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Summary of Question:We Kill Lots Of Pests During Veg Farming Then Why Killing For Meat Is Wrong ???
Category:Other
Date Posted:Monday, 10/12/2009 11:20 PM MDT

We Kill Lots Of Pests During Veg Farming Then Why Killing For Meat Is Wrong ???


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REPLY
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Sat Nam,

I've been thinking about your question for a while now and I wonder if this will help.
When I met Yogi Bhajan a while back I was not a vegetarian. I knew nothing about Sikhism and certainly did not think that meeting him will change my mind about eating meat. I knew people who did not eat meat but my general opinion was that there was not enough reason they could give me to convince me to change my mind about it. One time I was sitting right in front of him during a lecture he was giving in our class and when he looked at me and said "Don't eat anything that had a mother, out of respect for any woman and a mother" .... I saw in that moment what that meant to him and how that respect for a woman was so important to him ... that I never ever ate meat again.
I heard lots and lots of explanations people gave about creating bad energy and bad karma when they killed animals and how that effected the chemical composition of their body if they ate meat ... talking form a perspective of healthy and spiritual living but here is the picture I got: Insects and other small creatures are not yet at a stage of their spiritual development where they understand the importance of being a parent and the beauty of motherhood and creation, they are driven only by their instincts to procreate but are not conscious of what they are doing or their deeper part in this world. On the other hand creatures who have that sense and already conscious of their love for their young do deserve proper respect.
This does not justify much in a sense that technically we should not kill anything consciously but we do need to survive as well and take care of our families so somewhere there is a line we need to cross without guilt. Not eating meat is already a great leap in the direction of respect and harmony with other living beings.
Sometimes I find that the best attitude to have about these things is to respect all living beings and forgive ourselves for having do what we have to do to survive the best we can on this planet, as long as we do it out of necessity and not out of pleasure or anger or some other motive it may just be OK.

I am sure all of this does not fully answer your concern but I hope it helps.

DKK



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