Why Do People eat non vegetarian?

Even before I start presenting a case on why people eat non vegetarian, “Mitchami Dukkadam”.

If there has been a day or time in our lives when I’ve done anything wrong, or have hurt you or your feelings knowingly or unknowingly, I ask for your forgiveness (Mitchami Dukkadam)

The Jain community just ended a 8 day long Paryushan Parv(festival) which is aimed at forgetting and forgiving everything bad that has happened to us in the past year. The eighth day a.k.a “Samvatsari” is the day we all ask for forgiveness from everybody, because according to Jainism, you get peace only by forgiving and forgetting everything wrong that you may have done or experienced in the past!

This post is to understand the reasons why People  slaughter the animals for food. Being a Jain, I have been following a vegetarian diet, and have been trying to persuade people to become vegetarian themselves. Haven’t been able to convert one ?

It’s hard to understand how people can eat something by taking the life of another living animal. I wonder if every non vegetarian would eat meat if they had to slaughter, and skin the animal on their own. It’s because it’s slaughtered, cut, cooked and served in a nice eatable way is why you eat non vegetarian..? No.

Why do people eat non-vegetarian anyway?

Taste? If that is the case, can they eat the meat raw? No. The digestive system does not allow the meat to be digested if it’s raw. Try that for 30 days and you will start feeling it’s effects. What creates the taste is the masala’s (the additional items that you add to the recipe). Every single one of them or mostly everything is from something vegetarian!

So what really makes the taste is the vegetarian items than the meat. “Try it and you’ll know for yourself”, Thank you! I know a thousand or probably a few 100 thousand dishes that will taste a lot better that are vegetarians. When given so many options why should I kill something to eat?

So it’s definitely not the taste. What someone argued when I asked the same question was: “Some provinces in China do not have land that can grow food”.

Let’s think again… Is that the reason? Who are these people eating? Carnivores or Herbivores? Herbivores obviously, because they are easy to raise, tame and kill. Again, the human digestive system does not allow digestion of carnivores’ meat on a daily basis. My question is, where do the animals get their food from if you cannot grow food?

So it’s not the non-availability of food either. One comes to the cost then… Obviously it’s not that. You get vegetables cheaper than the meat.

No the cost, is it what they are religiously told to? From whatever I’ve understood from friends of different religion, no religion asks you to cause pain to another living being for food. Every religion there is preaches peace by harmonious relationship with all living, which of course should include the animals. Muslim celebrate a day called Bakrid when a Goat must be slaughtered, not sure why, but I understand that is for a reason definitely not food. Christians celebrate Easters day distributing a boiled egg with a cross, why egg? Again, I’ll only have to meet with a father to understand that.

But all being said, none of the religions preach “Kill an animal for food”.

Now don’t tell me that if you don’t eat chicken, the chicken population will increase and the whole food chain will be affected, because if you look at it, it is us who are breeding them unnaturally, taking care of them until they are fully fit to be slaughtered.

Now picture this, every time you want that meaty burger or a chicken 65 lying on your plate, you have to actually raise a chicken, feed it and one fine day cut his head off with the same hands you fed it with, and wait till it dies completely (yes chickens take about 2 mins to die after the head is cut off), and skin it, would you do that?

So it’s definitely got to do with the mental make up of a human being. We are just doing it because they don’t fight back. It’s that simple.

VIDEO: You should probably watch this and the related videos… (Warning: If you are faint hearted or can’t face the reality, do not watch it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-LyeUTzFYc

Sad truth is, I had tears in my eyes when I was searching for this video. Animals are kept in the worst of the conditions and are then slaughtered ? How can man be so cruel?

Real Story: I was on this expedition in Bihar when I saw a truck full of cows being taken for slaughtering, they hardly had any place to move, yet the man forced two more animals in the truck. The young ones were shouting, while the cows all had tears in their eyes. How can we be so cruel?!

Thankfully there are some Jain organizations, some of which I’m part off, who are using funds collected from their members to run something called the “Panjrapol” a  place for all the animals rescued from Slaughtering (by payment of huge sum of money to owners)

Did you know that all stray dogs were electrocuted to death because the government couldn’t care for them? Panjrapol is a place where these dogs are taken, treated as not be able to produce children again, and then taken care off like animals?! It’s good that there are these people who are doing good things, but it doesn’t end unless we all stop it!

No matter what you do or what you say, if you are in that hotel ordering a non vegetarian dish, or sitting in the comforts of your home eating that non vegetarian dish, you are indirectly responsible for the life of that animal. It’s like a tiger, every time you taste it, you want to have it. Stop it please, stop ill treating the animals. Go vegetarian.

If you need a recipe for good vegetarian food, use the internet; use it for a good purpose. If you are having problems reducing the craving for non vegetarian food, try some of the vegetarian variants of non veg food out there in the local markets. But please, lets all end this. Go vegetarian! Spread the message.

Kunal

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