How does spirituality relate with animal rights?

Podcast

Transcript

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does it answer the question? so the higher power within us which maintains us through digestion but then is this higher power present in animals also sometimes thinking of this higher power may make us more proud and we disrespect and we neglect animals because of that so how does this understanding of spirituality say correlate with with awareness of animal rights or sensitivity towards animals the Bhagavad Gita explains that we are not that higher power we are parts of that higher power and just as we are part of that higher power all life is also part of that higher power so it says it says it says a wise person sees all life forms be it human, be it a dog be a elephant, be a cow all animals, all living beings see equally because they see the spark of spirit within them that’s why those who actually are of spiritually advanced consciousness they abstain from causing harm to animals at the very least that means we strive to be vegetarians.
Vegetarianism is just one part of it a whole spiritual world view where we understand that we and all living beings are essentially whether human or non-human we are all members of the same one family now are we superior we are not superior in essence we are all souls who are all similar but we are different in that we have a body and a mind which is more equipped that means we can think existential questions who am I, what is the purpose of my life these are fundamental questions that animals cannot ask but that doesn’t mean they are permanently deprived their souls are there in animal bodies also and there is transmigration that happens by which the souls will also come to human bodies in future and they will also be having the capacity to inquire spiritually so in that sense the spiritual world view is a world view of egalitarianism we understand that everybody is spiritually similar are we similar with the animals yes, as far as the body is concerned we are similar as far as the body is concerned the body functions for eating, sleeping, mating defending, their biological drive to survive to reproduce, all this is common in humans and animals so in that sense the body basic bodily functions are similar but we humans want to do something more than what the body offers a cow will keep eating grass year after year after year we human beings try to improve our food we have so many hundreds of cuisines we have we don’t keep eating the same food again day after day a cow may sleep under the same tree we create so many different kinds of houses in which we want to live so the tendency towards improvement that is there we see in the human beings this is an undeniable difference between humans and animals that’s why we humans have developed science we have developed art, we have developed literature we have developed language so many areas we have developed that’s because we have the capacity for improving things which is meant to be directed spiritually so when we direct it materially then we make certain improvements in some fields like say science or arts or something like that when we direct it spiritually then we make the maximum improvement so we don’t in any way disrespect animals and if there is a sense of superiority that comes thinking that we are spiritual and animals are not that is a misunderstanding so we have certain gifts right now in the human body which we should use but while using them we don’t think that we are superior to other animals we understand that they are also at their core spiritual beings and they also need to be respected does this answer your question? yeah any other questions?