Why should one stop consuming eggs and milk? || Acharya Prashant, on veganism (2018)

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: ShabdYoga Session, 25.03.2018, Advait BodhSthal, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India   Context: ~ What is veganism? ~ Why should one stop consuming eggs and milk? ~ Why do humans cause cruelty and extreme harm to animals? ~ Why non-vegetarianism is prevalent throughout the world? ~ Why should one head towards a vegan lifestyle?  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Do you recommend people to stop consuming milk and eggs along with other non-vegetarian

00:07food?

00:08The aim is peace, the fundamentals first, right?

00:20The aim is peace.

00:27And your hope is a deepening of consciousness, that's what will bring peace to you.

00:40Consciousness is your liberator, deep, deep consciousness, not shallow consciousness of

00:46the kind you witness everywhere, deep, deep consciousness, which then means that the only

01:02thing worth respecting is depth of consciousness.

01:13That's what you worship, consciousness realization, that's your only hope.

01:21And if that hope doesn't materialize, then you remain in bondage and then life is wasted.

01:40If consciousness is your hope, then you won't kill a Buddha, would you?

01:46Why wouldn't you kill a Buddha?

01:56Because he is the epitome of consciousness, right?

02:03And he is your hope, you don't kill your liberator, do you?

02:06If you kill your liberator, who suffers?

02:10You suffer, right?

02:11For your own liberation, you won't kill consciousness, you won't kill the one at the vanguard of

02:21consciousness, you won't kill a Buddha, right?

02:28And that is why the scriptures in India are so very particular about Brahmahatya.

02:37They say that all crimes can be forgiven, but Brahmahatya cannot be.

02:44What is Brahmahatya?

02:45Killing a Brahmin, who is the keeper of the knowledge.

02:49Now there is nothing special about a Brahmin, except that his presence, his memory, his

02:58health, if he is really a Brahmin, not one of the thugs, if he is really a Brahmin, then

03:04his presence and his health can liberate many others as well.

03:12So when you kill a Brahmin, it is considered unpardonable, obnoxious, right?

03:18You don't kill a Buddha, you don't kill a Brahmin, because they have high and deep consciousness.

03:26Now why don't you kill a human being?

03:29So I said a Buddha, then I said a Brahmin, now I'm saying a human being.

03:32Why don't you kill a human being?

03:33You would have guessed by now.

03:38Because the level of consciousness in a human being is high, at least similar to your levels.

03:49And if there is one thing worth respecting, it is consciousness.

04:00And that is why, for your own sake, it is important that you do not kill conscious beings.

04:09Because if you can kill one conscious being, then you can kill other conscious beings as

04:16well.

04:17But if you don't materially kill them, you will start lacking in respect for them.

04:29Are you getting it?

04:41And consciousness is your only hope, your only liberator.

04:46How can you kill consciousness wherever it is?

04:50How can you kill an animal?

04:51How can you even kill a plant?

04:54But if it comes to choosing between an animal and a plant, and if it's about essential biological

05:02survival, then which one do you choose?

05:06A plant.

05:07Why?

05:08Because of your level of consciousness.

05:11But given the techniques of modern agriculture, there are just too many connected threads.

05:18You want to irrigate the field, you set up a dam, which does so much damage to the biodiversity.

05:25So all our hands are tainted in that.

05:28True.

05:30Is it the same level of crime to steal 100 rupees and to kill someone?

05:42All hands are tainted.

05:45All are guilty.

05:48But then crimes have their various levels.

05:51It's a relative thing.

05:53You see, in the sense of the absolute, it does not really matter who gets killed and

05:58who survives.

06:00It's all a game.

06:03In the great infinite canvas of the absolute, nothing is a crime and nothing is a virtue.

06:13Things are good or bad relative to you, and you must figure out what is right and wrong

06:18for you.

06:19If you are not full of great respect towards conscious beings, then you won't be able to

06:27respect even the prophet or the Buddha.

06:32Because it's not their flesh that is respectable.

06:38It is their consciousness.

06:40And if their consciousness is respectable, the same consciousness is present in a rabbit

06:44as well.

06:46Obviously, it is present in a tree as well.

06:48But it is expressed to a lesser extent.

06:53To the extent it is possible.

06:56Don't kill even trees.

06:58To the extent it is possible.

06:59You don't even need agriculture for survival.

07:04Live on fruits.

07:05There is no violence in living on fruits and leaves.

07:16It's not a matter of ethics or morality.

