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JAINA DOCTRINE OF AHIMSA
107
oi the human organism do not correspond to the same extent as those of fresh vegetables which alone are regarded as the snost satisfactory foods, since they alone completely meet the huinan requirements. A man or an animal fed entirely on eggs will soon suffer from a multiplicity of ailments, and perish, while one fed on pure vegetable foods would thrive.
I must also take up now the question whether there is any harm in eating animal Hesh which has not been killed by the eater himself. This can happen in one of the two ways: either the eater comes across a dead carcass and proceeds to devour it, or buys the flesh of an animal slaughtered for human consumption by some one else. Of these, the first case is not likely to appeal to many flesh-eaters, since the Heslı in such a case is not unlikely to be of a diseased animal and unfit for food. But the real answer is furnished by the effect such foods produce on the mind, and the emotional nature, or disposition, of man. Now, it is the normal natural state of the human emotions that the sight of a dead body excites the feelings of pity and sobriety in the beholder thereof; and the animal instincts and cravings are subdued and curbed for the time being. Nay, even nobler thoughts---legard for the here. after and the means of escape from the cycle of transmigration--fill the minds of the enlightened thinking beings. But what kind of emotions can they be which find expression when the sight of death or an animal's corpse does not only not excite the natural and nobler type of emotions, but sharpens the appetites and the eagerness to devour the carcass ? It is obvious that when such a state of the mind comes to supervene habitually the tender human instincts have been, and must be deemed to have been, diead long long ago. This is sufficient to show that very harinful changes occur in the disposition of man before it can be made to tolerate the sight of flesh without being affected by the chastening emotions natural to the heart, and becomes moved by the devouring rest of a flesh-eater.
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