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realized that animals too have feelings and emotions and they too feel pain and pleasure as we do. The law of cause and effect states that as you sow, so shall you reap. If we do not wake up from our ignorance and our slumber, a time will come when we will suffer the same pain, agony and misery that we have given to the other living beings.
Acharya Shri Hemchandracharya (1089 to 1173 AD) stated in his book. Yogashastra:
Atmavat sarva bhuteshu sukha duhkhe priya priye chintayann atmano anshtam hinsam anyasya Na charet.
"All souls in this universe are like my soul. As I like to be happy and do not like to be unhappy, all living beings, small or big, like to be happy and do not like unhappiness. Living in this awareness, living in this reflection, living in this introspection, I will not cause any harm, pain or hurt to any life mentally, verbally or physically."
This understanding of all souls in the world being like oneself makes an individual feel for others and be concerned for their well being. It is the development of such an attitude, which can truly be termed a holistic approach to life. What we eat reflects in our thinking (jaisa ann, vaisa mann) and what we think reflects in our words and actions. If we want a healthy body in which a beautiful soul is housed, the house must
be first made pure and sanctified; the abode must be clean, untainted with the touch of any blood, pain or sorrow.
One is not often aware of the fact that when one eats meat, apart from the protein, one also ingests chemicals and antibiotics that are injected in the animals in order to fatten it and keep them free from disease. One also forgets that in the flesh, there are also vibrations of fear, pain and agony, which we ingest with the meat. We are also made to believe that meat is, in nutrition, the best source of protein. But meat contains no essential nutrients that cannot be obtained directly from the plant sources. By cycling grain through livestock, we lose 90 % of the protein, 96% of the calories, 99% of carbohydrates and 100% of fiber. The absence of fiber makes people with a meat-based diet suffer from constipation.
Statistics also reveal that there is not much to recommend a non - vegetarian diet. It takes 273 liters of water to produce 450 grams of wheat and 1136 liters of water to produce 450 grams of rice. But it takes 9,092 to 27,276 liters of water to produce 450 grams of meat. A chicken processing plant uses 454 million liters per day - enough to supply the water needs of 25,000 humans. Livestock are responsible for consuming the 80% of the world's water supply. We are all in a way contributing towards the developing water crisis with our food habits. This should make people reflect back and think: Am I a part of that? Or should I change my habits and food lifestyle?
We are not aware that in our day-to-day life violence is involved in everything, whatever we do. But we even have the knowledge to reduce that violence as much as possible. Minimize the violence in our clothing, in our eating habits, in whatever we use and consume. We are not aware that to obtain 100 grams of silk, 1,500 silk
Jain Education International 2010_03
JAINA
ᅲᅲ
For Private & Personal Use Only
2005
"All souls in this
universe are like
my soul. As I like
to be happy and
do not like to be unhappy, all living beings,
small or big, like
to be happy and
do not like unhappiness."
Extending Jain Herilage in Western Environment
167 www.jainelibrary.org
