Jain Pathshala kids at one of the Jain Centers here in the US. Earlier in those days, two kids I knew used to go to that pathshala. Once these kids came to know where these free sandwiches were coming from, they refused to eat those sandwiches and since then they never did. What a contrast and what a celebration of ahimsa, so much more than a mere slogan or a lifestyle! You can imagine how I felt. Even the young kids saw the difference between talk and walk.
◊ In one town in the US, one prominent Jain used to own an Indian grocery store. One year, he was elected to be the
An Ahimsa Crisis: You Decide
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