I saw Mexican Vegan Burger in the menu and instantly ordered it without second thoughts. My OH was saying the best part of Hot Breads is it’s vegetarian. I smiled and said “But I can smell egg. “ I turned and looked at the neatly arranged cakes and added “Besides there is only one eggless cake”. He will turn his face away to an omelette, but will mouth water at the sight of a cake. I will laugh at him and say the same egg is in there. I used to laugh at my Brahmin friends who say “I don’t take eggs, but cakes yes. I don’t see the egg evidently.” Some have started having egg claiming it to be vegetarian. The funniest part is these guys look down at Non-vegetarians for slaughtering animals. They will turn their head away looking at the meat hung in front of a non-veg hotel saying it is gross. Well I suppose they do not know how many male chicks are killed to get in this egg production and the torture the hen undergoes. Concentration camp is barbaric when done to fellow humans, but when done to fellow animals, it is ok, isn’t it?
I was truly disappointed when the burger came. It had cheese. What is vegan about this then?
So am I thinking vegan is the ultimate way of living? Hmm, I saw the definition of Vegan in and fundamentally questioned “living on the products of plant kingdom”. If caging a hen and producing egg is atrocious, if making a cow pregnant compulsively every year is gross, if slaughtering calf for beef is barbaric, then uprooting a plant for eating carrot is ok is it? Well, it is not ok says Jainism. But Jains do take dairy products. So Jain food is not exactly superior to Vegan in the current lifestyle. Consuming milk and milk products was fine during Jain era because they were consuming the excess after the calf had taken it. But in this industrialization era, it is very difficult to follow this. However it is encouraging to see people establishing go-shalas(गोशाला) who rescue cows and take care of them and take only the excess milk. So what is the correct food that one can take?
Well, I feel it is best to avoid dairy and poultry products given the extreme cruelty shown to produce them and because our body is not designed for such food. Apart from that, in vegetables we should encourage growing vegetables and fruits without damaging the soil and the environment. Our focus should change from our greediness to exploit mother earth to live in harmony with it.
Yes, uprooting a plant is equal to slaughtering an animal, when we see it from the perspective of life. Anyway, we are not asking any permission to both. Atleast, we can see to that we do it only till the point of our survival. (Anyway we are senselessly populated.) I feel we need not encourage poultry farming when it is feasible to produce and buy vegetables / fruits. I had heard a silly argument from one of my non-vegetarian friend that this ecology would get disturbed if all non-vegetarians stop eating non-veg. I just remembered the panchatantra story of a fox which will act like a sage. What a lame foolish excuse, absolutely oblivious of the environmental damage that is currently created by this poultry farming. I see that the number of non vegetarian hotels have also increased over the years. Nowadays we have to hunt for decent vegetarian hotels. Vegan hotels/salad bars are unheard of here. This should change. Ofcourse in countries like Tibet, where there is hardly any vegetables to grow and there is not much availability, survival beats the choice. That is totally different. But when a choice is available, why not exercise it?
Again vegetables with a lot of pesticides and irresponsible farming should not be supported. We should support organic products. I was explained that when we cook a food and eat, 50% of the food energy is getting wasted in digestion. If we eat it live i.e. uncooked, we get 100% of food energy. I wish there were more salad bars around, that use organic food, ofcourse without the stimulants such as onion, garlic, green chilli poisonous brinjal and the dairy and poultry items. As of now I have not even found one in Chennai. I was truly disappointed when I heard Isha restaurant is actually not going to be completely positive pranic :-( As rightly said "be the change you want to see", I would like to start a non-profit food chain for this. Any like mind hearing me? Why should it be non-profit is a subject for another blog :-)
I was truly disappointed when the burger came. It had cheese. What is vegan about this then?
So am I thinking vegan is the ultimate way of living? Hmm, I saw the definition of Vegan in and fundamentally questioned “living on the products of plant kingdom”. If caging a hen and producing egg is atrocious, if making a cow pregnant compulsively every year is gross, if slaughtering calf for beef is barbaric, then uprooting a plant for eating carrot is ok is it? Well, it is not ok says Jainism. But Jains do take dairy products. So Jain food is not exactly superior to Vegan in the current lifestyle. Consuming milk and milk products was fine during Jain era because they were consuming the excess after the calf had taken it. But in this industrialization era, it is very difficult to follow this. However it is encouraging to see people establishing go-shalas(गोशाला) who rescue cows and take care of them and take only the excess milk. So what is the correct food that one can take?
Well, I feel it is best to avoid dairy and poultry products given the extreme cruelty shown to produce them and because our body is not designed for such food. Apart from that, in vegetables we should encourage growing vegetables and fruits without damaging the soil and the environment. Our focus should change from our greediness to exploit mother earth to live in harmony with it.
Yes, uprooting a plant is equal to slaughtering an animal, when we see it from the perspective of life. Anyway, we are not asking any permission to both. Atleast, we can see to that we do it only till the point of our survival. (Anyway we are senselessly populated.) I feel we need not encourage poultry farming when it is feasible to produce and buy vegetables / fruits. I had heard a silly argument from one of my non-vegetarian friend that this ecology would get disturbed if all non-vegetarians stop eating non-veg. I just remembered the panchatantra story of a fox which will act like a sage. What a lame foolish excuse, absolutely oblivious of the environmental damage that is currently created by this poultry farming. I see that the number of non vegetarian hotels have also increased over the years. Nowadays we have to hunt for decent vegetarian hotels. Vegan hotels/salad bars are unheard of here. This should change. Ofcourse in countries like Tibet, where there is hardly any vegetables to grow and there is not much availability, survival beats the choice. That is totally different. But when a choice is available, why not exercise it?
Again vegetables with a lot of pesticides and irresponsible farming should not be supported. We should support organic products. I was explained that when we cook a food and eat, 50% of the food energy is getting wasted in digestion. If we eat it live i.e. uncooked, we get 100% of food energy. I wish there were more salad bars around, that use organic food, ofcourse without the stimulants such as onion, garlic, green chilli poisonous brinjal and the dairy and poultry items. As of now I have not even found one in Chennai. I was truly disappointed when I heard Isha restaurant is actually not going to be completely positive pranic :-( As rightly said "be the change you want to see", I would like to start a non-profit food chain for this. Any like mind hearing me? Why should it be non-profit is a subject for another blog :-)
Nice argument. IMHO, this should not apply only to food items but extend even to the products that are being used. For instance leather items which are prevalent everywhere starting from wallets, bags, to shoes/slippers. Or fur coats etc... As again, it all applies to the choice of mind!
ReplyDeleteWell said.
ReplyDeleteVeganism is the solution for many environmental issues we are facing.
I am surprised that Isha Restaurant doesnt have +ve pranic food.
I feel awareness is the key. Though it is slow it give long lasting results. Every one should talk about this and the whole trend has to change. Else in the name of business, people will ruin our mother earth.
Yes I agree with the leather items part. That is why I go with artificial leather or rexin items.
ReplyDeleteYou should notice that if you don't harvest paddy, or uproot a carrot, or any other plant, it is going to die. Out of hundreds/ thousands of seeds, only a handful are needed to start the next generation (and possibly if you let all them to grow, they will run out of space). Traditional farmers save some "vidhai nellu" which they don't eat/ sell.
ReplyDeleteHowever, an egg/ chicken/ animal represents an entire generation to come which would otherwise have been possible if not eaten. Argument of 'if you don't eat them, they will over-populate' is just dumb. We humans have crowded earth - does that mean we can eat each other?
This is the key difference between veg/ non-veg. isms. But it's all personal. Nothing is right or wrong - Monk