(IN) Article: Reviving Ahimsa in the Land of the Buddha and the Mahatma

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Article from the Director of Maitri Charitable Trust, Bodhgaya, Bihar, India

Email: A. Ferranti <ferranti

 

Reviving Ahimsa in the Land of the Buddha and the Mahatama

 

by Rtn A Ferranti, Director of Maitri

http://www.fpmt.org/maitri/

 

 

 

 

One of the images still associated with India is the roaming cow, sacred

and untouchable, never to be slaughtered in the land of ahimsa, where everybody

is vegetarian… To my bewilderment I soon discovered, when I first came to India,

that except for the roaming cow, the picture was rather different as far as the

association ahimsa-vegetarianism was concerned. And that was a long time ago.

 

For me, arriving with the Gandhian message clear in my mind, it was surreal

to see people eat meat in public places, but still it was rare and certainly not

flaunted at that time. Today eating “non-veg” is a sign of distinction, of being

progressive, i.e. not anchored to the old modes and customs, of embracing a

modern life-style. Children are raised on chicken from very young age and learn

to disassociate the pieces they are given from the live animals. Needless to

say, the gap between humans and animals is increasing very fast with the latter

totally losing out.

 

There are societies who can hardly survive without meat, because of the

environments they inhabit that do not allow the growth of crops. Reliance on

animals, including fish, for food is a matter of survival, but for people who

live in fertile lands and for city-dwellers who have everything available in

shops survival is hardly the issue. They, nay we, are the lucky ones who can

nourish our bodies with the produce of the land without resorting to killing

unaware, defenseless, trusting creatures. It is in fact the raising of animals

as “farming” which is causing the greatest amount of suffering on them and the

heaviest side-effects on our health and the common environment.

 

It is a well-known fact that the impurities that meat from animals raised

for food carry into our systems due to the manipulated feed they are given and

the stress hormones released at the time of slaughter added to the general slow

pace of the breaking-down process of meat in our guts can induce cancer, and

that the regular consumption of meat does bring about critical circulatory

problems that have become one of the major scourges in the developed world and

in the more affluent classes of developing countries, India included.

 

What does the Rotary have to do with all this? I believe that, since the

above issues are already recognized as public health problems all over the

world, the Rotary and its scores of medical professionals could and should step

in to share their knowledge and wisdom and teach, sensitize, motivate, advise

the lay members and the general public. Awareness is a much used term nowadays,

which few understand in its connotation of “insight”, that is deep

understanding.

 

Such insight should easily lead the citizens of this country so inclined to

divine matters to the care of their spiritual health as well. Those who believe

in karma can easily understand the implications of taking lives whether directly

or by proxy. Specifically Buddhism recognizes in animals the same ultimate

spiritual potential human beings are endowed with, therefore any treatment of

them inconsistent with the principles of love and compassion would bring about

karmic consequences in this life and the next ones to come. Those who do not

believe in karma but do recognize the sacredness of creation can easily relate

to the respect of nature of which we are all integral parts, none excluded.

 

Finally, I believe that, when dealing with matters related to animals, the

adoption of a new phrase - “treated like humans”, would encourage a switch in

mental attitude towards respect to animals’ feelings and dignity. Thus the

pejorative expression “treated like animals” would finally become meaningless

and ultimately disappear from our parlance.

 

 

 

(above article is not online)