Religion and Philosophy of the Jainas

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Jain International Ahmedabad

Page 54

CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT
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animal food which would be nutritious and would help to support the human body, and which are as good as those found in vegetables. Certainly, in fruits and nuts and other things which do not come from the animal we may find these same elements. Still, we say that there is a moral and ethical reason against eating that kind of food, and not only moral but also spiritual reason. In the first place the moral philosophy of our religion says that we have no right to destroy life in any being if we cannot give it to any being. That is the fundamental proposition of our religion. If we follow that rule then any destruction of life is surely to be avoided. But the question may come in. For any kind of food destruction of life is necessary; even in the vegetable there is life, and one must destroy that life in order to prepare food fitted for our diet. We admit that we have to destroy life in order to live, but life is of so many grades, so many classes one higher than another, and if that argument is to be applied that it is the same to destroy life, whether animal or vegetable, we can also apply the argument to the destruction of human beings; but we all make a distinction there. Why do we not destroy human beings, then ? We say that they have souls. But we can never destroy the souls: they only leave the body and go to some other place or into some other body; 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