does plants have life? - Thanks

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That was wonderful. i never expected this amount of response from the group. I

am very thankful to the noble hearted people of this group who take pains to

clarify things somuch in detail.

 

very thankful to all those who replied. interesting and different views of the

same topic. great to know.

 

now i have no confusion and have no second thoughts about being vegetarian at

all. and also, happy that i had chosen the correct path.

 

 

 

once again Thanks to all..

 

Vishwanathan

 

Narender Reddy <reddynp wrote:

Jai Sriman Narayana!

 

Yes, plants have life. Plants do not have a developed nervous system and may

not be feeling pain. By eating plants, we minimize the pain and suffereing.

Ultimately, all enrgy to the planet is derived from the Sun's races. Plants

capture the solar energy and store it. There is certain efficiency in converting

solar energy (say 70%). Animals eat plants and they have even lower efficiency

(say 40%). If one were to eat anilmals, the overall effiency is very low (0.7

multiplied by 0.4 = 28%). By eating plants, we are converting the solar enrgy

by a lot higher efficiency when compared to eating animal food. By eating animal

products, one is wasting a significant percentage of the energy. Moreover,

animals have a significantly developed nervous system and they do feel pain and

suffering and loss of comapnionship, loss of children etc. Therefore, the

suffering is a thousand (or even million) fold when compared to the suffering

caused to plants.

 

We eat plants because Lord Sri Krishna said that He will accept only patram,

pushpam , palam and thoyam. We do not eat anything which is not offered to Him.

All sAthvik purAnAs with unified voice, proclaim that one should abstain from

eating meat.

 

With regard to ahimsa done to the plants, one should minimze the destruction of

plants (environment). For brahma charyas and grihasthas, eating plants is

allowed. However, for VAnaprasthas, there are several restrictions imposed even

for eating plants. The first stage of Vanaprasthas eat plucking only the riped

fruit. We are not allowed to pluck the unriped fruits from the plants. The

advanced stage of Vanaprasthas eat only the fallen fruits. They are not allowed

to even pluck the fruit from the plants. All this is well explained in Srimath

Bhagavatham.

 

With all glories to Lord Sri Venkateswara, I remain,

Sincerely

Narender Reddy

 

 

Vishwanathan Nagarajan <nvc_vishwanathan wrote:

one of the yamas and niyamas is Ahimsa -non violence ( non-killing of anykind,

direct of indirect).

 

so what disturbs me is if plants do have life, are we not doing violence to them

even being a vegetarian. The reasons and benefits of being a vegetarian is

explained in several scientific ways. But spiritually it is said mainly to

observe non-killing or non-violence. then how about eating vegitables ,

especailly teh plant varieties. if we think plants have life, it is equivalent

of observing violence.

 

Could some on please, clear me of this Dilemma !

 

I am a non-vegetarian turned Vegetarian and abstain myself of all animal

products except milk. but my above questions puts me down all the time. i would

appreciate somebody helping me out in this.

 

Thanks in advance..

 

Vishwanathan

 

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