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आमा वा पक्वां वा खादति यः स्पृशति वशितपेशीम् । स निहन्ति सततं निचितं पिंड बहजीव कोटिनाम् ॥ 68॥
"Meat cannot be available without killing the animals. Hence for a meat-eater, violence becomes necessary. Although it is true that meat can be taken from naturally-dead buffaloes or bullocks, but in that meat of the dead body also there are innumerable livings elements - which when killed and eaten generate violence. Anyone who touches and eats any kind of raw or cooked meat causes violent injury
to many living elements”.
Whenever human lives are brutally destroyed, annihilated, tortured or even discriminated against, hue and cry of human rights is raised. Horrible nazi atrocities on Jews, shocking killing fields in Cambodia, atom bomb disaster in Hiroshima, Gas tragedy in Bhopal (India), shooting to death of innocent school children in USA and such other violent incidents have been shocking to human conscience.
By that very token, are modern slaughterhouses slaughtering thousands of innocent animals day in and day out any the less in brutality and oppression than the extermination of Jews in Nazi concentration camps? Why is our conscience not revolting to using animals as mere food products to satisfy our recurring appetite?
Over a century ago the great Indian Chief Seattle sang:
"Where is Man without the beasts? If the beasts were gone, Man would die From a great loneliness of Spirit For whatever happens to the beasts Soon happens to Man All things are interconnected Like the blood which unites our family Man did not weave the web of life He is merely a strand in it Whatever he does to the web
Ahimsa: The Ultimate Winner
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