What to do if loved ones don’t support veganism? || Acharya Prashant, with Ahimsa Fellows (2023)

Acharya Prashant

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  ~~~~~

Transcript

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.

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