Difference Between Veganism vs Vegetarianism? || Acharya Prashant, with IIT Madras (2023)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?... ~~~~~  Video Information: 29.09.23, IIT-Madras (Online), Greater Noida  Context: ~ How milk is causing animal cruelty? ~ How dairy, leather and flesh industry interlinked? ~ How much animal products are affecting on ecology? ~ Why we need to challenge bodily compulsion and boundaries? ¬ How can we explain vegetarianism and veganism to people?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Greetings sir, when we talk to people on behalf of plant-based society, generally encounter

00:08questions like people get confused and get defensive between veganism and vegetarianism.

00:14How do we help them make the connection without being feel forced?

00:20It's simple, you can start from anywhere, you may simply say you are a vegetarian but

00:31you are not a vegan, so you take milk, right?

00:36Yes sir.

00:38So you take milk, right.

00:41What are these shoes you are wearing?

00:43Is that leather?

00:44Is that leather?

00:45Is that leather?

00:46Yes.

00:47No, no, no.

00:48I am not asking, I am demonstrating.

00:51So that's probably leather.

00:54Do you see the relation between the glass of milk in your hand and the leather on your

01:01feet?

01:02It's a basic question.

01:07You can ask with a wry kind of smile, you need not offend somebody.

01:14It's a thing of general knowledge, no?

01:16We should be reasonably informed citizens.

01:19Do you see where that leather comes from?

01:27That leather comes from the same cattle that was exploited to give you milk as long as

01:34it could, and when it couldn't, then its flesh was extracted and probably exported

01:46and the leather came to you in the form of your shoes and your waist belt and what else?

01:55The wallet in your pocket and many other things.

02:00Do you see that milk is the leather?

02:05Do you see that the milk is the flesh?

02:10Do you see that the milk is not natural?

02:12Do you see that the animal is forcibly impregnated and that's worse than rape?

02:23That's worse than rape actually.

02:29The female mammal reminds you of your own species.

02:35The female mammal is being artificially impregnated several times over the course of her life

02:43so that you can have that kheer, that milk or whatever.

02:52And then the female calf is of some use, so she might probably be retained.

03:02But the male calf is of zero use, zero.

03:07What's the point in feeding it?

03:11Nobody feeds the male calf.

03:13You know where the male calf goes.

03:17And the leather from the male calf is extraordinarily soft and therefore quite expensive.

03:27It gets sold at a premium.

03:31Do you see all this?

03:32I am just asking.

03:35You can continue sipping the milk, just asking.

03:44And these are questions of general knowledge, right?

03:50If you sit for the UPSC exams, one of these questions might actually be asked there.

03:58So it's not something personal or controversial.

04:01I am asking you something that you should anyway be aware of as a responsible citizen.

04:09India has a great meat export economy and India has a great leather industry.

04:18So much so that some of the IITs offer B.Tech programs in leather technology.

04:25That's unheard of in most of the other universities.

04:27Where is that coming from?

04:29That's coming from that glass probably.

04:31No, no, you may continue sipping it.

04:37B.Tech leather technology.

04:42That's very closely linked to B.Tech dairy technology.

04:54And when you say you are vegetarian, kindly tell me the tree you are getting your milk

05:00from.

05:02Coconut?

05:04Banana?

05:06Some magical banana?

05:09You squeeze it and you get banana milk?

05:15Where are you coming from?

05:22Which island?

05:26Which planet of the solar system?

05:30That you think that milk is vegetarian?

05:38Or if the fellow has some concern towards the ecological disaster we are going through,

05:46ask him, do you understand where does climate change come from?

05:50Do you understand that that glass of milk has everything to do with climate change?

06:04Do you understand where does the depletion of forest cover come from?

06:11Do you understand that the cow or the buffalo is a huge animal?

06:17And to get to that size, she requires a tremendous amount of feed.

06:24Where does that feed come from?

06:27That feed comes from clearing away of jungles.

06:31You clear the jungle so that you can cultivate grains.

06:3880% of those grains go to animals of slaughter.

06:50If human beings today are producing 100 units of produce, 75 to 80% of that is for the animals

07:00that would be slaughtered.

07:04And it's not just about the produce, it is about the fields the produce comes from.

07:09The fields come at the cost of jungles.

07:16And when jungles are lost, n number of species are just collateral damage.

07:27You do not even kill them, they just disappear because of loss of habitat.

07:33Do you think you are just clearing away the trees?

07:35No, you have cleared away so many species.

07:37They are gone forever, never to return.

07:42Why do you want to keep away that glass?

07:46Finish it off.

07:58But nobody tells this to you.

08:01Because the flesh industry, the milk industry, the leather industry and there are so many

08:06other things that you derive from the animal's body.

08:09All those industries are interlinked and they are huge.

