________________
world, where the people are traditionally flesh eaters, they have realised the harmful effects of flesh foods and are converting to vegetarianism in large numbers. It is ironic that the Indians, especially the Jairas and Vaishnavas that have traditionally been vegetarians, are falling prey to the menace of flesh eating in the name of fashion.
Vegetables are the natural food for the human beings. Even the flesh eaters eat almost two thirds of their food from the vegetable origin. There are pure vegetarians but there are no pure non-vegetarians. One can, possibly, not survive on animal foods only. Flesh eating is against the very grain of human nature.
Non-violence : An Assurance Of Healthy Environment
The mother Earth is not so much reeling under the pressure of population as it is under the environmental pollution caused by the irresponsibly consumerist human race. Whenever we tinker with nature even in the name of so called progress and industrial growth, we damage the natural balance between various elements and creatures of nature and disturb the ecological balance and damage the environment. The heavily polluted environment due to poisonous, carcinogenic and toxic solid wastes as also the liquid and gaseous effluents and consequent wasting of lands, unacceptable levels of toxicity in farm produce that gives rise to diseased men folk and livestock and heavily laden air that makes breathing not only difficult for the time being but results in many a breathing disorders are all results of human greed. The greedy humans exploit rather than explore the natural resources such as water, forests, minerals, fossil-fuels and the like without taking into account their rate of regeneration and, thereby, deplete them to a level whence they cannot recoup. All this is also a form of violence because it adversely impinges on not only fine, static and invisible one-sensed life-forms of earth, water, air, fire and
AHIMSĀ (NON-VIOLENCE): 83
