Acharya Prashant: In general, human beings are not cannibals. We do not eat other men and women, do we? Why don't we ask ourselves: “Why don't we eat other men and women? If flesh is what we want to eat, then why kill animals?” There are many who say, “Eating flesh is alright.” If eating flesh is alright, why is it not alright to eat human flesh? It is not alright to eat human flesh. A line is drawn between the human being and the animal. You say, “No, the human being cannot be eaten because he is highly conscious.”
I want you to draw the line between the apple and the animal. You are anyway drawing a line. It's not that you eat flesh wherever it is available. A new-born has no defenses at all; you can easily kill it and eat it, can’t you? I am talking of a new-born human baby. Why don’t you kill a human baby if flesh is all that you want? Why don't even habitual flesh eaters eat human babies or human beings? It does not occur to them, right? I am asking them to introspect—why don't you eat human beings? You don’t eat human beings because human beings are conscious, because human beings are hungry for liberation. And consciousness is your only hope and consciousness is your only savior. Therefore, you do not want to disrespect consciousness by killing a conscious being.
Even the most ardent supporters of flesh eating do not become cannibals. They do not eat human beings. They do draw a line. I am asking: If you are drawing a line, why must only human beings be beyond the line? Why can not you be more discreet in keeping somebody out of bounds? Right now, you are drawing the line in such a way that animals are within the edible territory, and human beings are outside the line, they have been exempted. Now, draw the line with more discretion, more compassion, more consciousness.
Keep even animals outside the line, which means that you will still be killing someone to eat. And who would that be? You would probably be killing plants; you would probably be killing grass. And now that you are killing creatures, beings, things that are less conscious, see whether you still keep being more discreet. Is it really impossible to eat without killing a plant? It is possible, at least it must be tried. If you cannot altogether avoid killing plants, see whether you can minimize it. I understand that even the best of your efforts would not fully succeed. Some plants would probably always need to be killed for human consumption, and that would mean that something conscious is still being killed. But that is the maximum you can do.
