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The Jaina Philosophy never destroy the soul; they only leave the body and go to some other place or into some other body, but according to the opinion of all religionists the soul is not destroyed with the body, only the relation is broken. The relation is higher and more complicated in the case of the human being than in that of the animal, and higher in animals than in vegetables.
We apply this rule to our business affairs; we follow that rule, when there are two kinds of business, one more and the other less profitable; we follow that which is more profitable, and we will abandon that in which we must lose a thousand dollars before that in which we lose a less sum or nothing at all. We also apply this to the case of diet; there are spiritual reasons for avoiding that diet in which certain kinds of feelings and emotions are created. When we consider the mental state in animals, especially when they are prepared for death, just imagine the state even of a chicken at the time of being killed, and its mental condition, - our philosophy in this matter even analyzes this feeling, - we shall see that the mentality or emotion is only a peculiar state of vibrations of the physical matter of the body.
If every thought, if every feeling, if every emotion causes a peculiar state of the body, such diet will certainly have its effect on our physical and mental nature. Suppose a merchant dealing in cotton receives a telegram in the city of New York that the price of cotton has fallen fifty percent. He opens the telegram and reads it, and if you feel his pulse you will find that there is a very great change in the state of his pulse, although he has done nothing but read a few words on a piece of paper. If this is the effect of the mental upon the physical state of the human being, what would be the effect upon the animal of this knowledge that it was to be killed? Besides this, the animals which are eaten have only taken the elements which are in the vegetable and have assimilated them into their systems. We are in a sufficiently animal condition
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