Full Video: Veganism, milk consumption, and religion ||Acharya Prashant, interviewed by The Speaking Tree (2020)
Link: • Veganism, milk consumption, and relig...
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Video Information: Interview Session, 18.02.2020, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
Context:
~ Why should one turn vegan?
~ What is the relationship between veganism and spirituality?
~ 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
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Link: • Veganism, milk consumption, and relig...
➖➖➖➖➖➖
♂️ 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?...
Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articl...
➖➖➖➖➖➖
Video Information: Interview Session, 18.02.2020, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
Context:
~ Why should one turn vegan?
~ What is the relationship between veganism and spirituality?
~ 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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:00And what about the nutritional aspect, you know, like they say it's rich in calcium and
00:14it's rich in protein and so it's a must for children, you know, even at a certain age.
00:23But most poor people generally depend on milk and curd for their minimal protein intake.
00:33See this too is a misconception and one does not quite need spirituality to refute this.
00:44So if you look at the weight of nutrients obtained per rupee spent, then the nutrients
00:57that one can obtain from flesh or milk products per rupee spent is either comparable to or
01:11many a times even lower than the weight of ingredients one can obtain from purely vegan
01:24products.
01:26So it is a myth that veganism can be afforded only by the relatively resourceful.
01:41There is enough medical literature now available to conclusively prove that if you want to
01:50live a compassionate vegan lifestyle, it is not only not expensive, it may actually
01:58turn out to be economically more feasible than an animal or animal product milk-based
02:08diet.
02:14As far as nutrients are concerned, you see, today you have top athletes, champions in
02:21tennis, cricket, several other sports, even in physically very very demanding disciplines
02:30like bodybuilding, like weightlifting, like boxing, and these are the people who are not
02:40only vegan but they actually actively ever that their performances raised to another
02:51dimension after they turned vegan.
02:55So not only are they saying that they are able to sustain their performances even while
03:02being vegan, what they are saying is that their top-level world-beating performances
03:09are due to veganism.
03:13Surely this does not point towards a deficiency of nutrients in their body and we have more
03:24and more research and medical material emerging every day.
03:30Obviously there is material to the contrary as well, but let's also remember the times
03:37we are living in.
03:39The vegan movement is still in its infancy and it is pitted against the powerful forces
03:52of animal agriculture, the meat industry, the leather industry, animal products industry,
04:01the beauty products industry.
04:06So there are industries worth trillions of dollars that are threatened by veganism and
04:18obviously these industries would pour money into sponsored research reports that would
04:34rail against veganism, but if you go to credible agencies, you read what they are saying, you
04:42find out it works, it seriously works.
04:49Now coming to Ayurveda, again you see it's a system of medicine and obviously it will
05:06talk of firstly stuff that is medicinal because its primary concern is not compassion, but
05:18treatment of the ailing individual, secondly because Ayurveda has its roots very much in
05:30India, therefore it would talk of its, yeah, stuff that is locally available and herbs
05:45and other ingredients that can be easily sourced.
05:50So these two things have to be remembered.
05:53Ayurveda, I'm not saying does not care for animals, but that cannot be its primary concern.
06:03By definition that cannot be its primary concern.
06:06Its primary concern is heal the human being and whatever it takes for that.
06:15So many people may not know this, but Ayurveda even for certain ailments recommends flesh
06:22consumption, for certain diseases Ayurveda would say, for example, that you must take
06:30pork and boil it and then the Rasa that you have, the soup, that has to be taken for so
06:42many days.
06:44Now if that involves slaughtering that animal, which it obviously would, so be it.
06:50The life of the man is more precious and that is the defined domain of a medical system
07:01of treatment.
07:02So you cannot fault it for that, but one cannot really quote Ayurveda to justify slaughtering
07:11a pig.
07:13What Ayurveda is saying is that in that special condition, this is what would work, whereas
07:21veganism is a lifestyle.
07:24Also you see now at this point when we are saying that when there is a choice, when there
07:32is a trade-off between one's sense of compassion and a medical situation that requires flesh
07:43consumption.
07:44Let's say in the Ayurvedic domain, there is a situation that demands that one consumes
07:52the flesh of a pigeon, that too has been recommended in certain situations.
07:58One consumes the flesh of a pigeon or fish or something.
