Full Video: Spirituality and veganism || Acharya Prashant (2017)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4WjL8DNpdc
Video Information: Interview session, 17.05.2017, Rishikesh, India
Context:
~ What is the relation between spirituality and veganism?
~ Why veganism is necessary for today's generation?
~ Relation between veganism and climate change?
~ How could veganism change the world?
~ Why must one turn vegan?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4WjL8DNpdc
Video Information: Interview session, 17.05.2017, Rishikesh, India
Context:
~ What is the relation between spirituality and veganism?
~ Why veganism is necessary for today's generation?
~ Relation between veganism and climate change?
~ How could veganism change the world?
~ Why must one turn vegan?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00If all those who oppose beef and cow slaughter would really know that the beef industry and
00:22the dairy industry are deeply interrelated, would they still be milk lovers?
00:31The majority of opposition to beef in India comes from those who love milk.
00:40That's very, very strange.
00:43Look at all those who are demonstrating on the roads against beef in one of the important
00:50states, Maharashtra, beef has just been recently banned.
00:56So if you are found slaughtering a cow in Maharashtra, you would be jailed and fined
01:02for both.
01:05That's wonderful, but stupid because you do not know that the beef comes from the same
01:19cattle that was previously used to fulfil your milk needs and farm needs.
01:30The cattle that are slaughtered do not drop from the sky, they are the same cattle that
01:37were previously there in the dairies or in the fields for the sake of human welfare and
01:45human consumption.
01:47We consume the cow twice, firstly when we use it for milk, for energy in the farm, the
01:59bull that is, the ox and secondly when it can no more provide us with labour or milk,
02:20then we sell it off so that it may get slaughtered.
02:23In fact, when, I hope you are aware of this, when there was a ban on beef slaughter, there
02:34was a major opposition by a segment of farmers.
02:39They said that if we cannot sell the oxen for slaughter, what do we do with them?
02:48They are not useful in the fields anymore because they are old now.
02:52And after 12 or 13 years of age, the animal is no more useful in the fields.
02:59So what to do with it?
03:01Keep it and feed it, if we feed it then our children will starve.
03:08So we have to sell it to the butcher, we have to sell it to the one who would help us exploit
03:17it a little more.
03:26Krishan is Gita, Krishan is idealist action, Krishan is Dushkankar, Krishan is the
03:51height of spirituality.
03:53But unfortunately in this land of Krishan, the image of Krishan has been manipulated
04:04to stand mostly as a cowherd, as someone who would relish his milk, his curd, his butter.
04:21India hardly understands the Gita, but uses the metaphor, the image, the justification
04:40of Krishan to keep consuming milk, ghee, butter and the rest of these things.
04:50You go to someone and tell them, why are you so insistent on milk?
04:55And they would say, why even our very Lord was a milk lover.
05:04He was born in a family of dairy men and he would tend the cows all day and then milk
05:19them and that was an expression of his love for the cows.
05:25Ask them, have you read the Gita?
05:33Do you know what love is?
05:35And if you really know what love is, would you stick to this particular image of Krishan?
05:42But going to the Krishan of Gita is dangerous, very dangerous.
05:50So one goes to the Krishan of the mythical stories.
05:58That Krishan is suitable, that Krishan helps one consume.
06:04It's extremely unfortunate that religion and spirituality in India have become synonymous
06:12with milk usage.
06:15So you have women coming over and dressing and bathing the shivling with milk.
06:26They call it Dugdha Abhishek, which is so very nonsensical.
06:33Do you know what Shiv stands for?
06:38Have you read the Shiv Sutras?
06:41Have you any real respect for Shiv?
06:43Do you really love Shiv?
06:46Shiv stands for total love.
06:50Shiv stands for a dissolution of all that which is personal and that is called Pralay.
06:58Shiv does not stand for exploitation of the animal.
07:04But you go to the religious types and they will say we do not exploit the cow, we love
07:09the cow.
07:10That is why we have chained her in our little cowshalla and we provide her food and nourishment.
07:19You see what we are doing?
07:22You ask them, what if you are chained by your neck in the same way and provided good nourishment
07:32and you are made to have sex with a stranger just as the cow is made to have.
07:38And you are forcibly made to bear children because somebody wants you to reproduce, because
07:46your progeny is going to be useful as a farm resource.
07:51Is that love really?
07:54Unfortunately, this great land of love, India, has just forgotten love.
08:03And the worst symbol of our cruelty and the worst recipient of our cruelty is the cow.
08:16The world has been cruel to the entire vast ecosystem.
08:25But India in particular has not been more cruel to any animal than the cow.
08:35And all of that, rather most of that happens in the name of love and religion.
08:43If cows could speak and if they were to be asked, which country would you want to escape
08:52from, they would say India, they would say India.
09:01Indians have been so unfair to the cows, so unfair.
09:07I was with an acquaintance and I do not touch milk products, that's known.
09:22So he wanted to sort this out with me.
09:24He said, you know what, if the cow is not milked, then it faces physical discomfort.
09:34The milk must be drawn out of her breasts, otherwise it's a burden.
09:48I said, does that happen with beings of any other species?
09:56And has existence nominated human beings as the caretakers of cows in particular?
10:10And when you say caretaker, you mean taking care of their milk, nothing more than that.
10:15What about cows in the jungle, who goes to relieve them of their milk?
10:23What about other mammals, who relieves them of their milk?
10:30Nature has its own intelligence, nature knows how much milk to give to a female.
10:40The lioness has only as much milk as the lion cub needs.
10:47The she camel has only as much milk as the baby camel needs and a little bit here and
10:54there is well within the scope of nature.
10:59Nature will take care of that adjustment.
11:03But look at the stupid and dangerous justification.
11:11It is the same justification as when people say that unless we eat chicken, chicken will
11:15proliferate so much that they will take over the world.
11:19There would be chicken republics and chicken armies and chicken governments.
11:26You see they breed so much, so it is our holy responsibility to kill and eat chicken.
11:32The fools don't even know that chicken are produced in de facto factories, they don't
11:39drop from the skies.