It's not just the Animal you are Killing || Acharya Prashant, conversation (2022)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ~~~~~  Video Information: 10.12.22, Interview with Peta India CEO, Mumbai   PETA USA:    / @peta   PETA India:    / @officialpeta.  .  Context: What is the relation between Vedanta and veganism? Why should one respect all forms of consciousness? How to go beyond ones' physical nature? 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?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00The attitude that we have towards animals is just a reflection of our inner ignorance

00:12towards ourselves.

00:16We do not know who we are, so we take ourselves as this.

00:20We do not know who we are, we take ourselves as this and therefore we are violent towards

00:24everybody else because this is limited and anything outside of this is the other.

00:31Anything outside of this skin sack is the other.

00:36Now if the other is the other and this is who I am, then to what extent can I be related

00:41to the other?

00:42I am fundamentally related, permanently wedded to the stuff inside this skin sack and that

00:51is where it all comes from.

00:54What alarms me, it was very interesting, your vegan story, when you said that you are initially

00:59vegetarian because you came from a Gujarati traditional background and there people are

01:05generally vegetarian.

01:06Most people who are vegetarian today, especially in India, are vegetarian not because they

01:13understand.

01:14They are vegetarian because of cultural or traditional reasons and that's the reason

01:22why when let's say a boy from traditionally vegetarian family, typically a Brahmin or

01:32a Jain family goes out to the campus, let's say he gets admission in an engineering college

01:39and he is now staying in a hostel.

01:43It takes him not more than two or four months to take to meet because that's what peer influence

01:50and peer pressure do to him and that kind of thing does not long because it is not coming

01:56from wisdom, tradition, culture, ethics.

02:03If they are not coming from understanding, they cannot last and I would like to think

02:12that is also the fundamental challenge the vegan movement faces today.

02:19Lack of understanding, why must one turn vegan, because the argument is not spontaneous, not

02:26obvious.

02:28When we counsel someone, please turn vegan, please don't be cruel to animals, they'll

02:36have something to say about their choices, not everybody will quickly agree or understand

02:41or and then the argument coming from the vegan side is ethically very strong but then ethics

02:56can be something personal, somebody may not agree with ethics, ethics cannot be absolute.

03:05Ethical codes as we know vary across ages, continents, people, cultures, so the pace

03:13of the whole thing remains slow because we do not see that it's not so much about animals,

03:23it's about us.

03:25I am not right, therefore I am cruel to animals, I am not right within, that's the reason I

03:33am cruel to animals and if I am cruel to animals, there will be so much, my cruelty towards

03:39animals is proof that there will be so much that is wrong in my personal life as well.

03:47Now when that relationship becomes obvious, it becomes important, rather unavoidable for

03:57people to listen, so if we could bring wisdom at the centre of veganism rather than ethics

04:17or even compassion, then probably we might see greater success because the compassion

04:24that we talk of is mostly an ethical moral thing, when we say well you should be compassionate,

04:33it's more of a moral thing, a moral sound it has, please be compassionate, please don't

04:39be cruel, now the why and the where and the whom is not absolutely clear in this but surely

04:51there is a moral authority when we say please be compassionate, that sounds good but does

04:57not necessarily work because people are selfish and that's not an allegation, that's how we

05:03all are, we all care for our self-interest, can we display it to them that it is not a

05:11matter of ethics that you display towards others, it is not a matter of your ethical

05:19disposition towards others, it's a matter of your inner health, it's a matter of your

05:26own life, please be better within and then you find that veganism becomes simply inevitable,

05:39you have to be a vegan. I look at the vegan community and I have been in close touch with

05:55lot of vegans and I really admire the work they are doing in very adverse circumstances,

06:03there is a lot in India especially and that is harsh on vegan activists and they work

06:12against all odds, I know of a few rescue operations that involved personal risk, I've met those

06:24people, I've heard of them, so they are all good people, very nice people, if they could

06:36somehow also develop that core of understanding, who we are and therefore what our relationship

06:48with the entire world including the animal world should be.

06:52I think you've raised so many interesting points in what you've said and I think we

07:00see evidence of not being right inside because it spills over not only into how you treat

07:10animals but into how you treat other people, how you treat the planet, now there is not

07:20so much of this research that is compiled in India but abroad they are finding that

07:29people who are cruel to animals, who've committed crimes against animals often move on to committing

07:36crimes against human beings, there is so much documentation in those countries where people

07:46who harm their spouses have often harmed the dogs in the house first, serial killers, school

07:56shooters, the majority of them have a history of cruelty to animals, they practiced with

08:04animals first, they didn't learn that that was wrong and they extended that self misery

08:11you could say on to somebody else and that goes on and on and on and we've even sort

08:19of seen that even in a slaughterhouse setting or a laboratory setting where people become

08:27desensitized to the cruelty and in so many of our investigations the kind that you spoke

08:34about we've seen that in addition to the cruelty that's already taking place that's inherent

08:41at the factory farm or at the slaughterhouse a lot of times the workers are being even