07:22Your nature, your heart, craves for peace.

07:35You are essentially non-violent.

07:42You are essentially someone who cannot tolerate bondages.

08:05And it's not a matter of having pity on the animal.

08:12In your own self-interest, don't kill.

08:20And if you want to kill, then tell me why shouldn't you eat human flesh?

08:28Why do you draw the line there?

08:31If you can have animal meat, tell me why can't you have human meat?

08:36Why do you draw the line there?

08:38Go into the logic.

08:41Why do you draw the line there?

08:46Because the human being is conscious.

08:55So the line is anyway being drawn.

09:00Draw the line at a more appropriate place.

09:06It's a relative thing.

09:09Even meat eaters are not cannibals.

09:16They draw the line somewhere, don't they?

09:19They do keep something out of their zone of consumption.

09:28A few things remain out of bounds and a few things don't.

09:32If you can draw the line here, you can also draw the line here.

09:41Obviously, you'll have to eat something, which means a line will have to be drawn.

09:46Better draw the line at a place that is more beneficial to you.

09:54For that, you must figure out what your real benefits are.

09:59If you are the body, then your real benefit lies in appeasing the body.

10:05Then you may as well say that I'll have a lot of meat because I'm the body and the body loves meat.

10:11But if you are a mind that is crying out for liberation,

10:17then you must be very clear on where your real benefits lie.

10:22Your real benefits then lie in drawing the line as compassionately as possible.

10:30Compassion for your own sake.

10:33You may even call it selfish compassion.

10:40Enlightened selfishness.

10:44Meat eaters must answer this one question.

10:52If meat is good, why not human meat as well?

10:56And then they will realize that they don't eat human meat because human beings have a certain level of consciousness.

11:06Then respect the consciousness of the animal as well and the plant as well.

11:12To the greatest extent possible, don't hack down trees.

11:18If you are cultivating a rice plant just so that one day you may kill it, then that too is violence.

11:29But that is a lower degree of violence compared to the violence involved in killing an animal.

11:39Respect consciousness because that is your only hope.

11:47Be full of gratitude towards all forms of consciousness.

11:53If you cannot be full of gratitude towards a rabbit, you will also not be full of gratitude towards a Buddha.

12:04Because fleshwise they are the same.

12:09Look at the flesh of a rabbit and look at the flesh of a saint.

12:13Fleshwise they are the same.

12:15What separates them? Level of consciousness.

12:20So it's not the flesh that you respect.

12:23When you say that here comes a saint and we respect him, what is it that you are respecting?

12:27The flesh? The consciousness.

12:31And the consciousness of the saint is your only hope.

12:39If you can respect consciousness wherever it shines, then you will also respect your own consciousness.

12:45And if you respect your own consciousness, then you will live life in a way that is consciousness centric.

12:53Then your central driver and your central aim both will be consciousness.

13:02Whereas if you live for the sake of meat, then your life will be body centric.

13:23That will also tell you about my position on milk and eggs.

13:37If I respect the Buddha, then will I exploit him?

13:43I will refuse to exploit any conscious being.

13:49When you are drawing milk from a mammal, don't you know it is sheer exploitation?

13:57When you are using a hen just to have eggs, you know what it is, right?

14:06If you can exploit others, you will end up exploiting yourself as well.

14:11It's not a matter of just being good to others.

14:15I am repeating this. It's a matter of being good to yourself.

14:23Besides, the milk of the buffalo is suitable only for the kid of the buffalo.

14:31The kid drinks the buffalo milk and becomes a big buffalo.

14:36If you drink the buffalo milk, what will you become?

14:40Don't you see that the milk of the buffalo is different from the milk of the rabbit,

14:46different from the milk of a camel, different from the milk of a lion?

14:50All these milks are different.

14:53Have you never wondered why different species have different constitutions of their milk?

15:03To meet the needs of their species and each species has its precise needs.

15:13The needs of a human infant can be met only by the milk of the human mother.

15:21Not by drinking buffalo milk.

15:24That's why we have so many buffalos walking around as humans.

15:32See.

15:39A lot of milk they have consumed and are still consuming.

15:47And milk and butter and ghee and paneer and cheese.

15:51All the time only buffalo stuff.

15:55I had paneer yesterday.

15:59What?

16:00Tofu.

16:02I love tofu.

16:09Besides, for how long does the kid of any species need milk?

16:14One year.

16:16Not even one year.

16:18These terrible ones, by the time they are one year old, they are grandparents.

