Vegan Ethics

[theist]

Vegan Ethics

 

by Bhakta Jason

Posted May 14, 2006

Is it dangerous to become vegan? I ask this question because I recently made the decision to become vegan. I am concerned that this could damage what little devotional qualities that I have. Please dear devotees, share your realizations on this issue.

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Saw this on another site. Why would this person worry about damaging his devotional qualities by being vegan? Where did he pick up that erroneous idea do you think?

 

He asks,"Please dear devotees, share your realizations on this issue. "

What would you tell him?

[Gaea]

maybe he is worried about the distress cows go thru to give milk etc, and subsequent karmic response.

 

my personal view is that we must be prctical and if i don't have a cow in my back yard then i'll have to run down to the shop and buy some. being veggie is hard enough in the western world, getting all the amino acids and vitamans i need, being vegan would certainly be even more difficult and health might suffer. I don't think it makes sense to be vegan in this regard.

[theist]

 

maybe he is worried about the distress cows go thru to give milk etc, and subsequent karmic response.

 

my personal view is that we must be prctical and if i don't have a cow in my back yard then i'll have to run down to the shop and buy some. being veggie is hard enough in the western world, getting all the amino acids and vitamans i need, being vegan would certainly be even more difficult and health might suffer. I don't think it makes sense to be vegan in this regard.

 

Being vegan myself I understand why he wants to be vegan. I truly cannot understand why everyone or at least every devotee would not be unless they get milk from protected cows.

 

My question was meant to highlight the fact that he feels it may hurt his devotional practices. I am sure it comes from his associating with devotees who are telling him he must drink milk as part of his spiritual practice.

 

Drinking commercial milk IS participation in cow and calve slaughter. Period. No two ways about it. The real question is how does drinking commercial milk advance ones spiritual practice? How does participating in cow and calve slaughter bring one closer to Govinda?

 

[Nirali]

Jay Shree krishna...

 

In this same forum i read a quote from Swami Prabhupada that you are allowed to drink milk as long as you offer it to Lord Krishna before you drink it...

 

Or maybe i misread it...please be kind to clarify

 

Thank you

[vijay]

 

My question was meant to highlight the fact that he feels it may hurt his devotional practices. I am sure it comes from his associating with devotees who are telling him he must drink milk as part of his spiritual practice.

 

 

 

I think its also the fact that prabhupada in a few places in his books empahasises the importance of milk and even says it helps in creating finer brain tissues to help in spiritual realisation. Its not obvious that the milk has to come from protected cows as Prabhupada never says that anywhere explicitily nor is it shown by his example. As devotees become more mature i guess they naturally become more compassionate and sensitive and think about the impact that their actions have on other living entities.

[Nrsinghadev]

 

Being vegan myself I understand why he wants to be vegan. I truly cannot understand why everyone or at least every devotee would not be unless they get milk from protected cows.

 

My question was meant to highlight the fact that he feels it may hurt his devotional practices. I am sure it comes from his associating with devotees who are telling him he must drink milk as part of his spiritual practice.

 

Drinking commercial milk IS participation in cow and calve slaughter. Period. No two ways about it. The real question is how does drinking commercial milk advance ones spiritual practice? How does participating in cow and calve slaughter bring one closer to Govinda?

 

 

Hare Krishna,

 

Good point. Do you see this age of Kali, how crooked it is? Nowadays you can't even drink a glass of milk anymore without a cow or calf getting killed for it. And that while there's no need to kill cows to get it's milk. Only out of greed and satisfaction of the tongue are they keeping these factories of death and exploitation. Alas! See what has become of our so-called civilization. We've gone from hunting down and brutally killing a few thousand animals yearly to brutally killing billions hidden from the eye to see, breeding them for the sole purpose of exploitation, using and abusing them as they would any other dead product. How dull-headed has mankind become, the people of this world, a thick layer of dust has surely accumulated on the mirrors of our hearts.

When seen from a different perspective though, one could also argue that the lives of those commercial milkcows, who's milk has been offered to Supreme Lord Sri Krishna by His devotees, have become succesful and as such will soon be released from their precarious situations.

 

Anyway back to the subject at hand, I really don't see for the life of me how becoming a vegan would harm his devotional qualities. Maybe he's worried that if he's going to take pills to get all his vitamins that the pills may have animal product in it or something, or that there's an unknown history of animal testing behind them.

 

Maybe it's because of the part where Srila Prabhupada says milk helps us develop the finer brain-tissues which help us understand the deeper spiritual truths. Don't know just a thought.

