Non Violence

Author(s): Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Dada Bhagwan Foundation

Page 33

Ahimsa
Ahimsa
51
should stop breathing? The problem would be solved if this were possible because as it is people have created absolute madness around this issue. There is nothing here that needs to be critically analyzed. The only thing you need to be cautious about is that you must not harm those life forms that run away from you in fear. One's Diet Is Based On One's Level Of Spiritual
Development
The belief of people in foreign countries is that God created this world, and that is why he created man. He made the goats, the chicken and the fish etc. for human consumption. If the animals were made for such a purpose, then why do humans not eat dogs, cats or tigers? If the animals were made for eating, then God would have made them all equal. If God were to make your food, he would make everything edible. If God were the creator of everything, why would he make such things as opium, tobacco and other drugs harmful to man? Why would these things be necessary? He would just make things for the happiness of human beings. To believe that God is the creator of everything is the greatest contradiction.
Dadashri : But have you ever admitted to it as being a good thing?
Questioner : No. I am a vegetarian. But that does not mean that non-vegetarian food is bad.
Dadashri : That is true. I do not say that it is bad. Once when I was traveling by plane, a wealthy Muslim businessman sat in the seat next to me. He asked me if it bothered me that he ate meat. I told him that it did not bother me to dine with him, except that I would not eat the same food. I told him that whatever he did was fine and that it was none of my concern. He asked me if I had any negative feelings for him because of his diet. I told him that he should dismiss such a notion and that it was appropriate for him to eat non-vegetarian food because he was born to a mother who also was a non-vegetarian; it was in his blood. Nobody can refute that. Only those who have been weaned on a vegetarian mother's milk are told not to eat meat. I told him that when Muslims eat meat, they do not think about the advantages and disadvantages of it.
Therefore you should not feel annoyed towards those who eat meat. It is merely your prejudice. You should not have any problems with those for whom such a diet is natural.
Willing to kill and Then Eat? Questioner: But nowadays people eat non-vegetarian food because of social trends.
Dadashri : It is all a trend and people do it for their pleasure. Eating meat forever is not a problem if your mother was on such a diet when she was breast-feeding you.
Questioner : And what if the mother herself does not eat meat?
Westerners do not believe in reincarnation and that is why they believe that everything is made for their consumption. If they were to believe in reincarnation, they would think about what would happen to them in their next life. But such thoughts do not occur to them.
Annoyance towards Non-vegetarians?
Dadashri : Do you prefer vegetarian or non-vegetarian food?
Questioner : I have never eaten non-vegetarian food.