16:24Do you think they are consuming milk even till the age of one?

16:32Only humans keep on drinking milk even when they are 70 years old.

16:43It is not medical science, it is the food industry.

16:49Don't you have any common sense?

16:51Do you really need milk at the age of 50?

16:55What kind of needs do you have?

17:00And had you really needed milk till the age of 50,

17:04then mothers would have produced milk all their life

17:10so that the kids can be breastfed.

17:13And 60 years old

17:17would have been breastfed.

17:21Prakriti knows very well that only for 6 months or so

17:27does the kid need the mother's milk.

17:31So for that duration the mother does lactate.

17:38But then the food industry says you keep on having milk.

17:44Why?

17:46And it's not human milk that you are having.

17:50If humans must have milk, then let them have human milk.

18:02Have you ever looked at a bull?

18:10For how long has it had milk?

18:13For how many months has a bull had a cow's milk?

18:206 months.

18:22And see what kind of burly bull it is.

18:28Is it still drinking milk?

18:30But look at its shape, size and vigour.

18:33Or look at an elephant.

18:35Elephants too are mammals.

18:37An elephant kid too must have had milk.

18:40For how many months?

18:44I don't know, 2 months, 6 months, 1 year?

18:47And look at the shape of an elephant.

18:49Has the shape been gained because of milk consumption?

18:53No, milk was needed only for the first few months.

18:56And thereafter you don't need milk.

18:58And you are still a big elephant.

19:00But human beings have bought into the idea that

19:02unless they drink milk, they will remain dwarfs.

19:10They don't even look at the elephant and ask.

19:12But this one has never been drinking milk.

19:14How has it grown so big?

19:16Even whales are mammals, you know.

19:18How does a whale grow so big?

19:20By drinking milk.

19:25Whales too must have had milk, I suppose.

19:27But for how long?

19:31Humans, if at all.

19:35And here are all kinds of

19:39old ones, young ones, sick ones, big ones,

19:43small ones, wrestling ones.

19:48How will you be a wrestler unless you have milk?

19:56Will you go and

19:58search for the list of vegan athletes around the world?

20:04Do that right now.

20:05Vegan athletes.

20:06And you will find some big names there.

20:09How are they competing?

20:15No milk, no milk products at all.

20:17And they are competing big time.

20:25A wrestler

20:28might be a drunkard as well.

20:30Does it mean that he is succeeding

20:32because of the liquor?

20:36How do you know that a wrestler is succeeding

20:38because of the milk?

20:42How do you know that?

20:47Hmm?

20:57I believe the thing is that scientific

20:59evidences are there.

21:01It just can be substituted to different things.

21:03It has things in condensed form

21:05like milk, meat has more protein.

21:07But yes, it can be substituted

21:09to different alternatives.

21:11It has more protein. Do you need that protein?

21:13That's what I'm saying.

21:14It may have this or that.

21:17But do you need that?

21:18The question is this.

21:19And when you say I need that,

21:21who is this I that is talking?

21:25Ego.

21:26The body?

21:27Body.

21:28Or the consciousness?

21:30Body.

21:31Your body might need 20 things.

21:33But if they are detrimental to the

21:35growth of your consciousness,

21:36would you have them?

21:42In fact, if you have

21:44my meat in dinner today,

21:46it would be a very

21:48sumptuous dinner.

21:50Won't it be?

21:52The body will love it.

21:54Kill me and have

21:56my meat as dinner tonight.

21:58And the body will say,

22:00yep, finger licking dinner this is.

22:04Do that.

22:06You have to decide.

22:08Who are you?

22:10If you are the body, then kill me and eat my meat.

22:12Put the light.

22:16I tell you, it's delicious.

22:22But if you define yourself

22:24as a mind craving for freedom,

22:26then save me.

22:28Because I am your hope.

22:38It is same with the cow milk.

22:40Why Lord Krishna used to take cow milk?

22:42He had 16,000 wives.

22:50He could do anything.

22:54Why are you talking of that?

22:58How many wives can you have

23:00and satisfy?

23:06About that he will not talk.

23:09He also

23:11went into the Yamuna

23:13and danced on the head of the great snake

23:15demon.

23:17Remember Kaliasar?

23:19Go ahead and do that first.

23:21And then talk of Krishna.

23:23You want to emulate Krishna only in one sense.

23:25He used to drink milk.

23:27I too will drink milk.

23:29All the other things he will not do.

