Meat cannot be obtained without injury to animals, and the slaughter of
animals obstructs the way to Heaven; let him therefore shun the use of meat.
The Laws of Manu V, 45 - 52
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its
animals are treated.
Mahatma Gandhi, The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism
It ill becomes us to invoke in our daily prayers the blessings of God, the
compassionate, if we in turn will not practice elementary compassion towards our
Vegetarianism is a natural and obvious way to live with a minimum of hurt to
other beings. . . . The act of the butcher begins with the desire of the
consumer. . . . A great Hindu scripture puts it nicely: "How can he
practice true compassion who eats the flesh of an animal to fatten his own
"We observe November 25 worldwide as Meatless Day because of the cruelty involved. Hundreds of thousands of
animals are being slaughtered every day; but they love life as much as you and I
do, as much as those people do who eat them up. I believe it is injustice, because
creation is one family. The breath that animals take is the same breath that we take.
They are our kindred, our kin. It is the duty of man to protect his younger brothers and sisters in the one family of
creation. And I believe animals should be given their rights. Today wherever I go,
they talk of animal welfare. Animal welfare is not the answer -- animal rights are needed. . . Every animal has certain
fundamental rights and the first right of every animal is the right to live; for you
must not take away what you cannot give. And since you cannot give life to a dead
creature, you have no right to take away the life of a living one. The 18th century gave rights to man, the 19th
century gave rights to slaves, and the 20th century gave rights to women. The 21st century, I verily
believe, will give rights to animals, and that will be a glorious day in the history of humanity. I
believe there will be no peace on Earth unless we stop all killing."
Dada J. P. Vaswani
Spiritual Head, Sadhu Vaswani Mission in an interview in Hinduism Today, Jan/Feb/March, 2003, pp. 52-53.
"I now take soy milk instead of cow's milk because the cows are very cruelly treated in factory farming. Ever since I
learned about it nine or ten years ago, I gave up milk. I believe it's the food of
violence. The cows are confined to a small area. They can't move and are just milk
Dada J. P. Vaswani
Spiritual Head, Sadhu Vanwani Mission in an interview in Hinduism Today, Jan/Feb/March, 2003, pg. 52.