Video Information: 24.01.23, Peta Interview (online), Greater Noida
Context:
Acharya Prashant received the Most Influential Vegan award from PETA. Here he is in conversation with PETA CEO Ingrid Newkirk.
PETA USA: / @peta
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
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant
Context:
Acharya Prashant received the Most Influential Vegan award from PETA. Here he is in conversation with PETA CEO Ingrid Newkirk.
PETA USA: / @peta
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
~~~~~
#acharyaprashant
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00And so, I remember going to a wedding in Maryland, in the U.S., and there was an Indian couple,
00:13maybe about 40 years old there, and we sat at the same table, and we hadn't gone to the
00:19buffet yet, and I said, oh, are you vegetarian?
00:24And both of them said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we're not vegetarian.
00:28And you think, I know you are, I said, well, we are, meaning my partner and I, we're vegetarian,
00:35I thought you might be, and she said, well, we usually are, and I thought you were trying
00:41to adjust, thinking that I might find something wrong with you being vegetarian.
00:48That's a very sad state of affairs, and what's interesting to me is that the West is moving
00:55around this circle and coming back to the position that we shouldn't eat animals, and
01:02that we shouldn't steal from animals, you know, the milk that the mother cow makes for
01:08her baby, her beloved baby.
01:11When you talk about consciousness, I always think of the look in those eyes of that mother
01:19who is watching her baby being taken away.
01:23So some human animal can steal the milk and put it as ghee or butter or cheese or whatever
01:30it is.
01:32In the West, there is a growing awareness, and maybe some of this is for animals out
01:39of concern, and some of it is because of all the devastating information we have been bombarded
01:46with about the ill effects of animal milk, eggs, meat on human health.
01:53So a selfish reason comes in there, and also because people know they should be caring
02:01about the environment, even if they don't really care, they know they should care, and
02:06they are hearing that animal-based agriculture worldwide is taking our water resources, taking
02:13our land resources, cutting down the rainforest.
02:17So the consciousness is really in all these different ways, isn't it, of intellectual,
02:24of thought, and of awareness and of information.
02:28On the animal side, I think we can see they're all conscious.
02:32You can just look into those eyes and see fear in the slaughterhouse, terrible fear,
02:39petrified, but most of the time, they don't get choices.
02:45The rabbit can't have the carrot.
02:47The mother cow can't have her baby because they're dominated by the human species that
02:54doesn't think beyond what it wants itself.
02:57And I think your work in saying, look at yourself, you are more than your interests, your pleasures.
03:06You are a thoughtful, conscious being.
03:09Act like one is very, very important.
03:14And also, what is happening is, in the Indian context especially, cultural reasons succeeded
03:24in keeping a vast majority of Indians vegetarian, if not vegan, since centuries, compared to
03:34other parts of the world.
03:36Cruelty towards animals or other life forms in India was lesser.
03:47Lesser to what extent?
03:50We might speculate, but certainly India was kinder towards life forms still recently.
03:58The only problem is the reasons were just cultural.
04:02And culture is man-made, so culture can change.
04:05Culture is time-bound, culture changes.
04:07As you pointed out, the Indian youth, the Asian youth, in fact, youth all over the world,
04:15they look at the West as their idol and they want to emulate the Western culture because
04:27the image of the West is that of a successful and wealthy and powerful man.
04:35And who does not want to go after success and wealth and power?
04:39So that's what Indians have also been doing.
04:41They look at the West and say, wow, that's where you have real power and money.
04:45So they emulate the culture also and that's where the cultural reasons meet their limits.
04:52If you are being vegan or vegetarian, just because that's what goes in your family,
05:00in your tradition or in your religion, then that won't take you very far.
05:05Cultures will change.
05:07Some other culture will come and eclipse your current culture.
05:12Then higher than the cultural reason is the biological reason,
05:17because this comes from within the organism.
05:21This does not come from the family, from tradition, from someone else, from the society.
05:27So for example, when I look at a stray dog and there is a feeling of empathy that arises.
05:36Without even knowing why I am empathetic, I want to do something for the dog.
05:41It's cold these days.
05:43So we want to take care of a few puppies that live close to our place and we want to take
05:51care of them.
05:52We do not necessarily know the origins of that feeling, but still we want to do something.
05:58And that I take as higher than the cultural reason because the feeling is mine to a greater
06:05extent.
06:05The culture is not really mine.
06:06The culture is a borrowed thing or an inherited thing.
06:10But the feeling arises from within me.
06:12And so the feeling works in a far better way and in a deeper way than the culture.
06:20India has been losing out due to the erosion of its culture.
06:26Feelings will help, but what really works is understanding and that is the spiritual
06:33reason.
06:34So cultural, emotional and then spiritual.
06:37When one really, really knows what it means to live, who one is and what his relationship
06:47with the world is, then it becomes impossible to really hate someone or be insensitive to
06:57someone.
06:58And then it's also not just about eating animals or hurting animals.
07:07One starts living from a different center and there is a total change in personality.
07:15One, you know, it's a thing that will probably make you smile.
07:19One becomes vegan even without knowing it.
07:23We witness that daily and I'm enjoying sharing it with you.
07:27There are so many people in our vicinity, in the field of our work, they have become
07:34vegan.
07:35They don't even know that they are vegans.
07:37And that I take as a very innocent and beautiful example of real veganism.
07:44Veganism arising from the heart.
07:47Veganism not as a concept borrowed from somewhere, but as a living thing that has just sprouted
07:55from your very center.
07:56You know, you have come to realize what the curd is made of and where it comes from.
08:02You have just seen those things and now you just can't do it.
08:08It's impossible.
08:09Even if you want to, you can't do it.
08:11I have seen instances, we had a long period of lockdown here at the time of COVID-19,
08:232020, a few months in 2021 as well.
08:28So there were patches in which even medicines were not available.
08:35So we had a couple of cases in the foundation, their B12 levels went down and that happens
08:47once every few months.
08:48It happens that you get yourself checked and find that B12 is borderline.
08:52So we just take organic supplements.
08:54And they are very easily available and you take the supplement for a month and you are
08:58okay.
08:59Because of the lockdown, even the supplements are not available.
09:04It didn't even occur to people to consume dairy or anything because supplements are
09:11not available.
09:13They didn't declare it, but that's what they were de facto saying.
09:16We would rather die than hurt someone.
09:19They didn't make it dramatic and announce it in so many words.
09:24It remained subtle.
09:26But if you look at it, that's what they were practically saying.
09:30Let the B12 levels dip if they have to.
09:33We would prefer to go, but we just cannot bear hurting someone anymore.
09:40That's the message.
09:42But we just cannot bear hurting someone anymore.
09:48That's the magic of spiritual veganism.
09:52And I think the world will have to come around to that.
09:57You talked of environmental influences.
09:58You talked of climate change.
10:00All these things to me, they go together.
10:03Climate action, protection of species going extinct, anti-natalism, minimalism, veganism.
10:16These go together.
10:18And if the planet is to be saved, there is no option except the bundle of these five.
10:26And at the center of these five, to me, lies spirituality and that's the route we are taking.
10:42Success has been mixed.
10:46It's just that the reach has to greatly increase.
10:51We have been pretty successful in the territory.
10:54We have been able to cover.
10:57The problem is that we have not been able to cover a huge territory.
11:02First of all, we are limited to India.
11:04Secondly, even in India, because we are relatively nascent,
11:07so our reach is still limited compared to the work that needs to be done.
11:14I think per month we are reaching out to no less than 40 to 50 million people,
11:22but much more needs to be done.
11:25Otherwise, the very existence of the planet, I do not see how far we are going.