08:48more cruel to the animals that they are in a laboratory setting they may start by first

08:59being cruel to a rat and then they escalate that cruelty to then on to other animals even

09:07more severe cruelty even more painful procedures and it's that not being right inside that

09:17making things worse and worse as things go on more victims new species of victims even more

09:27severe cruelty because it's it's not being stopped nobody is addressing it with those people nobody

09:35has perhaps pointed it out to them what the core problem is and it's the same type of thing for

09:43the environment if we see the planet as ours to take from if we see animals as ours to use for

09:54for any type of pleasure I mean you spoke about pleasure but the pleasure really how how long does

10:01it last when we eat an animal the the so-called pleasure it lasts for a few seconds on our tongue

10:11that's it this animal has suffered from birth unto death for a few seconds on our tongue or if we

10:22turn that animal into a wallet how much pleasure is this wallet really bringing to you if you if

10:30you look at it from the perspective of a pleasure seeker he says you are very right I understand the

10:40pleasure that I get from it is momentary doesn't last but what do I do because because we have a

10:47consciousness that seeks freedom from misery beautifully you put it that we are all miserable

10:57within and the same misery spills over to the rest of the world really put we are indeed miserable

11:04within and that misery is there right from the start I have seen kids like like one year old

11:12and that kid there is a procession of aunts going towards the tree you would have seen red

11:20ants going towards the tree and climbing and the huge procession you get it's like like what 20

11:26meters long or something and the kid is actually peeing on the procession and and he is taking

11:35this as good fun so the kid is standing the kid is one or two years old barely able to walk and

11:40and he is moving and peeing on the procession and enjoying the fact that the ants are getting killed

11:46so the seeds of violence are there in us right since birth that misery that we are talking and

11:57because we are miserable so we seek freedom from misery we do not know how that freedom

12:08will be achieved because we are not only miserable we are also ignorant we are

12:14miserable and we are ignorant so we do not know how to get freedom from that misery so we seek

12:20pleasure now I am continuously feeling that misery within continuously I'm a common man I want

12:30freedom from that so I seek pleasure even if I get momentary pleasure from let's say the taste

12:36of meat I go for it the pleasure does not last after a few minutes then I run towards something

12:43else and that's the entire life of the average individual running from pleasure to pleasure

12:52for 80 years continuously being dissatisfied at all points and still not losing hope and probably

13:02that's why hope happens to be such an important word in all cultures if there is no misery there

13:09is no need for hope if misery could be brought to a permanent end again there is no need for

13:16hope we fully will know that any relief from misery is just ephemeral misery returns and

13:24therefore you have to continuously keep hoping and that's why people win elections talking of

13:31on the word hope hope let's hope so you go to a meat-eater or you go to any kind of an average

13:42debauched person and you tell him you're not getting anything from it he will say better

13:47something than nothing either give me complete relief from misery or let me have what I want

13:54to have now what is happening is that it's a consciousness within that's miserable right

14:02since birth the moment we are born we cry aloud the child is wailing all the time and the child

14:13because of ignorance if it I said we are miserable we are ignorant because of ignorance is also tied

14:19to the body the child takes itself as the body you know but I have to point at myself I say come

14:26to me here I am so the body is who I am so I am miserable and I am the body so how do I remove

14:33my misery using the body so then I give myself bodily pleasures to get rid of my inner misery

14:39the misery is inside the body is not miserable you see I might be very sad very tense very depressed

14:46does that make my knees ache no does not my nose is all right my eyes are all right I can hear

14:54properly and yet I am miserable within so the body is not a participant in the misery the body is not

15:00contributing to the misery but because I feel I am the body so to get relief from the misery I use

15:09my body and how do I use my body by rushing after all kinds of bodily pleasures meat-eating being

15:15one exploiting animals being one all kinds of things that we do because we do not know any

15:25other way so one could say and justifiably so that we are not really evil we are just stupid

15:32and all evil is just stupidity we do not know how to get rid of our inner condition of suffering so

15:43we do all the nonsense and wickedness that we do to ourselves and to the to the world could we

15:50somehow could we somehow bring this out to the people that I know you are cruel because you are

16:01miserable but being cruel won't help you out of your misery there are other ways possible if we

16:11could display the other ways to them there would hardly be any need to harm and hurt and destroy

16:20everybody else the way we do we do not see any other option I'm being told killing a rabbit is

16:31bad I'll probably agree everybody would agree there is the rabbit you show the rabbit and say

16:37you know it's bad to kill that rabbit or hurt that rabbit who would not agree the next day you

16:43find that person feasting on the same rabbit what's happening he was not being dishonest when

16:48he agreed he agreed it's bad but by the time it is the next day his own inner incompleteness and

17:00misery have overpowered him he is just feeling that vacuum within and he does not know how to

17:09fill it up so he says okay bring it on serve it on the table the rabbit and that's what is

17:18happening I also see a worrying trend of people retreating from veganism they become vegans because

17:30they understand to an extent what is being said at least intellectually they understand

17:33and then they go back to their usual ways.

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