Beef is banned, why not milk? || Acharya Prashant (2017)
Full Video: Spirituality and veganism || Acharya Prashant (2017)
Link:
• Spirituality and veganism || Acharya ...
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?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Link:
• Spirituality and veganism || Acharya ...
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?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Transcript
00:00 If all those who oppose beef and cow slaughter would really know that the beef industry and
00:16 the dairy industry are deeply interrelated, would they still be milk lovers?
00:25 The majority of opposition to beef in India comes from those who love milk.
00:34 That's very very strange.
00:37 Look at all those who are demonstrating on the roads against beef.
00:43 In one of the important states, Maharashtra, beef has just been recently banned.
00:50 So if you are found slaughtering a cow in Maharashtra, you would be jailed and fined
00:56 for both.
00:59 That's wonderful.
01:03 But stupid.
01:06 Because you do not know that the beef comes from the same cattle that was previously used
01:17 to fulfil your milk needs and farm needs.
01:24 The cattle that are slaughtered do not drop from the sky.
01:29 They are the same cattle that were previously there in the dairies or in the fields for
01:38 the sake of human welfare and human consumption.
01:41 We consume the cow twice.
01:45 Firstly when we use it for milk, for energy in the farm, the bull that is, the ox.
02:04 And secondly when it can no more provide us with labour or milk, then we sell it off so
02:15 that it may get slaughtered.
02:17 In fact, when, I hope you are aware of this, when there was a ban on beef slaughter, there
02:28 was a major opposition by a segment of farmers.
02:33 They said that if we cannot sell the oxen for slaughter, what do we do with them?
02:42 They are not useful in the fields anymore because they are old now.
02:46 And after 12 or 13 years of age, the animal is no more useful in the fields.
02:53 So what to do with it?
02:55 Keep it and feed it.
02:58 If we feed it, then our children will starve.
03:02 So we have to sell it to the butcher.
03:06 We have to sell it to the one who would help us exploit it a little more.
03:20 Krishan is Gita, Krishan is idealist action, Krishan is Nishkamkarna, Krishan is the
03:45 height of spirituality.
03:47 But unfortunately in this land of Krishan, the image of Krishan has been manipulated
03:58 to stand mostly as a cowherd, as someone who would relish his milk, his curd, his butter.
04:17 India hardly understands the Gita, but uses the metaphor, the image, the justification
04:34 of Krishan to keep consuming milk, ghee, butter and the rest of these things.
04:44 You go to someone and tell them, "Why are you so insistent on milk?"
04:49 And they would say, "Why?
04:52 Even our very Lord was a milk lover.
04:58 He was born in a family of dairymen and he would tend the cows all day and then milk
05:13 them and that was an expression of his love for the cows."
05:20 Ask them, "Have you read the Gita?
05:27 Do you know what love is?
05:29 And if you really know what love is, would you stick to this particular image of Krishan?"
05:36 But going to the Krishan of Gita is dangerous, very dangerous.
05:44 So one goes to the Krishan of the mythical stories.
05:52 That Krishan is suitable, that Krishan helps one consume.
05:58 It's extremely unfortunate that religion and spirituality in India have become synonymous
06:06 with milk usage.
06:09 So you have women coming over and dressing and bathing the shivling with milk.
06:20 They call it Dugdha Abhishek, which is so very nonsensical.
06:27 Do you know what Shiv stands for?
06:32 Have you read the Shiv Sutras?
06:35 Have you any real respect for Shiv?
06:37 Do you really love Shiv?
06:40 Shiv stands for total love.
06:44 Shiv stands for a dissolution of all that which is personal and that is called Pralay.
06:52 Shiv does not stand for exploitation of the animal.
06:58 But you go to the religious types and they'll say, "We do not exploit the cow, we love
07:03 the cow.
07:04 That is why we have chained her in our little cowshalla and we provide her food and nourishment.
07:13 You see what we are doing?"
07:16 You ask them, "What if you are chained by your neck in the same way and provided good
07:23 nourishment?
07:26 And you are made to have sex with a stranger just as the cow is made to have.
07:32 And you are forcibly made to bear children because somebody wants you to reproduce, because
07:40 your progeny is going to be useful as a farm resource.
07:45 Is that love really?"
07:49 Unfortunately this great land of love, India, has just forgotten love.
07:57 And the worst symbol of our cruelty and the worst recipient of our cruelty is the cow.
08:11 The world has been cruel to the entire vast ecosystem.
08:19 But India in particular has not been more cruel to any animal than the cow.
08:29 And all of that, rather most of that happens in the name of love and religion.
08:37 If cows could speak and if they were to be asked, "Which country would you want to escape
08:46 from?"
08:47 They would say, "India."
08:51 They would say, "India."
08:55 Indians have been so unfair to the cows.
08:59 So unfair.
09:01 I was with an acquaintance and I do not touch milk products that's known.
09:16 So he wanted to sort this out with me.
09:18 He said, "You know what, if the cow is not milked, then it faces physical discomfort.
09:28 The milk must be drawn out of her breasts.
09:37 Otherwise it's a burden."
09:42 I said, "Does that happen with beings of any other species?
09:50 And has existence nominated human beings as the caretakers of cows in particular?"
10:04 And when you say caretaker, you mean taking care of their milk, nothing more than that.
10:09 What about cows in the jungle?
10:10 Who goes to relieve them of their milk?
10:17 What about other mammals?
10:20 Who relieves them of their milk?
10:24 Nature has its own intelligence.
10:27 Nature knows how much milk to give to a female.
10:34 The lioness has only as much milk as the lion cub needs.
10:41 The she camel has only as much milk as the baby camel needs.
10:46 And a little bit here and there is well within the scope of nature.
10:53 Nature will take care of that adjustment.
10:57 But look at the stupid and dangerous justification.
11:05 It is the same justification as when people say that unless we eat chicken, chicken will
11:09 proliferate so much that they will take over the world.
11:13 There would be chicken republics and chicken armies and chicken governments.
11:20 You see they breed so much.
11:21 So it is our holy responsibility to kill and eat chicken.
11:26 The fools don't even know that chicken are produced in de facto factories.
11:32 They don't drop from the skies.
11:35 Thank you.
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