“I stared first at the meat chucks and then at the cows. At that moment the mother cow leaned over to lick my leg. “My heart cried. Why should a beautiful life be slaughtered to eat some meat? She loves her child. And this innocent calf loves his mother. Why had I blindly participated in this? Why are we all so blind and deaf to the horror in every slaughterhouse? How has human society become so insensitive to the cruelties inflicted upon these children of God? Although the meat I had been eating was not cow meat, this was the first time I had made the connection between my diet and the suffering of animals. Thinking of the thousands of animals killed every day in America, I lost my composure and dissolved into tears.”
Radhanath Swami, Spiritual Teacher and Author of The Journey Home
Ahimsa Living
Ahimsa literally means non-harming or non-violence, however, instead of the absence of violence, it can be thought of as the presence of dynamic, active compassion and caring.
One of the most unique contributions that Indian spirituality has made to world history is its long and enduring culture of vegetarianism and nonviolence, followed to some degree by all three of its major indigenous dharma traditions: Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain. For practitioners, ahimsa is one of the highest principles of ethical conduct and universal harmony. We believe that all life is sacred, and we have no right to take this precious gift.
The Ahimsa Living Project was created to bring two worlds together: the dharma traditions and veganism, as they are natural sister communities and allies.
Vegans can have a clear conscious knowing that we are doing what we can to ease the suffering of animals, helping preserve the environment, and eliminating our own karma. In these ancient traditions, needlessly killing other sentient beings leads to the worst kind of karma. Our actions have consequences and killing sentient animals is considered adharmic or against dharma. We invite you to go deeper into the three main dharma religions, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain dharma and explore their sacred connection to Ahimsa and by extension, veganism.
Hindu Dharma
Simply by protection of cows all the wonderful benefits of religiosity and piety will be automatically achieved without any separate endeavor.” (Purport: Shrimad-Bhagavatam 4.21.38) Hinduism is a vast compendium of shared stories, concepts, rituals, cosmology,...