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Chapter 16
CONFLICT BETWEEN THE DIVINE AND THE DEMONIACAL TENDENCIES
91. A Great Experiment In Nonviolence: Giving Up Flesh-eating
13. So far, we saw how non-violent men devised ways to protect themselves from violent attacks. This is one aspect of non-violence. We saw how nonviolence has been developing in human relationships characterised by conflicts and clashes. But there is conflict between men and beasts too. Men have still not been able to solve the conflicts among themselves and they are also unable to live without eating the flesh of animals of lower and weaker species. Human beings have been around for thousands of years and still they have not thought about how to live in a way that befits human beings. But change is taking place in this respect as well. In all probability, men in prehistoric times ate roots and fruits only. But it appears that, in the course of time, perverse thinking led most of the mankind to take to flesh-eating. Good and wise men, however, did not like this and laid down a restriction that if anybody wants to eat meat, he should eat the meat of animals sacrificed in yajnas only. Their intention was to minimise violence. In the course of time, some people completely abjured meat and others, who could not do so, were permitted to eat it after offering the same to the Lord and undergoing some sacrifice and penance in a yajna. Permission for meat-eating only in yajna was thus for limiting violence, but this was later misused on a large scale; performance of yajnas just to have an opportunity to eat flesh became quite common. Lord Buddha then came forward and said, “You may eat flesh if you like; but do not do so in the name of the Lord.” This too was to limit violence and develop self-restraint. Thus, through sacrifices in the yajnas as well as through their rejection, we learnt to abjure meat. In this way, we gradually gave up flesh-eating. 14. This great experiment in the history of the world took place only in India. Millions of people became vegetarians. If we are vegetarians today, we can claim no credit for that. We have got used to it because of the merit of our ancestors. We are now surprised and shocked when we hear or read that the sages of yore used to eat flesh. We cannot imagine it. It is creditable to them that they abjured flesh through great efforts in spite of being used to it. We have inherited their virtues without any efforts on our part. The fact that they ate meat and we do not do so does not mean that we are better; we have been benefited by their experience and vegetarianism has become natural to us. We should now proceed further. We should try the experiment of giving up milk also as it also is an animal product. It is unbecoming for man to take milk of other animals. Perhaps our descendants in the distant future would be shocked to learn that their ancestors used to drink milk. They may consider us barbarians. Some of us take a vow not to take milk. Our descendants may fail to understand why a vow was necessary at all! In short, we should go on experimenting with fearlessness and humility. There is ample scope for development; no virtue has yet been developed to perfection. |
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