08:06Now is the time when one has to really decide what is it that one values more, his body
08:16or his love, it's a cliched word, but there is no other word available for it.
08:32So I have to ask this and there have been people who have said that they would rather
08:38die than kill others for the sake of their life, but then this is not something that
08:52can be institutionalized.
08:56This has to be an individual call and the individual has to decide as per his level
09:05of spiritual advancement and as per the depth of his heart.
09:12Someone may say fine my life is quite important and if to sustain my life a few animals are
09:19to be slaughtered every day, fine.
09:22Somebody might even go to the extent of saying my life is so important that to sustain my
09:26life if a few human beings are to be slaughtered every day, fine.
09:31We have had such examples in history.
09:34There have been myths prevailing at certain periods of time in certain places where it
09:40was thought that man's flesh or the fresh blood of a young man's heart is very useful
09:53in curing old age related diseases.
09:58So there have been kings who would get young people slaughtered and have fresh blood from
10:03their heart and obviously that had no scientific basis, but let's say even if there is actually
10:11a factual and scientific basis and that says that you must have God liver oil, do you really
10:19want to take that and that's a highly personal call because it is not really necessary to
10:32just add a few more years to one's life at the cost of, at the cost of bringing suffering
10:41to other people, other species, other people and in any living form or even at the cost
10:49of destroying rivers and mountains and jungles, but then as I said that cannot be mandated
10:57or institutionalized, that is something that one has to decide for himself.
11:03Having said that, I do not want it to mean that veganism implies a reduction in one's
11:13lifespan or a compromise on one's health.
11:17On the other hand, even if one is not driven by compassion, there are strongly medical
11:30reasons and purely medical reasons that should be compelling enough to guide one towards veganism.
11:46Also what is forgotten when we talk of milk and curd is the relation between the milk
11:57products industry and the meat industry.
12:05This is, there is a very strong relation, but people conveniently try to forget it or ignore it.
12:16A religious Hindu or a pious Jain would say, but I take only milk and curd, I do not take meat.
12:30And then he would absolve himself of any kind of guilt of animal slaughter.
12:35He would say no, no, no, I worship the cow and all I draw from her is the milk.
12:42I do not take her flesh obviously, that's sacrilege.
12:48What they forget is that India is not for nothing the biggest beef exporter of the world
12:59or the second largest beef exporter probably.
13:02Where is all that beef coming from?
13:08So why don't we clearly see that the same cow that is used or buffalo, because most
13:16of the beef that is exported is buffalo meat, that the same cow or buffalo that is today
13:23used to extract milk from her is tomorrow slaughtered for the sake of flesh.
13:38You see, after all, if you are looking at the cow or the buffalo as an economic asset,
13:45why won't you want to draw and extract value from that economic asset right till the last rupee.
13:59So when the animal is in the reproductive age, you draw value from her through her milk
14:10and needless to say the process of having her deliver milk is a highly cruel process
14:18which involves forced insemination and all other kinds of cruelties, which are not visible
14:26to the final consumer of the milk.
14:28So he gladly consumes it.
14:31So when she can give milk, we take milk from her, we don't take milk from her, we extract
14:38milk from her and when she cannot give milk and even after that at least five to seven
14:45years of her age still remain, what do you do with her?
14:51You cannot, but then you cannot, that's what some people do.
14:59Most of those cattle are not found on roads.
15:02The number of cows that are, or buffalos that are used to give us dairy is extremely, extremely large.
15:13What we find roaming on the roads is probably not even 10 to 20 percent of them, very small fraction.
15:21Where have the rest of them gone?
15:24They have all gone to the slaughterhouses because to keep such a large animal alive
15:32requires economic resources.
15:35Why would the farmer keep putting in money to bring fodder and protection to a buffalo
15:42that can no more give milk and if the farmer has been trained to look at the animal only
15:50as an economic asset, then it makes quick and immediate economic sense to just sell
15:58off the buffalo to the slaughterhouse and that is what is happening.
16:02So the one who is consuming milk is actually very much guilty of getting the animal slaughtered as well.
16:12The milk industry and the meat industry are hand in glove, they are in tandem and one
16:19really cannot be without the other.
16:21That is the case in India and that is also the case worldwide.
16:27So once that correlation becomes clear to people, once people are in knowledge of facts,
16:36then it would be far easier for them to take decisions.
16:49For more information visit www.osho.com