कविता, पहचान के नाम पर

 पहचान के नाम पर

पैदा तो हम एक ' जीव ' ही हुए थे ,

पर बाद में हमें एक मिली पहचान ,

एक नाम के साथ
और हम हो गए विशिष्ट,
सबसे अलग :
मानव !!! आर्य !! भारतीय !
लिंग ! धर्म ! जाति ! रंग !
औकात , ज्ञान , बुद्धि , देह ...!

Nonviolence and Our Food

“Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages. " said Thomas A. Edison . 'Ahimsa is our greatest righteous duty ' is stated by our scriptures . In our Indian way of life we are expected to take utmost care not to harm the other beings in any of the three ways , physical, verbal or mental. We are taught to love every creature . We also worship some of the animals and plants . Cows , tulsi , peepal , Banyan tree and many more are all worshipped . It shows how deep is our bond with our fellows living on this common planet .

ALL RELIGIONS PREACH NONVIOLENCE

Nonviolence bears so much importance in the religious affairs of the humans that almost all the known religions forbid violence . Mindless and merciless killings of the innocent beings can on no ground be justified .Among these religions Jainism stands on the top by ensuring that not even the small creatures are harmed .Next comes the famous Buddhism whose basic principles are based on the concept of non violence in its all dimensions and under whose influence the great warrior and emperor Ashoka renounced his weapons and embraced the idea of nonviolence . The same is true about Hinduism , Islam and Christianity . They all teach love , compassion and selflessness . 

ITS TWO INTERPRETATIONS: NARROW AND BROAD

As it is clear that violence is a thing we should abstain from , the next and a bit controversial issue which arises is its practicability .We find  two types of views regarding its definition . In narrow view, non violence is not harming the other human beings. In broad view, it means giving up harming practices against all types of living beings , from elephants, lions and cows to the tiny creatures like ants and germs .The first view sounds practical and appealing to most of us as it has been an established fact by now that all humans are equal and any type of discrimination based only on caste , sex ,race, colours, regions etc is treated as violence and a crime . Thanks to the awareness among people and gradual evolution that the inhuman practices like slavery and untouchability have been eliminated , to a great extent  if not completely .However the problem arises when we turn towards the broad view .In the process of evolution most of us have not reached the enlightened level where our compassion would embrace all creatures alike , not only human beings. A century ago the slaves in the western world and the low caste people in India were treated as unequal and were forced to live in inhuman conditions. With the dawn of civilization people realised their mistakes and murder of any human has become illegal .

ANIMALS' RIGHT TO LIVE

In this journey of evolution, we have also come to realise that some animals too should be protected  and accordingly many laws have been framed banning the insensitive killings of elephants, tigers , deer etc . Their killings become news and the perpetrators are punished .But ironically our sensitivity and compassion stop right there and many of us who raise hue and cry over the diminishing population of some endangered animals and birds are not bothered at all about their non vegetarian food which is prepared by killing many innocent animals and birds. How long will it take us more to evolve to realise that every creature should have right to live his or her life. All big and small creatures feel fear and pain alike when they are hurt and killed .Some enlightened people had realised it much ago . Leonardo da Vinci once said , "I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men."

Human beings should not eat meat . Leo Tolstoy said "A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral. "

BIOLOGICALLY AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY WE ARE NOT LIKE CARNIVORES

Besides, according to biologists and anthropologists humans are herbivores who are not well suited to eating meat .Humans lack both the physical characteristics of carnivores and the instinct that drives them to kill the animals and devour their raw carcasses. Our teeth, jaws and nails are not like the carnivores to enable them hunt and eat .We lack the extremely acidic stomach juices of carnivores which help the quick digestion .The length of our intestinal tracts and colons also make us unsuitable to eating meat which requires short intestines .Psychologically too humans are not designed to derive pleasure from killing and eating animals . Most of the humans are rather revolted by the sight of blood , intestines and raw flesh and cannot bear the screams of the animals and birds being killed and ripped apart .

VEGITARIAN FOOD IS BEST FOR OUR HEALTH AND ENVIORONMENT

As it is unsuitable for humans , its large scale production in the farm factories and consumption have led to numerous health problems. Now , after the industrialized production has made it cheap and accessible for everyone , the diseases like cancer , diabetes, obesity ,blood pressure and many types of heart problems are on the rise .

Vegetarianism is friendly to environment and it can work wonderfully in addressing the environmental problems like pollution and climate change .

ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF NONVEGITARIAN FOOD ARE SHALLOW AND SELFISH

But it's not without opposition . There is no dearth of such people who offer numerous shallow arguments advocating eating meat. One of their famous arguments is that men have been eating meat from the time immemorial so the practice of eating meat should continue . This argument has been refuted by Issac Bashevis Singer ,a Noble awarded author , "People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times."

Another argument is given that the world will be filled with the goats , chickens and pigs if we give up killing and eating them. Do we not know that it is the deliberate commercial production which supplies the demand for the meat , other wise the population of these innocent beings have never been a matter of concern for anyone . Nature is able to take care of itself .

One more logic is provided that no other animals except the human beings ever think in regard to what they should eat and what they should not . But how can we forget that we boast to be more intelligent than the other creatures ? Being an intelligent creature we have more responsibility and we should think . We should discriminate between right and wrong .

DO YOU HAVE LOVE AND COMPASSION FOR OTHERS ?

Finally we have to agree to the conclusion that from all the religious, ethical, ecological and health perspectives the practice of having non vegetarian food is inappropriate. It is merciless, cruel , selfish, mindless and self harming . We should love all the coexisting creatures on this planet as our friends. If we once understand that they too  , like us , have all the right to enjoy their lives, we shall understand the importance of non violence inspired by love and kindness .