Bondage and Freedom

Author(s): Chitrabhanu
Publisher: Divine Knowledge Society

Page 75

few inches ahead of the other. Unthinkingly and mechanically, Mr. Brown picked up a stone and threw it at them. The voice of “civilisation,” our so-called civilisation, told him that this: was the right thing to do—if you see a mouse or a snake or any other creature which may be going its own way without doing any harm, you hit it with a stick or a stone! Well, the stone hit one of the mice, the one which was in front and it killed him. But, strange to say, the other mouse did not run away.; it began running around in circles, confused, bewildered. Intrigued by its behaviour, Mr. Brown picked it up and found to his amazement that it was blind! And then, with a gasp he realised the meaning of the piece of straw which each of them had held. The mouse he had killed had been on a mission of mercy; it had been leading its blind brother. This incident proved to be a turning poinť in Mr. Brown's life. It led him to reflect on the laws of Nature and his cruel deed by which he had violated these laws, and he decided there and then to become a vegetarian.
Even in the world of material things there is a law which lays down that if you take money from somebody, sooner or later you must return it to him. Then if we fill our stomachs at the cost of the lives of.other creatures, will we not have to pay? Indeed, a man would have to be reborn several times to wipe off such a heinous crime.
Every morning when you open your newspaper your eyes are greeted with news of some bloody