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JAINISM AND WORLD I'ROBLEMS
life to do so ? Of course, not! I have shown above that vegetarianism does not endanger lite or health, but even if it did I should recommend all persons to study their future welfare and not to ruin their prospect for all eternity by an exaggerated regard for a few years' life or liealth.
But you might say that vegetables have also life, how can you be said to be escaping from himsa when you eat vegetables? The answer is that though I am unable to escape from all forms of himsa to-day, I shall restrict my depredations to the least harmful type, and some day surely I shall refrain altogether from all forms of himsa, as has been shown above. It should be noted that from the point of view of the resulting harm or effect, every act of depredation is not identically alike. The killing of one-sensed life is the least harmful, inasmuch as vegetables are seemingly lifeless, and do not produce the same revulsion of feelings in us as the sight of dead carcasses and the slaughtering of living animals does. Vegetables do not wriggle about when cut; they have no visible sense-organs that in animals look so terribly grim in death; they do not appeal for mercy with their eyes or with shrieks. He who eats fruits and vegetables, therefore, has not to shut his eyes to the suffering and shrieking and the appealing looks of the victim of his appetite, as he who proceeds to kill or devour an animal that does all that. It is, therefore, clear that vegetarianism implies much less of a sinful taint resulting to the devourer than Hesh. And as stated before, the eater of the vegetarian diet hopes also one day to escape from even the little himsa that is certainly involved in the act of eating vegetables and fruits.
Some people think that eggs are essential for healthy life, and insist on retaining them in their dietary. The truth, however, is that they are not essential in any real sense of the term, and are likely to cause greater harın than good. As Dr. Bircher-Benner points out, they cause over-acidity in the system, and the energy relations they bear to the requirements
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