Questioner: Pranaam Acharya Ji. My name is Akshaya and I am 14 years old. I've been doing sessions and watching you with my mother for 2 years. And my question is that I have seen some, a lot of pro players, mostly tennis players who use tennis rackets of cow's gut strings.
And they are actually vegan and a lot of people appreciate that they are vegan and they don't do any animal cruelty. So I want to ask if they are turning vegan for their own reasons because of their improvement and instructions from their coaches, ‘Are they changing anything at all?’
Acharya Prashant: See, even those things are happening. Sports equipment is undergoing a change. Also the guts, the cords, were called guts specifically because they were made of animal’s intestines. That's the reason you used to call them guts. But sports technology has advanced and more and more you have these strings that are no longer made of animal material. I do not know of specific players who are vegan and are yet using these animal strings.
But technology has provided the choice that you don't need. See, you have to understand something. Human history hasn't exactly been of compassion. You look at arts, sciences, any field of human endeavor and you will find animal products are everywhere because that's the way we have been. When a large animal like a buffalo, a cow or bull; every part of its body is used somewhere, mostly industrially which means that everything, almost everything that comes to you contains or is likely to contain some animal, animal product or even if it's not having an animal product, it's possible that something from animals has been used in its manufacturing. That is because our history has not been of compassion.
You look at music for example, you look at your tabla, your dholak, these things, many of the musical instruments and you know you are using animal skin, that’s animal skin. You also see that there is a lot of use of wood there. But even if you keep wood aside, the animal skin is very visible in the musical instruments. Same thing for your sports. You look at cricket, the ball, it's a leather ball. There is leather because that's the way we have been. So that kind of ignorance and indifference and cruelty It exposes itself, reveals itself in whatever we do.
This sugar that you get. Animal products are used in the processing of sugar. There is hardly any industrial product that is totally free of animal cruelty. In that context, sports too carry the imprint of animal cruelty which is not necessary but that's how it currently is. As human consciousness awakens and that's our endeavor, you will find that the need to put an animal, something somewhere; that need decreases because it's just a matter of tradition, convention, habit. It is unimaginable that creating a racket string of the right kind of polymer cannot fetch the same results as the racket string made of animal guts. So, science is obviously advanced enough to create those things. It's just that we are not feeling the need. These medicines that you take, many of them contain animal products.
Most of them, in fact, contain animal products. And the ones that do not contain animal products have been tested on animals. The cosmetic products that you use. It's winter these days. Getting the right clothing for oneself is quite a task. In some way or the other, there is wool or something there. You want footwear, again you have to spend five times energy in getting a simple pair of sandals and even if you get it and even if you are told that this is cruelty-free product still you can never be 100% sure that it, indeed, is a waste belt. You just don't know a shirt. You don't know the entire chain of its manufacturing and also of its logistics. It is possible that there is some animal cruelty, somewhere in the supply chain and all of that is coming from a single point and the point is human ignorance.
If you can deal with human ignorance only then there is the chance, we will be more friendly, more compassionate towards animals, otherwise as I said, you have a 600 kg animal and you cut it and every bit of 600 kilograms is put to use somewhere. The one who cuts it, it will not let go anything waste. If it can be exploited for material gain, it will be exploited. And whatever waste product that remains, whatever it is that cannot be sold to anybody, that will be used to destroy the environment. That will flow into a river or that will go into the soil and up the groundwater. That's how we have been, just not self-aware, just not knowing our relationship with the environment with other species.
Since we don't know who we are, therefore we do not know what our right relationship with everything must be. Therefore, we are cruel in as many ways as possible. This cruelty cannot be challenged in a fractured way. You cannot say, ‘Oh! you know, that fellow, he was cutting buffalo and I stopped him and I have done a great job. Obviously, if I too find somebody cutting a buffalo, I too will, by humanity, want to stop him. But I would also know that that serves no larger purpose.
The life of one buffalo is saved but nothing beyond that. If you really want to make a difference then you will have to attack the problem at its center and the center is lack of self-knowledge. The center is ego. As we become more self-aware, all kinds of animal cruelty will decrease.
Otherwise, a sectoral approach, a fragmented approach will at most make you feel good about yourself. You know, I was able to rescue one goat and one dog and so I'm a good fellow. I'll feel good about myself. But in the bigger picture, it does no favor to the animals or to the environment.
Questioner: Thank you, Acharya Ji.
Acharya Prashant: Welcome.