Animal eating - some answers by prof. Anil Kumar

[Guest guest]

33.'What is the harm in killing an animal? Because, when you pick a fruit,

you're also killing it. By picking the fruit, the plant becomes handicapped.

Doesn't the plant suffer pain? So, this is pain and that is pain. So, what's

the difference?' (05.01.2003)

Baba has said something about this. You must know by now that I tell you right

away any of Baba's answers to questions already posed. Those questions where

the answers are left to my imagination, I openly confess. There's no hypocrisy

or duplicity here. I do not claim to be an intellectual, certainly not! I don't

even want to be one. I can only repeat what our good Lord has said.

So, what did He say about this? Plants don't have the same kind of emotions or

feelings as animals do. Although Jagadish Chandra Bose in his experiments with

plant physiology demonstrated that plants do have feelings and emotions -- at

least we can agree on this -- they do not have as many feelings as animals do.

Animals also have feelings and sentiments, although not as many as man. This

means that consciousness will find its expression more and more in man as

compared with the lower forms of creation. Mineral matter also has

consciousness, expressed at the lowest ebb. The plant world has consciousness

at a higher level, the animal world at a superior level, and the human race at

its maximum. So, it is all relative.

Therefore, you cannot say, 'What is the difference, after all, if I pick a

flower or a fruit, or kill an animal?'

You cannot equate them like that. There is a wide gulf of difference because the

level at which consciousness expresses itself differs in the course of evolution

from low to high. That's what I can tell you on this subject.

 

32.'What is vegetarianism? Is it really eating leaves and tubers, or something

more?'(05.01.2003)

Some people say that eggs are also vegetarian. Well, I don't know which

particular items are exempted from the list. But anyway, to my knowledge,

vegetarianism is not merely limited to food. Vegetarianism is symbolic of a

tireless, sathwic nature. It is not limited to the food that we eat.

All the scenes that are around us are a type of food for the eyes. All the

sounds that we hear are a type of food for the ears. All the objects that we

touch are food for the skin. So, you can see that the five senses of perception

have their own level of 'food'. All of the senses should be 'fed' sathwic or

vegetarian 'food'.

The good scenes that I see are considered sathwic. The good music that I hear is

considered sathwic. The good fragrances that I smell are also considered

sathwic. All those good perceptions are 'vegetarian food' for the human body.

 

 

 

source : http://sai_maa.tripod.com/qa/anil-index.htm