Vegetarianism is Not About the Environment, but About Caste

Buddhist, Jain and Hindu scriptures tell one common tale of a hawk chasing a sparrow.

- Devdutt Pattanaik

A king offers shelter to the sparrow. The hawk demands food from the king.

Who should die so that the sparrow should live? Why is a herbivore worthy of a king's protection, and not a carnivore? Why should a carnivore starve so that the herbivore may live? This story was probably meant to challenge Ashoka's ideas of non-violence as a spiritual act of kindness. It is not.

Sanatan Dharma begins with the idea of food. To stay alive we have to eat. Eating is violent. Consumption is violent. To be non-violent one has to stop consuming.

Hence fasting, which is key to Jain practices. When fasting caused Buddha to faint he realised the path of moderation. Hindus spoke of feeding to balance the eating. This understanding of food is missing in modern understanding of Vedanta and Hinduism.

Consumption is an extremely violent process, and therefore, those who contribute to the consumption economy are essentially violent people.

It is a simple fact known to anyone who studies the Vedas.

In the Vedas, all forms of hunger whether desire, ambition, or aspiration-demand food, and the creation of food involves the killing of plants and animals on a very large scale.