23:31He authored the Gita.

23:33You can't even understand the Gita.

23:35But you want to copy

23:37him in other respects.

23:45If you can manage two wives, then talk to him.

23:49He could manage 16,000.

23:51Do you understand that?

23:53Laughing

24:03There are actually

24:05news channels

24:07where they bring all these Babas

24:09for weekly talks.

24:11And they actually said that

24:13if you drink Matha,

24:15it is Lord Krishna's food.

24:17These Babas were wearing

24:19Mukuts and Morpangs?

24:21Ask them.

24:25Why don't you emulate Krishna in this respect?

24:27Why don't you wear a Mukut and a Morpang?

24:29And ask Babaji to go and

24:31steal clothes of Vedic women.

24:33And then let's see what happens

24:35to them.

24:39Krishna was

24:41an expert at doing that. You know that, right?

24:43The Gopis would be taking

24:45bath and he would go and then run away with their clothes

24:47and sit atop a tree and from there

24:50he would tease them.

24:52Here is the bath.

24:54Now let Babaji try that.

24:56Laughing

25:02The essence of

25:04Krishna is the Bhagavad Gita.

25:06Why don't you first go to

25:08the Gita? Why don't you respect the Gita?

25:14Why don't you devote yourself to the Gita?

25:16Why talk of all the peripheral things?

25:20Krishna could

25:22lift an entire

25:24mountain.

25:26Do that first.

25:28Do that first.

25:48Practically with veganism

25:50what I have seen is

25:52you can't eat out.

25:54You can eat out

25:56but you will have to be

25:58very particular

26:00with your orders.

26:02But the

26:04thing is changing. There are many eateries

26:06now that serve tofu dishes.

26:10Ghee is the problem.

26:14If you ask them for a preparation that does

26:16not have ghee

26:18then there is a

26:24Cheese, Paneer are easily

26:26avoidable. Shakes are avoidable.

26:28Ice cream is avoidable. Milk is avoidable.

26:30Ghee. That's what I have

26:32encountered. Because ghee is not

26:34detectable.

26:36Once the dish comes to you then only you realize

26:38that ghee is there and then you are helpless. What do you do?

26:44Milk free chocolates are there.

26:46Black chocolates are there.

26:48Ask me. I will tell you everything.

26:50I will also tell you where to get them from.

26:54All is possible

26:56that the problem is ghee.

26:58If you ask the fellow

27:00ghee hai isme? He says naa desi ghee hai.

27:04He takes it as something to be burnished.

27:06Naa desi ghee hai bhai.

27:08And then you stare at him

27:10and say ghee nahi.

27:12What kind of delinquent are you?

27:14You don't want ghee.

27:16What is halal then?

27:18Halal is a way of

27:20killing, slaughtering.

27:30Will you be

27:32happier if I

27:34kill you in one go

27:36compared to if I kill you

27:38slowly?

27:44How does it matter?

27:46Hindus and Sikhs say jhatka.

27:49Muslims say halal.

27:51The animal says

27:53I am gone.

27:59Jews, they say

28:01kosher.

28:03That's their way of

28:05slaughtering.

28:19You still can have

28:21suji ka halwa,

28:23son papdi,

28:25ask me, I'll tell you.

28:27Ladoos

28:29wo usme ghee nahi hona chahiye.

28:31Ladoo you have to be cautious.

28:33But then you know that

28:35opens the possibilities of

28:37many many kinds of oils.

28:39Once you turn vegan

28:41you then

28:43discover what great

28:45diversity of oils is available.

28:47And

28:49most of them are

28:51very healthy.

28:53But you have to hunt for them.

28:55They are not very easily available.

28:57Online is a great solution.

28:59Order

29:01stuff online.

29:05Teel ka tel, alsi ka tel.

29:09Har cheez ka tel hota hai.

29:11Har cheez ka tel hota hai.

29:13Sare kitne daan, sab ka tel hota hai.

29:17Aayub-e-bhai toh ghee ki toh

29:19tarif karte nahi rukte hai.

29:21Wo karte hai.

29:31Saar saar ko

29:33gahi rahe, toh thade

29:35hoda hai.

29:41What I can say is

29:43my health has improved

29:45after quitting milk.

29:55I am quite sure

29:57there is a lot of diseases

29:59that are due to milk.

30:01It doesn't matter

30:03what is mixed in the milk.

30:05Milk itself is not good for your body.

30:07I am not talking of

30:09the chemicals mixed there.

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