A friend of mine asked this question to which i answered with whatever limited understanding i had...
Dr . Avinash sir ,
I have a question , as to what in the other religious books.... Like Bible , Khoran , in the Granth sahib of the Sikh religion, in the books is Parsis , other than Hinduism , Jainism , Bhuddhi , what they say about killing of Animals and eating them for food ? Atleast ,in the major Religions of the world !
Can you throw some light on this ! As I saw what they are doing in China in the “Wet market “ is very disturbing and bringing this curse on the whole of Humanity !
Shivaram.
REPLY
Your question is really pertinent about non-vegetarianism & animal killing from a religion point of view. Well, I'll try my best to answer it scientifically, logically and if possible on religion context.
Physiologically & anatomically - the human body has not been designed for meat eating or non-vegetarianism. There are enough and more medico-scientists who through research have provided evidence regarding this.
1. We don't have teeth (large canine teeth) and jaws (which only move up & down) like the carnivorous (flesh eating animals).
2. We don't have claws & our finger construction cannot tear flesh or even hide (the skin).
3. The flesh eating animals have a very short intestinal tract that allows all the flesh to easily pass through quickly but we humans have a very very long intestine (large & small intestines with a lot of turns & bends). This is also the same kind found in plant eating animals.
4. The acids secreted by our stomach is very less & much much weaker than those of flesh eating animals. This many times does not breakdown the flesh when eaten there by leading to dead tissue lying in the stomach that can lead to poisoning or increased toxicity in the human body.
5. The meat protein is very high that causes a lot of hit on the kidneys and can lead to kidney diseases that most of the time is irreversible. The impact is the same on gall bladder too.
6. The hormonal & biochemical presence in the blood many times laces the artries/ blood veins with deposits of fats that hamper flow of blood leading to heart diseases. Major cause of deaths in the present world.
7. The human body is intended to function on plant-based foods that are full of fiber, antioxidants, unsaturated fat, essential fatty acids, phytochemicals, and cholesterol-free protein.
8. Some also raise a question "Didn't our Ancesstors eat meat"???
- Right through the history of our evolution, humans have majorly been only vegetarian. Once they deviced a method to make fire & manage it they added modest amount of meat as a convenience (where availability of vegetarian food was scarce).
Intellectuals who listen to their human body and the true verifiable research by our scientific community will understand this and live on to be vegetarians and stay by it.
We are from a blessed land "BHARAT" where nature has bestowed it's best in it's true form that we worship nature itself - Fire as Agni, Water as Varuna, Air as Vayu ..... Etc including the animal kingdom who are allocated to each diety/ god as it's vahana etc. We have the virtue to value living & non-living in quitude. It is this virtue that we have inculcated and this we call "MANUSHYATVA" or "Humaneness". It is therefore we call it a DHARMA it's not a religion but a set of rules/ duties to expedite thoughout the lifespan. You had duties towards your self, your parents, your siblings, your community, your rashtra and your environment (parisara/ prakruti).
All our ancient texts say when in doubt, dive within & refer your self with your environment this gives you the NATURE of things hence we are always guided through Purusha & Prakruti... The solutions & answers are there.
Until the Advent of foreigners (be it the Afghans, Iranians, Mughals, French, Portuguese, English etc... ) We lived a life "as per nature living & being with nature" - which said "me & others are the same" or "we are equal". The foreigners had a different perspective of "Controlling Nature" which advocated supremacy - "I am Superior to you" this showed a mindset of the animals are weaker to us we are supreme beings. To break our line of Dharma they threw meat into our wells & people who drank water from it were out casted and they subjugated themselves to the foreigners and now they had to follow the line of thought & lifestyles of the foreigners as they were welcomed by the foreigners. Those who did not drink from the well either migrated to other safer regions or just perished. It is here that meat eating became a norm of distinction. Today with the growth of civilization the non-vegetarianism is a fad or a status quo rather or social norm for advanced society than a necessaity (the same can be seen with alcohol too).
Now, apart from the Sanaatana Dharma & it's off-shoots (- Buddhism or Jainism, etc - which is more of a following), let us first accept that Islam & Christianity etc are foreign to India. They came from lands that were deprived of nature's best (unlike Bharat) they came to Bharat to enjoy & relish the abundance nature had gifted.
There are 2 views to this which some researchers have experienced - one is theory of "convenience due to deprivation" and the other "The psychology build up" theory.
