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He told his listeners a story which an American writer, Mr. Brown, had related to him from his own life. Mr. Brown had noticed two mice walking along, each holding one end of a straw in their mouths; one was a little ahead of the other. Without thinking, he had picked up a stone and had hurled it at them. “The voice of civilization,' our so-called civilization, 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!" The stone killed one of the mice, the one in front, and when the other one did not run away, but instead began running around in circles, Mr. Brown picked it up. Imagine his horror when he found that it was blind. “With a gasp he realized 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 ... leading its blind brother. This incident proved to be a turning point in Mr. Brown's life. It led him to reflect on the laws of Nature and his deed by which he had violated these laws, and he decided there and then to become a vegetarian."
Gurudev also spoke to the question of some who claim "that if all human beings were to become vegetarians, there would be an acute shortage of food supply. But do they really believe that the change will take place overnight? It will be slow and gradual, spread over several decades, and meanwhile would it not be possible to bring under the plough the millions
Slaughtered to satisfy our appetites. We never pause to wonder at our feasts If animals, like men, can possibly have rights. We pray on Sunday that we may have light To guide our footsteps on the path we tread. We're sick of war, we do not want to fight -- And yet - We gorge ourselves upon the dead. Like carrion crows, we live and feed on meat. Regardless of the suffering and pain We cause by doing so. If thus we treat Defenceless animals for sport and gain How can we hope in this world to attain The Peace we say we are so anxious for? We pray for it o'er hecatombs of slain To God, while outraging the Moral Law. Thus cruelty begets its offspring-War."
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