00:00People born in vegetarian families who have been taught to be vegetarian from day one,
00:04they do not get the punya that a person who consciously takes the decision to stop eating meat gets.
00:36Abhayam is fearlessness. If you know what you're doing is right and according to dharma,
00:40there shouldn't be fear and hesitation in performing that activity.
00:44One should be fearless in that respect.
00:46Sattva samshuddhi, one should constantly purify the psyche, the inner, you know, the sattva.
00:52Jnana yoga vyavastitihi, ahimsa, one should try to constantly cultivate Jnana yoga,
00:58learning about the true nature of the world and of the self.
01:01The ahimsa is non-violence. Even preventing violence counts as ahimsa.
01:06So if you are assigned the duty to protect your people, protect your family, that is your dharma.
01:11If someone else is trying to come in the way of your duty and break your duty,
01:17you are entitled to stop that violence with violence and that is considered ahimsa.
01:21The absence of doing that would be ahimsa.
01:24So ahimsa is basically non-violence, including the prevention of violence when you are tasked to prevent.
01:29And different people have different duties here.
01:33Ahimsa is an important dharma. It is known as paramo dharma.
01:36And we all must practice it.
01:38For example, where violence is not at all required, we're living in the 21st century.
01:42We really don't eat slaughter animals on such a large scale and keep eating them, causing so much pain to
01:47them.
01:48And we can really substitute everything we derive from that torture with something else that is santric.
01:55At least most of us who can, should.
01:57Those who can't, we can help them do it gradually.
02:00And the biggest positive of this is that people born in vegetarian families who have been taught to be vegetarian
02:05from day one,
02:06they do not get the punya that a person who consciously takes the decision to stop eating meat gets.
02:13For example, the Mahabharata states that a person who stops consuming meat out of compassion for the animals,
02:20out of the desire to purify oneself, gets the punya of a thousand maha-yajnas, maha-kratus.
02:26And that we do not get, basically.
02:29Because our parents taught us from day one not to consume meat and hence we did not have the agency,
02:33we did not have to think of it.
02:34For those who think of it and change, they are really great and I admire them.
02:38And those who become vegans from that stage, they are yogis.
02:41So I think Ahimsa is a gradual practice and it is a very beautiful practice.
02:45And that's one key takeaway I'd like to give to those who are listening today.
02:49You might have already heard it, but...
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