08:16You could add several more O's to the sound I just made.

08:20Huge, never to stop, infinitely huge.

08:29It is money power that is preventing that knowledge from coming to you.

08:35It is money power that is preventing from your textbooks from carrying that knowledge.

08:41Otherwise, in any civilized society, these facts should have been parts of textbooks

08:49class 8 onwards.

08:52These are basic things that any child deserves to know.

08:59But governments across the world hide these facts.

09:15No offence, just facts.

09:30My question is from the previous Bhagavad Gita session.

09:35Somebody asked a question on veganism.

09:38I mean it was not directly on veganism but one thing led to another and there was a certain

09:43part where you talked about veganism.

09:47So you said that as a human, we tend to commit violence because of our bodily compulsion.

09:54You said it is called in Hindi, Shadirik Vivashta.

10:00So I mean how and where we can draw a line to make sure that the violence that we are

10:07committing is our bodily compulsion.

10:09You don't draw a line.

10:12Just keep challenging the line.

10:14You don't need to draw a line.

10:15The body is anyway always drawing the line as per its own agenda.

10:22Your job is to challenge the line.

10:25You don't need to draw the line.

10:27That task belongs to the body.

10:31The body keeps drawing a line and what do you do?

10:33You keep pushing the line, pushing the line.

10:37The body is saying, you know, you can have that glass of milk and you push.

10:44You say, alright, after two hours.

10:46After two hours the body again says, you know, why not have it and again you push.

10:51The line comes from the body.

10:54Your job is to struggle, strive.

10:56That's what you are here for, to struggle against yourself, never to draw any line and

11:03you have to go till the point where all the lines get obliterated.

11:08So I think it depends on the individual.

11:12It depends on where the line currently is.

11:17And at no place can you say that you don't need to push anymore.

11:24You just need to keep getting better and better.

11:30You have to keep pushing continuously, irrespective of where you are.

11:37Because the body will be there till the last breath, no?

11:40So the body will keep throwing some line at you.

11:43Your job is to again and again challenge it.

11:49Last year, I think last year, we had a session with YV Care on Ahimsa and there was a lady,

11:58she was an activist and she asked a question with you that, you know, they rescue animals

12:05and some of those animals are habitual of eating meat.

12:11And in order to make them survive, they have no choice but to, you know, feed them meat.

12:16So you said that it's wrong because you are saving one animal and you are killing another

12:21one just to make that particular animal live.

12:26And so that's wrong.

12:27And you also said that, and that line stuck with me, you said that, you know, but we have

12:31to apply the same rule on us, even to survive or ourself.

12:37If something happens, suppose we are in a hospital and in order to survive, we have

12:42to maybe consume a chicken soup or something, then we have to let it go.

12:50First of all, don't get into situations where you have to pet animals that require

13:03flesh for their life.

13:05And if you do that, then happily, there are vegan alternatives to all that.

13:12Cats and dogs all have packaged vegan diets available.

13:18I hope you are not domesticating wolves or cheetahs, you know, that's the flavor of the season.

13:26So, as far as cats and dogs go, there are vegan diets available.

13:36See, ultimately you want to give them the nourishment that they need, right?

13:41That nourishment comes in the form of a chemical.

13:44What are vitamins and proteins and all these things?

13:46They are just chemicals, right?

13:48All chemicals can be factory produced.

13:51So you give that nourishment.

13:52Fine.

13:53It's just a chemical, right?

13:54Be it B12, be it anything, it's a molecule.

14:00You produce that molecule in a factory and take it.

14:02You are producing so many things in a factory.

14:06For saving, you are producing everything in a factory.

14:10Now for saving lives, why can't you produce B12 in a factory or taurine in a factory?

14:18Taurine is the chemical that you require for the health of cat's neural systems.

14:27That can be produced.

14:32But it's super gross to say, you know, I now have a wolf, therefore I am feeding it rabbits.

14:41Nope.

14:42Or I have a python.

14:48Why the hell are you keeping that python?

14:49Release it.

14:51That belongs to the jungle.

14:54And the python can happily survive in the jungle.

14:57The rabbit cannot.

14:59Once the rabbit has been with you, even for, let's say, six or eight months, now it cannot

15:05survive in the jungle.

15:07There is no need, in fact, even to domesticate rabbits, frankly.

15:12No need.

15:15Unless you are rescuing them from somewhere or something.

15:18In fact, all kinds of domestication should be strictly limited only to the rescued animals.

15:27And even those animals, when they can be on their own, they should be released into the

15:31wild.

15:32Because they are not made to live with you.

15:36You think you are taking care of them.

15:39For them, it might be another matter altogether.

15:43They don't want to look at your face.

15:46You are fond of them.

15:48They want to be in their own habitat.

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