Following the West Has Made India Non-Vegetarian? || Acharya Prashant with PETA CEO (2023)

Acharya Prashant

Full Video: Probably the most important thing we miss out on || Acharya Prashant, in conversation with PETA CEO Link:      • Probably the most important thing we ...    ➖➖➖➖➖➖  ‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...  ⚡ Want Acharya Prashant’s regular updates? Join WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va6Z...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...   Want to accelerate Acharya Prashant’s work? Contribute: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/contri...   Want to work with Acharya Prashant? Apply to the Foundation here: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/hiring...  ➖➖➖➖➖➖  Video Information:   Context:  Acharya Prashant received the Most Influential Vegan award from PETA. Here he is in conversation with PETA CEO Ingrid Newkirk.  PETA USA: https://www.youtube.com/@peta/videos PETA India:      / @officialpeta.  .  ~ What is the solution to climate change? ~ How spirituality can stop the climate change? ~ Climate change have no scientific solution ~ How veganism is related to compassion? ~ Why veganism is necessary for today's generation? ~ What is the relation between veganism and climate change? ~ How could veganism change the world?  ~ What is the relation between Vedanta and veganism? ~ Why should one respect all forms of consciousness? ~ How to go beyond ones' physical nature?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00 (single note)

00:02 There is this desire among many young people

00:06 to emulate what they believe is the Western world.

00:09 - Yes, yes, yes.

00:10 - Whether it's blue jeans or it's music or movies,

00:15 and that can have a very bad influence.

00:17 And so I remember going to a wedding in Maryland,

00:22 in the US, and there was an Indian couple,

00:25 maybe about 40 years old there.

00:28 And we sat at the same table

00:30 and we hadn't gone to the buffet yet.

00:33 And I said, "Oh, are you vegetarian?"

00:36 And both of them said, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

00:38 "We're not vegetarian."

00:40 And you think, "I know you are."

00:43 I said, "Well, we are," meaning my partner and I.

00:46 "We're vegetarian.

00:47 "I thought you might be."

00:49 And she said, "Well, we usually are."

00:51 And I thought you were trying to adjust,

00:55 thinking that I might find something wrong

00:58 with you being vegetarian.

01:00 That's a very sad state of affairs.

01:03 And what's interesting to me is that the West

01:07 is moving around the circle and coming back

01:11 to the position that we shouldn't eat animals

01:14 and that we shouldn't steal from animals.

01:17 You know, the milk that the mother cow makes for her baby,

01:21 her beloved baby.

01:23 When you talk about consciousness,

01:25 I always think of the look in those eyes

01:30 of that mother who is watching her baby being taken away.

01:35 So some human animal can steal the milk

01:38 and put it as ghee or butter or cheese or whatever it is.

01:43 In the West, there is a growing awareness

01:47 and maybe some of this is for animals out of concern.

01:52 And some of it is because of all the devastating information

01:57 we have been bombarded with about the ill effects

02:01 of animal milk, eggs, meat on human health.

02:06 So a selfish reason comes in there.

02:08 And also because people know they should be caring

02:13 about the environment, even if they don't really care,

02:16 they know they should care.

02:18 And they are hearing that animal-based agriculture

02:21 worldwide is taking our water resources,

02:25 taking our land resources, cutting down the rainforest.

02:29 So the consciousness is really in all these different ways,

02:33 isn't it, of intellectual, of thought,

02:37 and of awareness and of information.

02:40 On the animal side, I think we can see they're all conscious.

02:44 You can just look into those eyes and see fear

02:48 in the slaughterhouse, terrible fear,

02:50 wide eyes, petrified.

02:53 But most of the time, they don't get choices.

02:57 The rabbit can't have the carrot.

02:59 The mother cow can't have her baby

03:02 because they're dominated by the human species

03:06 that doesn't think beyond what it wants itself.

03:09 And I think your work in saying, look at yourself,

03:13 you are more than your interests, your pleasures.

03:18 You are a thoughtful, conscious being.

03:22 Act like one is very, very important.

03:26 And also, what is happening is, in the Indian context

03:31 especially, cultural reasons succeeded

03:37 in keeping a vast majority of Indians vegetarian,

03:42 if not vegan, since centuries, compared

03:46 to other parts of the world.

03:49 Cruelty towards animals or other life forms in India

03:55 was lesser.

03:56 Lesser to what extent?

04:02 We might speculate, but certainly, India

04:04 was kinder towards life forms still recently.

04:10 The only problem is the reasons were just cultural.

04:15 And culture is man-made, so culture can change.

04:19 Culture is time-bound.

04:20 Culture changes.

04:21 As you pointed out, the Indian youth, the Asian youth,

04:26 in fact, youth all over the world,

04:28 they look at the West as their idol.

04:37 And they want to emulate the Western culture

04:39 because the image of the West is that

04:43 of a successful and wealthy and powerful man.

04:47 And who does not want to go after success and wealth

04:50 and power?

04:51 So that's what Indians have also been doing.

04:53 They look at the West and say, wow, that's where

04:55 you have real power and money.

04:58 So they emulate the culture also,

05:00 and that's where the cultural reasons meet their limits.

05:05 If you are being vegan or vegetarian just because that's

05:10 what goes in your family, in your tradition,

05:13 or in your religion, then that won't take you very far.

05:18 Cultures will change.

05:19 Some other culture will come and eclipse your current culture.

05:24 Then higher than the cultural reason

05:27 is the biological reason because this

05:30 comes from within the organism.

05:33 This does not come from the family, from tradition,

05:37 from someone else, from the society.

05:39 So for example, when I look at a stray dog,

05:43 and there is a feeling of empathy that arises.

05:48 Without even knowing why I am empathetic,

05:51 I want to do something for the dog.

05:53 It's cold these days.

05:55 So we want to take care of a few puppies that

06:00 live close to our place.

06:02 And we want to take care of them.

06:04 We do not necessarily know the origins of that feeling,

06:08 but still we want to do something.

06:09 And that I take as higher than the cultural reason

06:13 because the feeling is mine to a greater extent.

06:17 The culture is not really mine.

06:18 The culture is a borrowed thing or an inherited thing.

06:21 But the feeling arises from within me.

06:23 And so the feeling works in a far better way

06:28 and in a deeper way than the culture.

06:32 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:35 [NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

06:38 [MUSIC PLAYING]

06:42 [NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

06:45 (MultiCom Jingle)

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