Why I decided to become a vegetarian?
Is eating plants equivalent to eating animals?
Saying that "killing a plant is equivalent to killing an animal" is probably saying that hitting someone with a knife with an intention to just injure(and stopping after injuring) is same as actually killing a person.
I think that eating plants is also bad but our current knowledge says that it is not as cruel as eating an animal. We don't know for sure if a plant actually cries when we cut one of its branch but we know for sure
that an animal feels the pain when we cut one of its parts.
Like I don't know for sure that a piece of software that I write today could hurt someone at some point of time, but I know for sure that if I hit someone with a knife today, he/she will be hurt. So, I would
avoid hitting someone with a knife but it is indeed possible that I might hurt thousands of people with that piece of software one day.
This is one of the reasons we pray before eating food. We pray to GOD to forgive us if we are eating something which we are not supposed to eat. Our current knowledge doesn't prove that a plant actually
cries or feels bad when its leaves are plucked but who knows for sure. It is possible that 100 years down the line, it is proved that plucking the leaves of a tree is actually more painful for a tree than killing
the animal.
Suppose that I land up in
Like I may slow down for pedestrians on a freeway and actually create problems for people behind me(assuming that pedestrians are not allowed to come on freeways). So, it is possible that I may actually
be breaking a lot of their rules but I would still be trying to do whatever seems right to me.
And given today's knowledge, it seems logical to me to believe that a plant(though a living being) doesn't feel the same amount of pain as an animal. Some people say that plants have all the characteristics
of animals. So, it really boils down to "killing a living thing". But they forget that there is an inherent difference between a plant and an animal.
1. A plant can re-grow most of its parts.
2. The plant sheds the fruit and the leaves on its own even if we don't pluck it.
Going by the same logic, I would say -
1. It is probably fine to eat those parts of animals which they can re-grow.
2. Probably, it is okay to eat the waste material given out by the animals.
3. Destroying the whole plant is probably as bad as killing an animal.
Who is a true non-vegetarian according to me?
If one really believes that killing a plant is more cruel than killing a human because a human can at least retaliate and a plant can't even do that, they are true non-vegetarians. And they should sincerely believe that
a person who kills a human or an animal is equivalent to a person who killed an insect. After all, both of them killed a living being.
If one consciously feels that eating a plant is equivalent to eating an animal(or human for that matter), they deserve to be non-vegetarians. Like if GOD(or some supreme power) comes to them and says that choose
between your dog and 20 branches of their plants and they really let go of their dog(saving 20 lives instead of one), then I think they really believe in what they do and they deserve to be non-vegetarians.
A request to all vegetarians
1. Don't hate people who are non-vegetarians.
I have seen lot of vegetarians who create a chaos when they are served non-vegetarian food by mistake and feel hatred for the serving person as if he/she did it intentionally. I have a request for all those people – Please
don't hate people who are non-vegetarians. Don't forget that the very philosophy of "vegetarianism" is based on "love for other living beings". If we can't have love and compassion for other humans(whether vegetarian
or non-vegetarian), we do not deserve to be called TRUE vegetarians.
2. Realize that you are privileged.
Few months back, I was traveling in a bus and a person sitting next to me lit a cigarette. I asked him "with hatred" to stop smoking. He stopped smoking and said - "You should feel privileged that GOD chose you to
be a non-smoker." I was shocked to hear his answer. I always thought that I was a non-smoker by choice. I never realized that it was the consciousness given by GOD which helped me decide to be a non-smoker.
I should feel privileged for it but this doesn’t justify my hatred for people who smoke. So, feel privileged but don't feel hatred towards non-vegetarians. (My intention here is not to equate non-vegetarians and smokers.)
3. Some people eat non-vegetarian just because they have
eaten it throughout their lives.
I have seen lot of non-vegetarians who realize that it is cruel to eat animals but they can't stop themselves because they have eaten it throughout their lives. Like most of us can't stop drinking milk, they can't stop eating
non-vegetarian food. Just request them to consciously look for a vegetarian choice in future but never ask them to stop eating meat.
4. Realize that one has to reach a particular level of
consciousness before your arguments start making sense to them.
Don't try to teach your kids to be vegetarian in a non-vegetarian dominated country till they are old enough.