Acharya Prashant explains that the whole issue arises because man has left the jungle but has not yet reached the destination he set out for. Man is in a very precarious position, stuck in between. Animals are well-settled in the jungle, and the free ones, the Buddhas, are also well-settled, but man is unsettled and restless. Animals are not restless; they are well-settled in the jungle. The liberated ones, the sages, and the fakirs are also well-settled. However, the world's population, man in general, is highly unsettled and restless. He is neither in the jungle nor in the place he left the jungle for; he is in the city. The speaker critiques the selective application of what is considered natural. For instance, while producing babies is natural, it is not natural to produce them only with one's wife, as that does not happen in the jungle. One cannot selectively quote nature. You either become totally natural and go back to the jungle, or you say that the jungle is now behind us and our center is not the body, not nature, but illumination, and we operate from there. You don't like being restless; you want to be helped. Just as you want to be helped, you should help the other one as well. It does not help the other one to slaughter him. The other one is just like you; he too is a feverish, struggling consciousness. If you have no compassion for somebody who is just like you, it only means you have no love for yourself. If you cannot help your mirror image, you are not helping yourself. The other conscious and struggling being is your mirror image, different only in trivial externalities like name, shape, form, age, and species. Essentially, he too is a consciousness clamoring and longing for a final rest. Do you want to bring him to that final rest, or do you want to slaughter him and give him rest? An animal is so much like us; we are the animal. In slaughtering the animal, you are only proving that you do not care about yourself at all. The animal wants exactly the same thing that you want, it's just that he is far behind you in the same queue and is therefore far less likely to get what you might get. When you say, "I am suffering, somebody please help me," you are operating on the principle that if somebody is suffering, they need to be helped. This principle has to be universal. The same principle works on the animal as well. The animal is also suffering, and what it needs is help. It needs your embrace; it does not need to be on your plate. The speaker acknowledges that this reasoning may not resonate with those who have a set mind or preconceived notions, who can easily find loopholes or quote scriptures to disprove the point. However, for those who already carry some empathy, they will know what is being said.
