There is an issue which still dictates social allegiances, there is a subject which still inspires MBA aspirants to plunge into it and there is a question where people don’t mind forgetting the spirit of scientific inquiry and start blabbering absurd and concocting asinine. Today I wish to initiate, once again, the perennial apprehension since time immemorial over the burning issue – “Is having non-vegetarian food inhumane?”
If you are a non-vegetarian by chance and if you have ever come across community life as in hostels/townships, you are bound to face the intellectual posturing of the hate brigade comprising of “dharma ke thekedars” - servants of their natural propensity for taunting your choice of interest and jibing you for the supposedly insensible culture that your family chain inherits.
Since last year I was pondering to commence this burning issue prevalent in our society as many of my previous batchmates were having the impression that they are the new generation Avatar of Siddhartha (Lord Buddha) and all non-vegetarians are the next-to-be-tenants-of-Hell. Finally I succumbed to my long unfulfilled craving when few days before one of my friends alleged me that I can not talk of austerity as I myself am a non-vegetarian and arraigned me of hypocrisy.
So let’s start. Firstly the perspective of the Vegetarian brigade:
- Killing any being for the sake of caprice of tongue is a crime unforgivable and unpardonable.
- Non Vegetarian food is not fit for human digestion system. Vegetarian food is more nutritious
- Our Jaw prints are similar to those of herbivores.
- Spiritual concern attached with such matters
Now let us deal with all these logics put forth one by one:
- First of all, the truth that we should all acknowledge is that this entire creation sustains an equilibrium where one form of life has to feed upon some other form of life for survival. No one on this Earth is an exception to this elementary veracity.
- Secondly, it’s an accurately verified and scientifically established fact that trees, plants and herbs have life too. We cannot listen to cries of trees, though, because we can only listen to frequencies starting from 20 Hz till 20000 Hz. But just because we can not hear their whimper doesn’t mean that they are not losing their existence. Still believing that since there is no blood; plants don’t feel pain is an absolutely bizarre logic. Plants also feel ache, they also wail for life when we pluck them to feed our tongue and they are also the house of “Atman” like any other form of life
- Those who claim that they are some harbinger of animal rights should concede the fact that we kill hundreds of insects while daily walking, thousands of germs while eating any sort of stuff and millions of bacteria while drinking just a glass full of water. All these insects, germs and bacteria are creations of God as well. Excess love for one creation and surfeit ignorance of millions of life forms is completely vacuous and out of sense.
- Spiritually, God disseminated the bodily abodes to all spirits or the “Atman”. This “Atman” is the shapeless soul and is invariably alike in all creations. So either you kill a germ or an animal, the same “Atman” gets liberated from worldly boundaries and for God, definitely, all of His creations are alike. Why would a mother differentiate between her two children even if one of them is physically challenged? But visibly the humanitarian limit to this concept is that we should follow the Law of Nature and kill any creation just to sustain life. Definitely, we cannot kill any person merely to satiate our tongue following the above stated logic
- Eating habits are a manifestation of the geological traits of a particular community/ region. In deserts, where it is difficult to grow crops and vegetation, humans are compelled to carry on with animal food. Similarly, in coastal sand one cannot grow wheat and rice and hence fish becomes the life line of such regions
- Theology infers that Hinduism never restricted anyone from having Non-Veg food. Even in Ramayana, Mahabaharata and Puranas there are several mentions of Non-Veg food being consumed. Though Hinduism considers that Non-Veg food is full of “Rajatamas” and hence should be avoided by spiritual aspirants. Infact the concept of Non-Vegetarianism is attributed to the influence of Buddhism in general and Jainism in particular.
- Now let us focus on some anthropological aspects. Early man’s first diet was Non-Veg stuff only. Hence it is preposterous to say that our digestive system is intended only for vegetarian food. A cow cannot digest flesh and a lion cannot digest grass, but a human can digest both simply because our system is premeditated for both types of food. Similarly, herbivores have a flat set of teeth while carnivores have pointed teeth. Humans have both types of teeth. This fact only implies that our body system is suited for both types of food.
- Non-Veg food is essential for many of our body requirements. It is a tremendous source of protein and that is the reason why we won’t find any body builder/WWF fighter surviving only on vegetarian food. Non-Veg food is utmost vital for them.
- If every person on Earth consumes only vegetarian food, then that would lead to food crisis in this world. Balance is required and mandatory. If we mull over continents like
( I have purposely put off certain points and logics, just to acclimatize readers to think in that particular direction. Vegetarian food can still be proven as more appropriate, I only wish to see who can think so far. Just curiosity!!!! )
10 comments:
I agree , specially with your last comment .
It would be better if some references and stats are used
Your logic is nicely developed Mayank but i think you must consider the classification of living beings on the basis of no. of elements (among 5 - water, fire, earth, air, space)present in them.
Trees are lowest in this hierarchy as only one element water is dominant in them. On the other hand, humans are at the top of this hierarchy as they contain all 5 elements. Other living beings come in between.
Just as the punishment in human law is different when somebody kills a plant(no major punishment), hen, dog, horse (fine), human (death penalty or life imprisonment); the weight of bad karma you collect varies when you eat veg and when you eat non-veg.
It is true that in this world we can survive only by eating some life form but all the religions prescribe veg diet so that the weight of your karmas is minimum.
@ Amit
First of all this theory of five elements has been discarded by basic Indian philosophy 'SANKHYA' which deals that only 2 elements exists in this universe prakriti which gives energy and purush which draws energy . This relation sometimes a symbiotic , sometimes parasitic and sometimes pseudo parasitic .
