How to increase appeal for Veganism? || Acharya Prashant, in conversation (2022)

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: 11.02.2022, Interview Session, Goa  Context: ~ What is Climate Change? ~ How to stop climate change? ~ What is the solution to global warming? ~ How can we control the increasing population? ~ How can spirituality solve the problem of global warming? ~ What is the most effective way of dealing with climate change? ~ How can population control help in dealing with climate change? ~ What is the solution to climate change? ~ How spirituality can stop climate change?  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

00:00How do you, if you, and I see many young people in the United States who, you know, are, you

00:08know, choosing veganism for climate reasons, you know, living plastic-free lives, you know,

00:16trying to explore what it really means to be in kind of a right relationship with themselves

00:22in the earth.

00:23So how do we, how do we, I mean, but it's a small group, right?

00:30It's 1%, you know, how do we expand that appeal of that, of that kind of questioning of life

00:36to more young people?

00:38Teachings, just as you are approaching them, we'll have to teach, we'll have to teach.

00:46And I suppose any, any good business today to survive has to first of all generate awareness.

00:56Therefore, it has to be in the business of teaching, right?

01:01Because the right product today would need an aware buyer.

01:10You just cannot sell the right thing to the wrong person.

01:14If I am someone conditioned by generations of consumptions of advertising and misplaced

01:22cultural values, and somebody comes up with a great product or great service, I'm not

01:29going to buy that.

01:32So if I come up with something that really is good, from an internal perspective, from

01:39an ecological perspective, then I'll have to first of all generate awareness.

01:45And I'll have to be prepared to go that extra mile and put in that much of extra effort.

01:51So the business of teaching is what this world needs today.

01:56I'm not saying one has to be, in that sense, just a teacher, but you will have to be a

02:01teacher as well.

02:03You want to come up, for example, with a great vegan cafe or a great vegan recipe or a packaged

02:12vegan product.

02:15In a place, let's say like, like North India, where there is not much sensitivity or awareness

02:22regarding veganism, and where dairy production and consumption is a cultural value.

02:29First of all, you will have to educate the population.

02:32And you'll have to educate the population to a point where they are prepared to accept

02:37the product, even if it turns out a little expensive, though typically, it won't be an

02:43extra expensive.

02:44But even if it is, education will make it acceptable and affordable to people.

02:51Same thing when it comes to clothes, when it comes to automobiles, when it comes to

02:57even tourism destinations, or when it comes to means of gratification.

03:08That's what we need today.

03:09We cannot have, you please tell me, otherwise, I'm curious to know, how can I have a great

03:15business in a market that does not value that business?

03:20How will I get my employees?

03:24How will I get my vendors?

03:25How will I get my customers?

03:28Even the government is not going to support me, rather, I would find that the government

03:31is subsidizing my competitor, and that competitor is feasting on all kinds of rotten and polluting

03:38technologies.

03:39But because that competitor has a market around him, and in a democracy, it's the numbers

03:45that matter, so the government seems to be more aligned with him, how will I survive

03:49in the market?

03:50So, I have to be an educator.

03:52I know that's going to be tough, but then as a young person, when we are talking of

03:57that segment, as a young person, I ought to have the stamina for troubles, why not?

04:05That's what would probably make life worth living.

04:09Yes.

04:10Yes.

04:11Well, I think we're in agreement that fundamentally education is the key, and that we need people

04:19with a different vision of how humans should be living on the planet to become educators.

04:28And I'll just say that for the vision of our teaching really is just to recognize that

04:36many, many teachers, many, many students, many, many staff members at universities and

04:41high schools and secondary schools, they understand the depth of the climate crisis.

04:46They know that this is existential, right?

04:48They know that if we do not change course, that we are going to be experiencing a world

04:57where in many parts of the world, it will simply be too hot to live, where sea levels

05:02will rise, where crops will fail.

05:07And they're frightened of that, right?

05:10And it is a moment to really rethink what are we doing on this planet, if this is the

05:16direction that we're headed.

05:18And so the purpose of the teach-in is to just bring all of those people together and have

05:24this conversation.

05:25Yes, we can buy time with technology, right?

05:28Yes, we can do that.

05:30But at the end of the day, what is this telling us about humans and the way we're living on

05:36the planet?

05:37So that is the purpose of the teach-in.

