Jain Spirit 2002 10 No 12

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 40

YOUTH
Did You Know?
DID YOU KNOWP
Mahatma Gandhi was not always perfect but he used
knowledge to change his lifestyle
TOHANDAS K. GANDHI IS REMEMBERED AS A GREAT MAN, became a 'true vegetarian'. Yet, since then he never went
who taught the world the power of non-violence back to eating meat. V 1(ahimsa). However, before he reached the stage of At eighteen, Gandhi decided to go to study law in applying this power on a nationalistic level, he began on a more England. His mother was reluctant to let him go as she had personal one by becoming a true
heard stories about people taking to vegetarian. He did it not just because of his
meat-eating while in England. So, cultural heritage, but due to his beliefs and
"Gandhi took a vow, Gandhi took a vow, administered by a morals too.
Jain monk, not to touch meat or wine, During his high school years in administered by a Jain after which his mother gave him her Rajkot, Gandhi made friends with one
permission to go and study. In England, Sheik Mehtab, which he recounts in his monk, not to touch Gandhi found vegetarian dishes tasteless autobiography as the 'tragedy in his life.
and he starved most of the time. That is, At this time a wave of 'reform' was
meat or wine.” until he hit upon a vegetarian restaurant sweeping over Rajkot, and Mehtab
where he had his first hearty meal ever informed the young Gandhi that many
since he arrived in England. The people were secretly taking meat and wine. He said, "We are
restaurant also had vegetarian books for sale and he bought a weak people because we do not eat meat. The English are
one - Salts' Plea for Vegetarianism. The book discussed the able to rule over us, because they are meat-eaters. You know moral reasons for being a vegetarian, the inherent violence how hardy I am and how great a runner too. It is because I am
present in the eating of meat and the non-violence that could a meat-eater. Meat-eaters do not have boils or tumours and
be achieved from abstaining from it. After reading this book, even if they sometimes happen to have any, these heal no longer was Gandhi a vegetarian wishing he were a meatquickly. Our teachers and other distinguished people who eat
eater, but he claimed to have become a vegetarian by choice. meat are no fools. They know its virtues. You should do likewise. There is nothing like trying."
Reprinted from the Young Jains Nairobi Newsletter, 2002. With repeated pressure and arguments, Mehtab eventually convinced Gandhi, well hidden from his parents, to eat meat. At first, Gandhi abhorred it. "The goat's meat was as tough as leather. I simply could not eat it." Mehtab persisted by preparing meat delicacies. Eventually, it began to grow on him that eating meat was good and would make him strong and daring, and if the whole country took to eating meat, the English could be overcome. He believed that only by fighting and through physical strength would his country be free. Gandhi became a relisher of meat dishes, if not the meat itself. This went on for a year but came at a price for the honest young Gandhi - he had been lying to his parents and they would be shocked if they knew about it. He felt that though it was essential to eat meat, deceiving and lying to one's parents was worse than not eating it. He decided to abstain from eating meat whilst they were alive. He based this decision on his devotion to his parents and not because he
meats no treat
WWW.PETA.OEG
for those you eat
38 Jain Spirit . September - November 2002 Join Education International 2010_03