Preserving Vegetarian Cultural Heritage Ensures Our Security

Original Article in Hindi on Hindi Niramish Blog by Shri Hansraj Sugya ji
Translation By Shilpa Mehta

Well refined, Ancient  Indian culture has been under attack from Western and middle western schools of thought for a long time now, and these attacks are now turning into ideological battles. These well planned attacks are trying to portray our advanced historical heritage as a primitive one and destroy our belief in the richness and our reverence of our own culture. Some cultures developed in uncivilized and primitive nomadic lands are trying to revert us back to the same primitive stage from the lofty dais we had traditionally occupied, by tempting our youth with razzle dazzle.

These schools of thought confuse our youth by giving falsified messages of equality, socialism, love and brotherhood in their own cultures, which actually are completely absent in their cultures. But all these qualities arise from the root of non violence. Non violence and compassion to all living beings is the criterion to assess the depth of love in any person.

The Indian soil has always been rich in our sacred "saatvik" principles of mercy and non-violence. Indian philosophy has always condemned meat consumption / gambling / drinking and other such evils as undesirable, and punishable. Acceptance of meat eating is clear acceptance of violence in day to day life without even a second thought. Such schools of thought can never stand eye to eye before the high principles of non violent cultures. Vegetarianism is synonymous to civility and culture of any society. All attacks on the supreme heritage of non-violence are bound to come before a fall. We have the unbeatable armor of nonviolence protecting our heritage, which no ill intention-ed and veiled attacks can cut through.

These principles of mercy and compassion can NOT be met at an equal level by cultures based on violence and hatred, with instructions to maim, damage and kill any and everyone who comes in the way. Leave aside killing enemies, there are instructions to kill one's own family members and loved one's who disagree with the accepted school of thought, and even destroy non-living things like idols etc revered and worshiped by other societies apart from their own. 

But, as soon as we reach the question of compassion to fellow living beings, the actors trying to portray their culture as a non-violent one automatically get silenced and defeated. The nectar of our culture lies in compassion and it directly equates to non-violence. It keeps us rooted in all positive grounds of mercy, and keeps us away from evils like hatred, anger, revenge, fights, anarchy and chaos. Creation and maintenance of a non-violent society necessitates the preservation of the high principles of compassion. Definitely India is capable of preserving the distinguished heritage we have inherited from our ancestors.

The Niramish State of Mind

Original Hindi article on Niramish Hindi Blog by Shri Hansraj 'Sugya'

Translation By Shilpa Mehta

NON-VIOLENCE: The Appropriate and Proper Measure for Peace 

In the whole universe, the basis of happiness and joy for any living being is peace. Peace is achievable only through non-violence. Most of the violence in this world occurs for satisfying the dietary requirements. Saatvik food is the route to compassion towards our fellow beings. Minor violence does occur in vegetarian food too, yet vegetarianism is the minimization of inevitable and unavoidable violence. This in itself is an endeavour towards non-violence. Those who do not feel hurt while hurting and killing beings for taste and unhesitatingly eat meat etc., slowly get accustomed to accepting killing as a normal routine. When the source of food is violent, it necessarily effects the thought process of the person and diminishes one's sensitivities. 

The acceptance of killing as "normal" for eating one's food makes one accustomed to "killing" and leads to a violent state of awareness. This is leading to more and more violence, hatred, and crimes in today's world. Mercy to fellow living beings naturally nurtures one's finer instincts and makes one more compassionate to fellow humans too. Vegetarianism enhances values and is a guardian to humanity.

Religious and Philosophical Notions and Intents :

Almost all reliogions and social systems have always reverred "life". Still, the Indian culture is the one which has propogated the concepts of "अहिंसा परमो धर्मः" (non-violence is the supreme religious principle) or “दया धर्म का मूल है” (mercy is the root of all religion).

Whatever be the religion one belongs to, none of the revered sacred texts and none of the messengers advocate violence or cruelty. The magnificent palaces of super human messages and religions stand proudly on the strong foundations of non-violence, compassion, love and moral values. All lessons are targeted at non-violence and the first step to non-violence is vegetarianism.

Civilization and Culture :

Advocating and praising vegetarianism is not an indication of pride or ego of purity. vegetarian diet is in itself clean and non-violent. The Indian culture and consciousness has always revolved around purity of not just food, but the whole lifestyle. Vegetarianism is the foundation to all good things in life. Man is basically a herbivore. Though body can manage on non-vegetarian food (man is biologically classified into omnivorous beings) yet civilization demands migrating from a wild lifestyle to a civilized one. Vegetarianism is the carrier of peace, and the height of culture.. 

Environment :

We as a society need to preserve our natural resources and optimize their utilization. All organisms are a part of a very delicate balance in nature. Human interference upsets this delicate balance. We have the intelligence to enable us to optimally utilize the natural resource while not depleting them blindly. When we rear millions of animals for food every year, the ratio of the food we get to the food we could have produced on the same are of land is alarmingly frightening. Millions of square meters of evergreen forests are cut down to provide grasslands for grazing of animals for meat. We are cutting down the evergreens which are like the lungs of mother earth, to satisfy our taste buds.

While the same area of land could have produced much much more amount of vegetarian food in a year, the same ends up producing only very little meat in comparison in the same period of time. If everyone switches over to vegetarianism, many starving millions could be helped. Long back when humanity was living in separate unconnected islands, there was not sufficient availability of vegetarian food in some areas, but grassland area was sufficient to feed many herbivorous animals. But today the situation is not the same. There is no compulsion to eat meat to survive. So it would be much more logical to switch over to vegetarianism.

Balanced Diet :

The myth of "modernism" is misleading many into believing that vegetarian food does not have sufficient proteins in it to make for a balanced diet. But if one stops to consult a doctor or a dietitian this myth evaporates like a snow flake in sunshine. It has been proved that vegetarian food has all the necessary ingredients for a healthy life. In fact it is non-vegetarian food which leads to many diseases through various toxins and infections. Moreover, fiber and many a vitamins are completely missing in non-vegetarian sources. Vegetarian food is the primary source of energy and a first class source of all balanced diet. It also enhances our immune system.

Health Concerns :

Vegetarian diet contains a good amount of fiber. Fiber helps the digestive tract to stay clean and healthy, and capable of smooth working and absorbing what the body requires. It has neither excess dangerous cholesterol, not advanced protein produced in advanced beings bodies. This advanced protein from non-vegetarian food makes the human consumer more prone to many diseases like Alzheimer's, Gallstones, diabetes type 2, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, liver problems, kidney problems, obesity...... and many more. WHY DO YOU THINK DOCTORS FORBID PATIENTS FROM NON-VEGETARIAN FOOD in many many illnesses??

WISHING EVERYONE ALL THE BEST