05:39It's really creating a community, a global community of educators, and giving them the

05:44chance to interact with each other.

05:46We do it on Zoom calls, but also to bring together people in their community with a

05:52similar concern to start to have these conversations.

05:57When we're talking of consumption, doctor, the very basic kind of consumption, food,

06:08just as we don't want to talk of our numbers on the planet, because that becomes an emotive

06:14issue in a democratic setup, we also do not want to talk of our food choices.

06:20But the fact is, and the numbers are out in the open, that food is probably the largest,

06:27or if not the largest, the second largest contributor to greenhouse gases emission.

06:32And we don't want to talk of that.

06:34And the thing is, carbon-emitting food choices are also mostly food choices that involve

06:46cruelty towards animals, that involve a distorted relationship between our species and the

06:51other species.

06:53The thing is, when we say that we must take care of ourselves, that we must care for our

06:57future, how will we bring in that kind of self-love?

07:02I invite us to think about it.

07:04How will we have that kind of self-love if we do not have love for the other species

07:09that inhibited this planet?

07:11I mean, the very thing on my plate is coming as a result of slaughter.

07:19Why then will I not be disinterested in stopping the slaughter of the biggest carbon sinks

07:27on the planet, the forests?

07:29For the sake of my food, we are killing not just directly, and even as we have spoken

07:37over the last 30 minutes or so, millions of animals have been slaughtered in these

07:4230 minutes, just for our appetite.

07:46And not only are these animals being slaughtered, forests are being cleared, just so that we

07:52can have farms to raise these animals.

07:56Now, when we are clearing those forests, we are erasing the biggest carbon sinks that

08:04we can have.

08:05Also, we are robbing the species of their habitat.

08:12And in doing all that, how are we displaying any kind of self-love?

08:21So self-love, when it comes to talking of our own interests as species, self-love has

08:26to be inseparable from love towards the wider ecosystem.

08:31Unfortunately, that's not what our education is teaching young people.

08:36Otherwise, it's very, very easy to take care of this problem.

08:40All the deadlines that we are setting for ourselves, be it 2030 or 50 or 70, we can

08:48over-achieve even before those deadlines.

08:53Because it's we who are doing it, that's the challenge and that's the opportunity.

08:59It's not being sent down by the gods, it's not being conspired by the aliens, we are

09:07doing it.

09:08And if we are doing it, we may as well stop it right now.

09:12But to stop it, we require the kind of consciousness that acknowledges itself as the culprit,

09:19that acknowledges that it has been living in ignorance, and it has been living in ignorance

09:24all throughout these centuries, just that the ignorance was not displaying its devastating

09:29consequences because our numbers were not so large.

09:32And because the industrial revolution had yet not happened, therefore we did not have

09:37this much power to destruct in our hands.

09:40Now we have numbers, and we have the industry, and we have the technology and the know-how,

09:45the knowledge, and we have great power, and all this is a very, very explosive combination.

09:52So that's where we are, and it's a very slippery slope, very slippery slope.

10:01I'm fighting it in my little way on a daily basis, and I see the challenges, and the challenge

10:11that I'm seeing, Professor, is really not technological.

10:15Jealousy, you cannot treat through technology.

10:19Ignorance, you cannot treat through technology.

10:21Lovelessness, you cannot treat through technology.

10:24All the human darkness within, you cannot deal through technology.

10:31And when I talk of veganism, or when I talk of plastic, or when I talk of population,

10:36when I talk of climate, the obstacle that I face, I repeat, is not technological.

10:42It's not that people are not aware of better technologies.

10:46It's not that people are not aware of the numbers.

10:50It's just that people have not been sensitized enough.

10:53People are not loving enough.

10:55The norms that we have, the norms post the Enlightenment period in Europe, the religious

11:02values that we have, the distorted religious values, that is not the really spiritual values,

11:09they are not at all conducive towards a solution of this problem.

11:16Education, I think, unfortunately, fortunately, is the only thing that can save us.

11:22We require huge armies of dedicated educators.

11:28We require tremendous propaganda.

11:30We require publicity in all ways, in all forms.

11:35We require people to go knocking each home, and get the doors open, and barge in, and

11:42have tutorials.

11:44And if that can happen, then probably we can have governments to tax the right things,

11:50to subsidize the right things, and only then we can have public policy in the right direction.

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