Video Information: 04.04.23, with Ahimsa Fellows (Online-talk), Greater Noida
Context:
¬ What are the most common reasons for veganism?
¬ What do vegans struggle with the most?
¬ What do vegetarians struggle with the most?
¬ What are the three pillars of veganism?
¬ What is the biggest challenge faced by vegetarians?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Context:
¬ What are the most common reasons for veganism?
¬ What do vegans struggle with the most?
¬ What do vegetarians struggle with the most?
¬ What are the three pillars of veganism?
¬ What is the biggest challenge faced by vegetarians?
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00We have the question by Pooja, so people who try to become self-aware and knowledgeable
00:10of themselves, they usually they become the black sheep of their families.
00:16Question by Pooja is, what can we do if our loved ones, that is spouse, parents, friends
00:21are not receptive to veganism or they do not show understanding towards animal welfare?
00:27So what do we do?
00:28See, you cannot be vegan without being really spiritual and this would ruffle a few feathers
00:38and probably hurt a few.
00:41But let me put this, when you are spiritual, the first thing that you realize is that your
00:44family is not really your own.
00:48You cannot be a vegan if you continue to be too attached to your family.
00:52You can either be a family man or really a vegan.
00:57It's a difficult choice and most people will not like the way I am putting it.
01:03They'll say he's turning it into an either or situation.
01:06Why can't we have both?
01:08Why must there always be this kind of a conflict?
01:12I know the arguments, but I also know the truth.
01:19I see it everywhere, I see it in my own family.
01:25Just because you are a vegan, that does not matter to people who will not listen.
01:32And those who won't listen, they just won't listen.
01:35And if you think too much about your family, then forget about the wider family that you
01:41really belong to.
01:47There is no need to think of it as a heartbreak or something.
01:51It's just a fact of life.
01:54You see, to be a vegan is to stand up stoutly against the pleasure principle.
02:04And if you think of the institution of family, it stands on the pleasure principle.
02:10First of all, why do the man and the woman get together?
02:14For pleasure, what else?
02:17The family rests primarily on these two pillars, right?
02:21The man and the woman coming together.
02:24The mother and the father, the husband and the wife, whatever.
02:28The beginning itself comes from lust for pleasure.
02:35And now you tell these two who came together for pleasure that you cannot have pleasure
02:39anymore.
02:40You have to give up on milk and your chai and such stuff.
02:44Why will they listen to you?
02:47Why do parents beget kids for pleasure, in a moment of pleasure?
02:55In a moment of pleasure, the kid is conceived and if it's a plant pregnancy, then the entire
03:01motive is to have somebody support you in your old age.
03:06Again the same pleasure principle.
03:11So the family rests on pleasure and veganism says there is something far higher than pleasure.
03:24My pleasure cannot be bigger than the right of that little fellow to live.
03:33My lust for pleasure cannot be bigger than my commitment to consciousness.
03:40So the family system and veganism just don't go together.
03:43The family system and spirituality don't go together.
03:47At the risk of sounding just too cynical, let me say, in general the family system and
03:58goodness do not go together.
04:01It's another matter that by dint of your perseverance and your effort, you are able to convince
04:11and convert some of your family members.
04:14That is possible, entirely possible.
04:16But to think that just because a certain group of people belong to your family, therefore
04:22they'll be more amenable to your virtuous advice is just wishful thinking, daydreaming.
04:30It won't happen and if you try too much of that, all you'll get is some heartbreak.
04:35In fact, if you want to turn somebody vegan, focus on your neighbors, not on your parents,
04:41not on your spouse.
04:44These are the last people who listen to any kind of, they'll simply, they'll say you're
04:51virtue signaling, you just want to have an upper hand, you know, why can't we have our
04:56own choices?
05:00They are not going to be amenable because they are related to you via the pleasure principle.
05:05When a man chooses a wife, is he really wedding a guru?
05:14Now the wife turns vegan and starts sermonizing.
05:19Why will the man take it?
05:20The man will say, I brought home a luscious body and remain that, remain that.
05:29You are trying to become somebody I never opted for.
05:35This is not what I chose to bring home.
05:42You are trying to be a guru, you are trying to be a preacher.
05:45I don't want a preacher.
05:47I want a cute wife, that's all.
05:59Focus on the neighbors.
06:02Instead of your family WhatsApp group, focus on anonymous people on social media.
06:08You will get greater success there.
06:11If you raise a big civil war on your family WhatsApp group, and we have family WhatsApp
06:19group, right?
06:20Extended family is there, some 30-40 members are there, all you will get is silence.
06:25And if you try too hard, some admin will simply throw you out of the group.
06:32That's all that you'll get.
06:33Yeah.
06:35I think you just put it out there, the unapologetic answer, like deal with it.
06:42Okay, so the last question from our side would be from Aarti.
06:50She says that from an ethical standpoint, is it more important to push few people to
06:55be perfect vegans or a large number to reduce the consumption of non-vegan food?
07:03See somebody's life has to be saved.
07:05It doesn't matter how that life will be saved.
07:09If 40 people can become half vegans, whatever that means, if 40 people can become half vegans,
07:18that's obviously better than having 10 perfect vegans.
07:22So I do not care too much for purity.
07:26I care for that little one's life.
07:33Perfect.
07:34Total sense.