 

I can understand if someone goes vegan, though I myself could never do without the wonderful product that is milk. There are so many things you can do with it, there would just be too many foodstuffs I would have to avoid, and also I don't wanna have to start taking pills to get all my vitamins. But then again, perhaps that's not necessary, as I've seen a hermit in the Himalayas aged 90+ who lives/lived on nothing but one plate of rice and dal/beans daily and he was totally fine which goes to show once again that all these so-called scientifical foodfacts are merely subjective and here today/gone tomorrow. Anyway, to each his own, and I'm glad I'm getting my milk from slaughter free cows who's calves are not taken away and slaughtered.

 

Haribol!

[theist]

 

Anyway, to each his own, and I'm glad I'm getting my milk from slaughter free cows who's calves are not taken away and slaughtered.

 

Wonderful! This is the essential point as I see it.

 

As for vitamins and such a vegan has no problem there. In fact those who drink commercial milk should check what goes into that milk. Pus for one thing but you can check it out.

 

Everyone in America is drinking milk by the gallon so where are the finer brain tissues? In any case what is called milk nowdays is a far cry from what the milk produced by loved and protected cows produce.

[theist]

 

Jay Shree krishna...

 

In this same forum i read a quote from Swami Prabhupada that you are allowed to drink milk as long as you offer it to Lord Krishna before you drink it...

 

Or maybe i misread it...please be kind to clarify

 

Thank you

 

I am no authority on what Prabhupada said. But is it said anywhere that one must drink milk? The thought of it violates my conscience.

 

Anyway how can anyone take seriously the preachments of cow protection without including those cows and calves caught up in the hell of factory dairy farming.

[stonehearted]

 

Everyone in America is drinking milk by the gallon so where are the finer brain tissues? In any case what is called milk nowdays is a far cry from what the milk produced by loved and protected cows produce.

Great point! Considering the way dairy cows are bred and fed, as well as the way their milk is processed, it shouldn't be hard to see the difference between the milk available in supermarkets and the milk available to villgers in India before industrialization. Moreover, I know cow men who say that the benefits attributed to milk in ayurveda actually apply to the milk of zebus, not the European cows such as Holsteins, Guernseys, Brown Swiss, etc. And I have seen much research supporting this.

 

For several years I regularly had milk from a devotee cow man who raises only miniature zebus. It has only the slightest, most superficial resemblance to even the best milk I bought in stores. It was something wonderful to offer to our Deities. When I moved back here, I got milk from a local devotee cowherd. While it wasn't all from zebus, it was clearly in a category quite different from industrial milk. These are really happy cows, secure in Krishna's service. We should be embarrassed that we even have to discuss such things after 40 years of ISKCON. The society's failures with regard to protecting cows, women, children, and older people (don't get me started!) are legion. With guidance such as Srila Prabhupada's, we should have done better.

[krsna]

 

Great point! Considering the way dairy cows are bred and fed, as well as the way their milk is processed, it shouldn't be hard to see the difference between the milk available in supermarkets and the milk available to villgers in India before industrialization. Moreover, I know cow men who say that the benefits attributed to milk in ayurveda actually apply to the milk of zebus, not the European cows such as Holsteins, Guernseys, Brown Swiss, etc. And I have seen much research supporting this.

 

For several years I regularly had milk from a devotee cow man who raises only miniature zebus. It has only the slightest, most superficial resemblance to even the best milk I bought in stores. It was something wonderful to offer to our Deities. When I moved back here, I got milk from a local devotee cowherd. While it wasn't all from zebus, it was clearly in a category quite different from industrial milk. These are really happy cows, secure in Krishna's service. We should be embarrassed that we even have to discuss such things after 40 years of ISKCON. The society's failures with regard to protecting cows, women, children, and older people (don't get me started!) are legion. With guidance such as Srila Prabhupada's, we should have done better.

 

[akshar]

Being a vegan you can't do normal vegetarian stuff plus no milk and no leather. Eggs and fish are not allowed. Milk does not need to be offered as gai mata does not suffer when we milk her. Cows give their milk happily according to a story i know. I might aswell tell you the story know.

When ghanshyam (swaminarayan's name for when he was young) asked bhaktimata (his mother) for food she said go and eat the cold hotchpotch. He complained slightly but then he went to eat it. He then wanted milk. He asked his mother for milk and she replied that Gomti (their cow) will not milk at this time of day (non-milking time) Ghanshyam thought otherwise. He requested his mother to watch. He had a clay vessel. He asked Gomti to provide him with some milk, she did as ghanysham asked. But the milk continued to overflow and bhaktimata nearly filled up all of her utinsils because of the overflowing milk. When she went back inside ghanshyam shouted to her that Gomti will stop milking now. But she wasn't too sure so she brought another untensil just in case. She came and saw that it stopped and hugged ganshyam very affectionately. Bhaktimata can be compared to Yashoda mata. They loved their children, not because they were gods, because they were adorable. No harm can come to cows as i doubt krishna would let it happen, during milking.

[akshar]

If u don't understand any of the story ask me, i'll clarify for you.