How can people who care for pets and aspire to be vets still eat meat?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.
So, we have people who are very caring for animals. Say, they have pets whom they take care of and they want to become veterinarians and care for animals. But at the same time, they eat meat also.
On the other hand, we don't eat meat but we don't care for animals. We don't care for pets or we don't have that kind of concern for animals. So, how does this happen? See, our consciousness is often shaped by our culture.
So, a lot of factors shape what we are sensitive of and what we are desensitized to. For many people, especially in the western part of the world, you know, meat eating is just a normal part of life. So, often they just don't make the conscious connection between the meat on their flesh and the pain of death that is inflicted on animals to get that food.
So, they just don't make any connection like that. I think it was John Lennon who said that if slaughterhouses had glass walls, the whole world would be vegetarian. So, most people are actually not aware of the extent of the pain that is caused in animal slaughter.
It is just a normal part of the diet. We, very few people actually question that which is just normal in their culture and that which is just done by almost everyone. So, at one level, that is one, rather than condemning people because they are meat eaters, we can see that they are coming from a particular culture where meat eating is just a norm and that is why they are also eating meat.
But along with that, their sensitivity towards animals is seen through the fact that, as I said, they take care of pets, they take enormous care of pets. They also take care of, they may be animal doctors or they may provide animal care. Now, there is, from the spiritual perspective, this is from the cultural perspective, that yes, there is a culture of taking care of pets, there is a culture of becoming a, there is some inspiration coming from the culture from someone of becoming a veterinarian doctor.
So, that is good. So, that from a cultural perspective, much of our behavior is shaped by the kind of people we have lived with and for people who, for whom meat eating is just a norm, to judge them as low, to label them as meat eaters is unfair, actually. We have to be understanding.
Certainly, awareness can be provided and many times, many people, when they become aware of the magnitude of suffering that is involved, they do give up meat eating. That is why we see vegan consciousness coming up in the West in quite a significant way. Now, we see in India, many people are vegetarian not because they are very concerned about animals.
Now, we eat, we are vegetarians simply because that is a part of our culture. So, we may eat, we may, because say, eating meat is frowned upon in our culture, so we avoid eating meat. But whether that, so whether our abstaining from meat is because of our sensitization to the pain that animals are going through, that is something which we all have to introspect.
Often, we talk about how much pain is caused to animals, primarily when we have to talk with meat eaters and we want to persuade them to, we want to give them some rationale for not eating meat. But are we sensitized to the suffering of animals? It is a question which we have to honestly answer and as I said, we may, many of us may be avoiding meat simply because it is a part of our culture and many people may be eating meat simply because it is a part of the culture. So, we can't equate a more elevated consciousness with no meat eating and we can't equate a degraded consciousness with meat eating.
Meat eating is one factor, but as I said, meat eating or not meat eating may just be because of cultural factors other than any spiritual consciousness. So, as devotees, we may be avoiding eating meat, but we may, ourselves may be very harsh and insensitive and judgmental towards other devotees, towards other living beings. So, then whether the sensitization of our consciousness has happened or not, we can't really see that.
So, we all have to take stock in our own heart and try to become more sensitized towards others and their sufferings or whether they be humans or non-humans. And as I said, sometimes there may be non-devotees who may be more sensitized about certain things than us. So, we appreciate that sensitization of their consciousness and we try to help them to spiritualize it.
So, there may be some materialistic people who may be very sensitized in their consciousness and if they get proper spiritual knowledge, then for them spiritualizing their consciousness will also be much easier. For us, we may not be at all sensitized for many things and then we may not become spiritualized also. So, we may be practicing spirituality, but we may not really have a very spiritual consciousness.
So, we may just be practicing something because it's a part of our culture, part of our tradition. But whether our consciousness is elevated or not, that's something which we have to see. Now, having said that, there's another aspect to this also that from a spiritual perspective, we all need someone to love.
Prabhupada would say that if we don't love God, we will end up loving dog. So, sometimes the care for animals or care for pets that people show, that can become obsessive and compulsive. There are people who spend fortunes on their dogs, on their pets.
In fact, there is a whole branch of, there are psychologists for dogs. Can you imagine? So, that is, oh my dog is getting depressed. Can you please counsel the dog? Just like there is yoga, there is something called doga.
Doga is yoga that is performed by a dog or that yoga is performed with a dog. So, the pet, the dog owner and the dog, they perform yoga together. It's called doga.
So, now in this case, it happens that they may be super sensitive to the pains of a dog, to the emotions of a dog, but they completely desensitize to everything else. So, the dog has become their substitute for Krishna. Now, if that has happened and that is unfortunate, that is misdirected.
But so, in that case, it is very Rajasic or even Tamasic where that other object has become a substitute for Krishna. But we all have to make our consciousness more sensitized and give the benefit of doubt to others when they are doing something simply because of cultural considerations. And if we give them proper spiritual knowledge, often they, people who are spiritually sensitive, they often are quite open to giving up meat eating if things are explained to them properly.
So, thank you. Hare Krishna.