I rarely used to think about the ethics of eating meat. My concern was not for animals, but for myself. I thought that if eating animals is wrong, then I may get punished by karma. When I considered the ‘right or wrong’ of eating meat, I used to give myself silly excuses like “we kill and eat plants even though they have life”, “food chain” and “it’s okay to eat animals which are bred for the purpose of meat”. I considered these excuses as facts so that I can continue eating meat without any fear. Yes, I say fear because guilt was never in my mind as I never empathized with the animals whose flesh I used to eat.
Consumption of animal products was always the norm because of the upbringing in my family and due to society, which never encourages thinking about consuming animals’ meat, milk and other things which contribute to animal cruelty.
When I came to know about Acharya Prashant, I started watching his educational videos like: how to focus on studies, how our mind works, etc. His videos provided me with so much clarity. Soon, I started following him regularly & watched his videos on various topics.
On the morning of 30th October 2020, one of his short videos popped up in my recommendations. That video was about meat and it was quite thought provoking. It opened my eyes because for the very first time in my life, I imagined myself in the position of the animals whom I used to eat. I considered it seriously. How would I feel in the place of the chickens, fish and goat?
Then, I realised the stupidity of the excuses I used to give myself. I came to know that plants are indeed living beings, but they are not sentient, as they don't have a central nervous system. So, they are unable to feel pain. When I thought about the food chain, it was not that difficult to realize that we are not part of the food chain anymore.
That day, I watched a lot of videos about impact on animals when we eat meat and realized that meat eating can never be justified, just like child abuse, rape and other injustices. That evening, I watched a 49 minutes speech about animal rights by
Arvind, an animal rights activist. I watched it carefully and gained a lot of clarity and learned a new word: vegan.
Until then, I thought that only meat and leather were wrong. But, after listening to the speech, I came to know that dairy is equally cruel and I could not believe it. I was in complete shock. I decided to find out about dairy from other sources, so I searched and got a detailed video -
Unholy Cattle of India. I could not believe it.
To confirm whether everything in that video was true, I called one of my friends whose father has a dairy farm. He confirmed that it was true but told me to not get emotional and that it’s normal to artificially impregnate cows and buffaloes. He said that all the practices are compulsory to make the business profitable and that at the end of the day, it is about money. I cried so much after finding out that everything explained in the video was true. I felt very sad and disheartened because I was a part of the dairy and meat industry for 18 years of my life. I could not sleep that night because what I witnessed was so eye-opening. When I faced the truth, it did not take much time for the realization to set in.
I told my younger sister and mother about this and showed them the videos. They too connected with the animals who are the victims. We realized that it does not make sense to love one animal, but eat another. We have a dog and we love her. We realized that the chickens, fish, goats, cows and other animals who are made to go through hell are as innocent as our dog, so we eradicated speciesism from our lives and decided to go vegan.
Going vegan for me and my sister was not at all hard because we asked each other this question: Which one is easy:
• To stop being a part of the animal Holocaust by going vegan and not taking things that did not belong to us or,
• To let innocent voiceless beings suffer so much pain, suffering, lifetime in jail, continuous sexual abuse and finally, murder?
We were clear that now, whatever happens, we will never support this injustice. I promised myself that I will not only be a vegan, but also use my voice for the voiceless to raise awareness among people to make them understand how their daily choices are affecting an innocent voiceless being. I never had any transition phase.
After turning vegan, I found that one needs three things to go vegan: awareness, honesty and empathy. Since then, I have become more open minded and my ability to analyse things and situations critically has improved a lot. Now, I feel fitter and more energetic than ever. I feel I have become more friendly and honest.
My advice to non-vegans would be: Visit slaughterhouses and dairy farms, or watch the footage of what is happening there and honestly ask yourself:
• How would I feel if I were them?
• Do I really have to eat their dead body parts?
• If my taste is causing so much pain and suffering to an innocent animal who has done no harm to me, is it worth it?
If you are against the injustice happening to cows in the dairy industry, and chickens and goats in the slaughterhouse, then it should be enough to go vegan.
To all the animal rights activists out there, remember, Veganism is a social justice movement just like our freedom struggle. Our freedom fighters fought for our human liberation. We activists are fighting for animal liberation. It’s an honour to be a part of this freedom struggle.
Hello everyone, I’m Chandan Mohapatra, a first year college student staying in Bangalore. I belong to an Odiya family. I love reading, watching videos about spirituality and I am into fitness activities like running, rope skipping, football and swimming. I do activism by making videos to raise awareness about animal rights. I have a younger sister and we both decided to go vegan together around a year back.
