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suffering and is able to secure his own welfare. Extreme carefulness not to destroy any living being, a principle carried to its very last consequences, has shaped Jain psyche, identity and way of life. Nowhere else has this basic virtue been so scientifically, scrupulously and thoroughly integrated with the main doctrine? They follow it with such dedication that it is just amazing.
Jainism tackles the inculcation of the religious code of conduct enshrined in main precepts through a very wise and practical hierarchical scale of vows by strict regulation of diet which shows how elaborately and practically Non-violence has been made to enter into the day-to-day lives of its votaries.
Food: Strict adherence to Non-violence, Jains do not eat food obtained with unnecessary cruelty. Many practice a lifestyle similar to vegans due to the violence of modern dairy farms, and others exclude meat, honey and root vegetables, such as potatoes, onions, roots and tubers from their diets in order to preserve the lives of the plants from which they eat. Because by eating these under root vegetables injury is caused to countless micro-organisms growing around the roots when plant is pulled out, destroying an entire life-cycle.
The research conducted by modern science has confirmed that under-roots contain countless living beings, germs as was stated by the Jain scholars some thousands years ago. Also, consumption of most root vegetables involves uprooting and killing the entire plant because the bulb is seen as a living being, as it is able to sprout. Whereas consumption of most terrestrial vegetables doesn't kill the plant which lives on after plucking the vegetables or it was seasonally supposed to wither away anyway. Onion is made of many cells, so eating it would mean killing many lives.
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