My Dear Padmini,
A very good and nice presentation on "Vegetarianism" and will certainly make an impact on people reading it(I ref only to non-veg if any pl) and make them ponder over thetopic and switch over to vegetarianism.
Our endeavour and efforts should be to reach this message to as many as possible and it will make a change.
To add to your your nice presentation on the topic, I send my views.............................................
vegetarianism.
Gluttony is considered one of the seven deadly sins. There is no reason to take the life of an animal and eat it, except that you enjoy the taste or texture of its flesh. What is truly more important: a passing pleasure, or the life of a fellow being?
The Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine advocates vegetarianism as the healthiest diet. Vegetarianism have far less incidence of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, and osteoporosis than consumers of meat and dairy. In fact, according to Dr. Neil Barnard, PCRM President, The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined.
Our bodies produce all the cholesterol we need.
Animals makes cholesterol too, which is why we add to our own whenever we eat them. In countries that ingest a lot of cholesterol, like the United States, heart disease is the number one cause of death. If you are worried about getting enough protein for strength, just think of gorillas; they only eat plants! Plants high in protein include beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, and all soya products like soya milk, soya protein powder, and tofu.
A vegetarian diet is not only good for animals and your own longevity, it is also good for the environment. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization released a document in 2006 entitled Livestock's Long Shadow. This scientific study revealed that animal agriculture causes 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than all of the world's transportation combined. Writer Kathy Freston coined the phrase:
Vegetarianism is the new Prius because it takes very little land and water to produce a pound of soybeans, but it takes an unbelievable amount of land, water, and plant-based food to produce a pound of beef. In this way, meat addicts use up far more than their fair share of the world's food resources.
The organization Farm Sanctuary, with locations in California and New York, is a place where you can meet farm animals face to face. Once you've met and petted turkeys and witnessed how they enjoy affection and attention, you will NOT want to consume one that's been slaughtered for your temporary eating pleasure.
In recent weeks, Fox News online aired an undercover PETA video where pigs were being brutally abused at a factory farm in North Carolina. A male supervisor is heard boasting about beating the animals and women employees laugh as they cut the testicles off of one piglet after another without anesthesia. When we reduce animals to commodities, some people act accordingly.
Cows' milk is for calves, but most mother cows do not get to suckle their babies; instead, they grieve as their babies are taken away to be raised as veal. Human beings then use machines to confiscate the milk intended for her child, and human beings keep her chronically pregnant to keep her breast milk flowing.
Real men protect; they don't use or abuse.
There are many such knights in our midst. Vegetarians include spiritual leaders such as The Dalai Lama, who said, Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures. Statesman and philosopher Mahatma Gandhi declared,
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
Krishnamurti, Yogananda, and Deepak Chopra are spiritual leaders on the vegetarian roll-call. The current Pope (Benedict XVI) also spoke of farm animals when he said, We can see that they are given into our care, that we cannot just do whatever we want with them. Animals, too, are God's creatures... degrading living creatures to a commodity seems to me in fact to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible.
Artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci believed that the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men. Spiritual physicist Albert Einstein proclaimed,
Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures. Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.
Finally, I think this quote from Old McDonald's Factory Farm by C. David Coats says it all:
Isn't man an amazing animal? He kills wildlife by the millions in order to protect his domestic animals and their feed. Then he kills domestic animals by the billions and eats them. This in turn kills man by the millions, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative and fatal health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer. So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases. Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals. Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at the absurdity of man, who kills so easily and so violently and once a year sends out cards praying for Peace on Earth.
I appeal to, those who are by habit eats non-vegetarian, to STOP IT to eat You will improve your health, help our environment, and personally reduce a lot of suffering for our animal friends. When you ingest animals who were not raised under humane conditions, you are absorbing cruelty, selfishness (evil), violence and tremendous suffering. Are those really things you want to take in and make an integral part of you and your life?
Our physical practises should enhance and support our spiritual practises; only in this way can we live lives of clarity, integrity and wholeness. Therefore make a physical and practical practise to discontinue with eating
non-vegetarian food, and save the society, nation and the world from sinking into incurable diseases. "Help Yourself & help Others be our motto", in living and thereby move away from "Cruelty to Enlightened One"
With regards.
Yours in Divine Friendship
J.Kannan
