Please note: I plan to write about a few more Upanishads. But, I am also eager to share ideas on so many other topics. Therefore, let me break the routine and add this piece for you to think about.
Ahimsa is a Sanskrit word which stands for an attitude of
not injuring any life. This was the essence of Buddha’s teaching. Gandhi
emphasized this in his life. Both of them got it from the Vedic Dharma Shastra
or from the Jains.
Here is a passage
from one of the Dharma Shastra as discussed by the sage of Kanchi. This is a
Sanskrit poem which on translation reads as follows: “Every house has Five items which promote
injury to life forms. They are: knife, food-grinder, oven, water-pot and
broom”. This is the ultimate of Ahimsa (non-injury)and just not practical. If
we follow this poem to its logical conclusion no one can live.
What is important is to recognize that one cannot avoid
harming life even with the utmost diligence. Our scriptures say so. A famous
passage in Taittriya Upanishad (2:2:1) says: “annath bhuthaani jaayanthey; jaathan annena vardhanthey; adhyathey
atthi cha bhuthaani; thasmath annam thath ucchyatha” . When translated it
says: Creatures are born of food. Being born, they grow on food. Since it is
eaten and it eats (ath) the
creatures, it is called food (anna).
The strict meaning of
the Sanskrit word anna is not cooked
rice, but anything that is eaten. The
root verb for the word anna is ath, to eat.
Therefore, what we have to do is to be thankful to the
various life-forms, plants, animals or fish that give their lives so that we
may live. This is why prayer before eating is common in all traditions. This
why the Native Americans give prayers to the spirit of the animal they killed
before eating. That is why the Eskimos thank the ocean for their food. That observance
of Thanksgiving in several traditions is for this purpose.
In his book on Carnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan suggests eating
meat per se is fair, if you can hunt for it yourself. In other words “give
the animal equal chance to run away or kill you”. The dilemma comes in when we
raise animals for the sole purpose of killing them to eat.
But Thich Nath Hahn suggests a special prayer before meals to
reflect on every natural phenomenon and every human being involved in getting
that food to our mouths. He asks us to reflect on the fact that the food we are
about to eat would not have been possible without the sun and the moon and the
sand and the rain. We think of them and thank them. The food also has the toil
of the farmer who did the sowing, watering and the harvesting. And without the
person or persons who prepared the food we will not have this food. We thank
all of them. Of course, we have to think of the food itself that will be
nourishing us, whether it is vegetable or meat. In other words, he wants us to
think of every item in this food - chain and thank. This is a more practical
approach.
I am not saying that it is fine to eat meat. I am just
saying that history does not suggest that vegetarianism is the only “proper”
way to live. Reality suggests that life eats life. Besides, plants have life too. Also,
our being a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian was not our choice when we started.
We followed whatever our parents did. I grew up in a household of vegetarians.
Someone who grew up in the Amazon basin probably will be very comfortable with
eating fish. Children growing up in the Eskimo country cannot even think of being a
vegetarian. And so on.
Let us not be judgmental!
