#003 CLARIFICATIONS ON MEAT EATING AND BEEF EATING

Some of my blogs refer to meat and beef eating in ancient days as well as current times. It is necessary to clarify my position and some observations from the environment:

1. To eat or abstain from meat/beef eating is a decision of an individual.

2. Vegetarianism spread in some communities of India owing to the influence of the teachings of Gautama Buddha.

3. Today many of Buddhist are also non-vegetarians.

4. Vegetarianism in a strict sense means eating only plant products. In this sense even milk, curd (yoghurt), cheese, butter, clarified butter etc. also become non-vegetarian.

5. The case for vegetarianism arises as proposition in a person's efforts to become better and nobler, because it tries to abstain from causing injury to animals. Those who abstain from meat including beef and other fleshes and fish (and other aqua products) will be saving the lives of animals. When compared to a daily eater of animals, a rare or occasional eater of animals, minimises hisher violence on animals.

6. Milking animals causes pain to mother animals and denies their leigitimate due to the calves. In strict sense, vegetarians have to gradually desist from consuming lacto foods also.

6a. Consuming food in large quantifies, whether veg. or non-veg. causes hurt to other livings. We may have to consume only that which is required to keep ourselves alive. But maintaining this type of pledges, is, difficult for many reasons. E.g.: Life may become insipid. We may lose our concentration on other day-to-day activities such as job, caught up in the mania of non-violence. O.C.D. (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), can make us, fanatics.

7. If science helps us to avoid plant foods (plants to have joy and pain. They have a right to their own lives) one day by inventing inorganic substitute tablets and pills, we can gradually shift to eating only non-living things.

8. But all these things cannot be imposed on individuals either by law or coercion. These are absolutely voluntary ideas.

9. If some people become perfect vegetarians and yet commit ghastly crimes on humans in the name of business or religion or something else, they do not become better individuals.
(time constraint. I shall continue shortly).