As far as relegion is concern ..the elements are symbolic . Post metaphysics thories said 'God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?'
There is always a flow of energy which can never be destroyed(one form to another). From Sun some of the energy is taken up by herbs and the product of this is consumed by herbivores and further this energy is transferred to carnivores and finally human being (capable of consuming both flesh & veg). All of us are the part of food cycle & food chain and play a very important role in balancing the nature/life ( e.g carnivores don't kill the herbivores in excess because if they, there won't be the availability of food in future ). As we (omnivores) can consume both which is one of the advantage being human and have check on both heads.
Our ancestors (The Homo sapiens), at that time there was nothing like veg or non-veg, a person ate because he have to live & survive "the survival of the fittest".
Now days we come across veg & non-veg terms because we have so many options, sources of food and no any threat or it may be due to our feelings gets associated with it.
@ Amit
The logics that you have put forth arent exactly what i was looking for but they are excellent though and i appreciate your effort
The logics you mentioned are intangible, they have got no proof. besides, our religious scriptures say several other things, how many of us follow them?
Hinduism never restricted anyone from non-veg, you can verify this fact by simple googling
But the biggest issue is that soul is invariably alike in all being whether it is a germ or an animal, God doesnt make difference in alike souls. its a man made hypothesis that trees have got lower strata in some self imagined heirarchy
@ Alok
The classification as per elements and the classification as per Spritual accent from human to God are two entirely different things. Dont confound the differentiation
@ Naveen
Nice approach. The fact that in primitive times, there was no classification such as veg/non veg is an extremely valid logic
I fully agree with points 1 to 6 that you have listed. Plants have a life too and Hindu Sanathana Dharma does not prohibit consumption of meat etc.
I differ with you on points 7, 8 & 9. The human body may have the capability to digest meat & non-veg but if one observes the digestive tract of humans, we are endowed with a digestive system that is very typical of plant-eaters.
Herbivores have a long small intestine and a relatively long large intestine thereby keeping the yet-to-be digested food for a long time within the system.
Carnivores like lion etc., on the other hand possess shorter intestines (both small- and large-) which ensures that the food leaves the system within the shortest possible time. This is because, the undigested remnants of meat would tend to rot within the body and is prone to give raise to insects / bacteria etc. due to putrification.
Non-vegetarian food is NOT essential for survival. The body may require some fancy proteins for some fancy activities like weight-lifting, boxing etc. but these are not "essential" for survival. A purely vegetarian diet can keep a person healthy and diseases-free and is good for a long life. Every protein and mineral that you could find in meat / fish are also available in some form of grain / plant source. The fact is that if one sticks to a stereo-typical diet, then some deficiencies could creep in.
Finally, coming to the Global Food crisis issue, it is utter nonsense to state that the world will have a food crisis if everyone turned vegetarian. The western world feeds valuable wheat and corn to pigs and cows before they are slaughtered. This is a highly inefficient use of wheat & corn and the land on which these are grown. If the quantity of wheat and corn that are fed to these animals are available for direct human consumption, then the overall demand for food grains will actually come down. The need to maintain a large inventory of livestock will also be avoided. Any additional need for maintaining livestock could be managed by feeding these animals grass and other plant derivatives that are not fit for human consumption.
i agree with some points only.
what i object is 1)food crisis bcoz for feeding the animals we use agriculture only,moreover 1kg of meat will serve 2-3 person while 1 kg of rice will serve 6-7 person.2)Non-veg is not essential although it is a rich source of protein but there are other sources also even the world's biggest animal like elephant and giraffe are herbivores. and finally i would like to add that scientifically it is proved that only 10% of energy is transfered to next level so it healthy to have pure veg diet
@ Alok
My friend, Samkhya was one of the six schools of Indian philosophy. It differentiates this entire creation in two categories - purush and prakriti. Purush means the highest level of heirarchy i.e. 'human soul'. It is plural in nature. but this purush can further be thought as composed of 5 elements - air , water, fire, earth and aakash(void). Just like we diffretiate this world into males and females and further classify them into their constituent matter(which is same for both in this case as well as above stated case). I hope you have got what i am trying to explain. So Samkhya theory and 5 element theory are 2 entirely diffefrent things
Your second papragraph was allegorical and out of context. I would refrain commenting at it
@ Vasudevan Sir
First of all, i wish to say that feel obliged that you chose to reply to my post
Secondly, as far as similarities and dissimilarities with a herbivore are concerned, I have seen that many of the features match and many dont. I would advise u to listen to views of Mr Zakir Naik
Regarding food crisis, In Industrialized nation where agriculture is not the primary occupation, Giving veg food to all is not feasible. I will search for further data though
Most important of all, Non veg doesnt mean pure non veg. Non veg people consume both. hence they should eat plants as well for gaining most of solar energy and they should eat non veg at regulated basis for any further specific requirements
Hence it is immaterial to say that non veg is not necessary. it is not necessary, i also agree but one should not stop someone from its consumption and those who eat it should have certain constraints as well
@ ritesh
I have cleared one of your doubt above. point u put forward was very valid. As far as 1 kg analysis is concerned, 1 kg rice feeds only 3-4 persons after spending plenty of land resource, effort etc while 1 kg meat serves 3-4 persons while feeding the animal just on grass, hay etc. by this comparison, i find non veg more useful
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