Eating only what can't run away

[Guest guest]

Harsha: Madhavaji, your view that we should not eat what can run away from

us seems very interesting and is a good philosophical defense of being a

vegetarian. I will forward this to two lists where a discussion on diet has

taken place. One question for you. Would eggs be included in your vegetarian

diet as they cannot run away? There are many vegetarians who do not eat eggs

and some do. Your views on the matter are appreciated.

 

 

"Madhava K. Turumella" <madhava

 

Dear Sadanandaji / Prov. Krishnamurthyji:

 

Thank you both for the excellent and thought provoking articles on

vegetarianism.

I am a vegetarian. I also would like to present my view points on this

subject.

My definition of vegetarianism: "I DO NOT EAT ANYTHING THAT CAN MOVE ON THIS

EARTH". Movement is provided to them because they wanted to escape from

their predator. I have never come across any animal that has willingly

offered itself to be killed for food. Animals, birds, fish etc. can move.

Given a chance they will always escape from harm. How could we take any

life, when it wants to live?

Long back when I was very young, I questioned my late grand father on why

our family is vegetarian. My grand father told me a story. "Once upon a

time all beings went to the GOD's court and requested his permission for a

longer life. He granted movement to animals and multiplicity to the plants.

He ordered the animals to escape with the help of the movement. He also told

animals, if they can't move he can't give guarantee for their life. He told

the plants to keep their life by giving leaves and grains to others. We

believe in God's law, that is why we are vegetarians. A tiger can kill only

an old deer, a deer that is young can always run and escape a tiger. These

are all the acts of God to keep the ecological balance. We as humans are

not supposed to kill. If one starts killing a living being for food, at one

point of time he might not even hesitate to kill a human because the act of

killing is the same. Taking life is easy, but giving life is impossible".

I am a human and I do eat in order to live. For that, I eat leaves of

plants and live on plant related products. Then one might question, "even

plants have got life! how could you kill plants?". My answer is: "NO! I

don't *kill* plants to eat. I eat the leaves of the plants." Consider the

following points:

* Cut one of the legs of any animal... It will live for its rest of the

life as handicapped. It can never grow that leg again!... Cut the branch

of a tree... it not only grows that branch again but also many more

branches. So loosing a branch is never really considered as harming the

life of the plant! Also plants have got plenty of leaves, taking a few will

not really harm them.

* Rice, wheat and other grain plants have got limited life. They got a life

cycle of a couple of months, after which we harvest the grains and eat them.

Even If we don't harvest, the plant will anyway die. So, it is not that you

are killing them.

 

Sincere Regards,

Madhava

P.S: I am writing a paper on vegitarianism based on the above points. So I

would request you to inform me, in case anybody would like to

cross-post/publish the points of this article anywhere