Atma Dharma

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Champat Rai Jain

Page 44

( 37 ) language, if the destruction of life is condemned as cruel when done in the name of one's god once a year or so, does it cease to be cruel when done in one's own name every day of the year ? As Tolstoy maintains “if a man's aspirations towards a righteous life are serious. . . if he earnestly and sincerely seeks a righteous life, his first act of abstinence will be abstinence from animal food, because, not to mention the excitement of the passion produced from such food, its use is plainly immoral, as it requires an act contrary to moral feeling--i.e., killing --and is called forth only by greed."
The shedding of blood is condemnable alike in sport and trade, as well as for science and medicine. What right have we to destroy innocent life, so that we ourselves might live? The survival-of-the-fittest theory is a heartless doctrine. Whoever conceived it was not a scientist in truth. It ignores the most precious thing in nature, the soul, and does not take into account the undesirable consequences that result from a disregard of the great fundamental principle govering life, namely, ahimsa parmo dharmaḥ (ahimsa is the highest religion).
Is the killing of living beings necessary for food ? No, no, most emphatically no. Here is the testimony of science on the point :
“To-day there is the scientific fact assured that man belongs not to the flesh-eaters but to the fruit-eaters