VEGETARIANISM

Vegetarians are people who do not eat meat or fish. Some vegetarians do not eat meat because they think that eating meat is not good for their health. Others do not eat meat because of their religious beliefs. They do not believe in killing animals for food. Jains are vegetarians because they believe in nonviolence, which involves not hurting or killing any living being. Jain religion has nonviolence as its basic principle.

 Jain religion teaches us not to hurt or kill any living being. Jains believe that we have no right to kill anyone. All beings have an equal right to live and enjoy their lives. Thus it makes sense not to eat meat because eating meat entails killing animals for food. Also it takes sixteen pounds of grain to produce one pound of beef. A vegetarian diet is better. Vegetarianism is a better way of life. 

 

Throughout history, many individuals and groups of people realized the importance of the vegetarian diet for spiritual development and also for health reasons. Thus they became vegetarians. Many great Greek scholars including Plato, Socrates and Pythagoras supported a vegetarian diet. In India, all sages and saints preached the importance of vegetarianism . It is clear that meat has not been a component of the food of all human beings since prehistoric times. In modern times, many people are adopting a vegetarian diet for moral, health and economic reasons. 

Jainism and some other religions say that soul is the entity that distinguishes living beings from nonliving objects. They also emphasize that the souls of animals are basically of the same kind as those of human beings and that all animals including the tiniest of insects are seen to avoid dangerous situations, painful experiences and death. No one can deny that an animal feels pain like a human being. Thus, like humans, all animals have the right to live. Therefore , avoidance of the killing of animals is the most important reason for a vegetarian diet. We should not kill any living being for food. It is a violent and selfish act which is totally unnecessary. 

Most men and women, vegetarians as well as non-vegetarians, find it hard to injure or kill animals. However, many people eat meat because of their lack of awareness of the process of production of meat. If people become aware of these facts, they may give up eating non-vegetarian food. Some people argue that the weaker and smaller animals are always the food of the stronger and bigger animals and that this is in accord with nature's law. This, however, is the law of animals, not the law of man.

All the religions and spiritual groups preach nonviolence. This teaching can be extended to cover vegetarianism. One of the Ten Commandments is, "Thou shalt not kill". In Islam, it is said, "God will not be affectionate to that man who is not affectionate to God's creatures". Some western religious and spiritual leaders and thinkers, such as John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, were vegetarians.

In Indian religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism, nonviolence (AHINSA) is the cardinal principle. This principle entails reverence for all life and precludes deliberate killing or injuring any living organism.  Indian religions place great importance on vegetarianism. The teaching of Bhagavan Mavavira is:

One should not hurt a living being intentionally or by negligence in the strictest sense. We are not to injure any living organism however small it may be, directly with our hands, by causing some one to do so on our behalf or by consent to the act of injury.

According to Jainism, meat is a breeding ground for innumerable living organisms - a fact supported by modern biology. Acharya Amritchandra Suri who lived in the tenth century has written: "The same is true of the eggs whether fertile or not". It is a fact that vegetarian foods also contain some living organisms. Suri who lived in the tenth century has written: "In the raw meat and in the cooked meat, innumerable living organism are generated incessantly. Thus he who consumes meat in any form commits violence against a large number of living beings."

Jainism tells us that we can only limit violence and avoid unnecessary violence. Non- vegetarianism involves violence which is unnecessary and which can be easily avoided.