Since both these clearly dated man made religions, (if I may call them) had the ways of life & living designed due to convenience. Nothing could be grown in Arabian Region then (even true now) and hence the deprived state of vegetarian food instigated them to latch-on to meat eating as a means for survival. There were various norms written on this by the then intellectuals so as to avoid spread of any diseases (as they did not have means to cure them). These religions when they spread to other parts of the world carried this culture along and hence, as one embraced the religion, he had to adopt that culture & meat eating became part of his diet which earlier was not. The same happened in Buddhism too where due to deprivation in Tibet the Buddhists embraced meat eating, this when it spread to the east carried it's culture along with it too. Today Japan which was primarily Vegetarian has now transformed into a non-vegetarian to over 90%.
So now over years we see that meat eating has become an addiction. Trying out new types of meat came into existence to please or honour a guest and people started to spare none of the animals under the garb of "delicacy offered to guest" this too has become a habit or addiction today just as alcohol.
When we look at the impact of the processes of each religions on the psyche of the individual practicing it or following it. All psychology-scientists will clearly understand this and may be in a position to relate to their studies. With no offence meant to any religion - as they are all pathway to reach the ultimate reality named "God" However, each practice has an impact on the minds of the person - this is undeniable, self evident and self realisable.
In our Sanaatana Dharma the God's & dieties are placed in line with where we are or on a level closer to the ground/ floor and we sit in sukhasana to worship it. This one can observe that the God's or pictures of the deity are reachable & touchable to the worshipper (basically at an arms reach to him)... These build the psyche of people practicing this making them "god loving", god does not punish but understands you and blesses always. The second is that in Sanaatana Dharma the deity is human be it the picture or the idol of any of our God's is live - open eyes, the form is active or in action form, their heads upright & NOT hung down and NOT torturously death pictographed. This look of HINDU Gods as human bodied or animal-human bodied, psychologically builds a virtue of humaneness, equality, attitude of request, love & gratitude (this is what we do in sankalpa, praarthana & dhanyavaad). Thirdly, we strive to get qualities of the pictographed deity/ god become god like. Hence we categorically find the levels of quality as Satva, Rajo & Tamo Guna too & likewise we eat the kind of food as excellently explained in Ayurveda. Finally, the pleasant face of the deity also propagates - life is Bliss and emulate the state of being in the way your god is. No where in our Sanaatana Dharma do we say GOD DIED FOR YOU".
But when people keep their mental focus on a blank wall, the mind emulates the qualities that the wall portrays. These vary in degrees possible and they gain qualities such as insensitivity, not understanding pain, hard-heartedness, least feeling when inflicting pain to lower life forms (called animals) etc.. etc... This gets written on the psyche unconsciously. The same you get aligned emotions when you look at torturously death pictographed/ idol too. Secondly, the position of this is on a high pedestal/ much higher in the wall saying he is above you and you need to kneel before him. This sets a one up position in the minds of the person before it (a chance for superiority or inferiority complex to be created and reinforced on the psyche)... The reason is also that this genere of followers kneel down before him again inscribing "God fearing" on their minds and punitive nature of God.
These kinds of psychological studies have also been tried in schools and the outcomes observed. It was inferred that in situations where the teacher is standing before the class students on a platform (called a stage) in the classroom, the teacher unconsciously instilled fear in the students and the learning in the students was weak/ low. However, where the teacher who stood within or sat in line with the students and taught the students, the teacher in this case instilled a comfortable feeling in the student that encouraged wider and better learning also .
Over the entire range of religions No God's have advocated any kind of a killing of any life form for his pleasure. Man has due to reasons mentioned above has built ritualistic norms convenient to him which has turned himself into a beast where he values none but himself - his convenience, his addiction, his supremacy, his greed, his fad, his range of satisfying his indriyas (senses) from a human being he has now slipped himself into a sensual being.
Hope I could answer your questions. Sorry for the long explanatory.... At least I'm happy we at the Maharishi group value satva guna, satvik food and satvik blissful living.... Let us encourage our children to inculcate these virtues which we have so they lead a valuable life ahead and become &; retain the Humaneness.
Picture chosen and added is under copyright to Timesofindiai taken from google search
Picture chosen and added is under copyright to Timesofindiai taken from google search
Dr. You have expressed it very well. Very well explained.
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