Lost in abstraction - 1There are many practices in different cultures around the planet which reflect some great thinking that went on in the past in those cultures. While those practices might be followed to some extent in the respective cultures, the idea is usually abstracted out of the general populace. The problem with this is that in the face of rapid onslaught by new and alien ideas, the practices get dissolved and the great ideas behind the practices are usually destroyed often with devastating consequences. I have thought of a few such things in Indian culture that have been abstracted out. Planning on writing a post for each such thing that I feel have been abstracted out. This one is about human relationship with animals.
The great sages of ancient India played a huge role in shaping Indian culture and the practices in the society. It is an impossibly complex task to study and understand precisely how some of the beliefs of the sages have shaped the culture but the impact of their thought on popular culture is pretty evident. All the sages whom I have read about do not think that an animal life is any less important than a human life. They see the same supreme consciousness in every atom of the universe. From the
Gita which says [1], the enlightened man sees a learned and gentle human, a dog, a dog-eater and an elephant as all having the same supreme consciousness, to the
Thirukural which has about 10 couplets that advices against consumption of meat [2], there are many great works that attempts to drive home the fact that humans are no more important than animals and we need to learn to co-exist with them. All this did have a tremendous effect on our cultural practices and day today activities. The most easily observable consequence is that India has the largest concentration of vegetarians in the planet. This obviously stemmed from an inherent respect for other species in Indian culture. Some day today activities that reflect this are:
a.) Many animals are related with gods as their vehicles and are treated as sacred
b.) Co-existence of animals and humans in villages and not confining them to specific areas
c.) Mythological stories of how kings give justice to even animals [3]
d.) Farming practices that tried to keep pests away rather than kill them
e.) Household cleanliness practices that made way for small insects than kill them
f.) Medicinal practices that did not require torturing and killing animals en-masse for human healthOne of the primary reasons of doing these things was certainly the ability of the sages to see the requirement of humans to co-exist with other species. The requirement is to not see them as resources to better ourselves but to see them as fellow inhabitants of this planet. But, many of the contemporary practices seem to indicate that either people have lost the purpose in these practices or dont have sufficient information to make them realize their activities are in direct violation of these beliefs.
For e.g., I still remember my younger days when my parents used to advice me to not lay my sleeping mat too close to the corners of the rooms. The reason being that cockroaches and ants use that corner and in mutual interest dont occupy that space. But, today we have many many products in the market that guarantee that it will kill all household insects. People use this indiscriminately on cockroaches and spiders though they themselves are vegetarians for the sake of not killing a life form. The sacredness of these fellow living beings are unfortunately lost on these people.
I have seen quite a few documentaries on organic farming that describe [4] a variety of ways to prevent pests from destroying crops without outrightly killing them. But now, with the advent of the famed green revolution, chemical intensive farming has become the norm. The sole aim of such techniques is to kill every 'unnecessary' life form that even remotely threatens the crops. Is the sacredness of life lost or the fact that insects are life forms are lost?
All modern medicines have to be tested on animals for toxicity. Obviously, for every correct medicine there should have been a hundred other wrong ones resulting in tremendous pain and torment for the animals. Animals with diseases are not treated but animals are created with diseases. We see countless articles on how rats and other insects are created with cancerous cells. Also in order to subject these animals to such tests, they have to be brought from their natural surroundins into totally unfamiliar territory. The movie 'Instinct' [5] has a beautiful scene on this when a researcher explains the effects of the caging on those animals to a psychiatrist (in fact the whole movie is beautiful). Similar is the case of cosmetics. Many cosmetics are made out of animal products. Even if they are not, almost all of them are tested on animals for human usability. While one might feel one can't stop taking medicines due to animal testing, it certainly is not the case with cosmetics.
Google video and
youtube are littered with videos of animals being tortured in the lab for testing. Again the supposed sacredness of other animals are lost in abstraction by our complicity with the cosmetic industry in particular and also by the consumption of modern medicine.
The atrocities being committed on fellow living beings are huge and are justified in a variety of ways. The movie Instinct [5] has another beautiful scene where a primatologist explains his reasons for staying with primates for two years to a psychiatrist. He explains that the primates accepted him into their family which demonstrates very clearly that they can co-exist with humans. On the other hand, its we humans who have lost the plot and constantly wage a war on other living beings. To most of the society, animals are nothing more than complicated robots. They have been pre-programmed to do certain things and that they don't have free will. And hence, their right to existence is never recognized. The fact that animals have emotions is mostly lost on the general populace. Researchers and scientists have time and again been harping on the fact that many animals are no different from us in this aspect [6, 7]. Other research also suggests that some animals could actually have free will and are not the complicated robots that we think of them to be [8].
In short, by our silent complicity, I feel we are also taking part in this war against other species. The sacredness of all forms of lives has been lost on us. This is truly a sad reality. Each person should try to sever his/her relationship to this war. There is no global solution to this. It is upto the individual to realize this and act accordingly.
Tolstoy said [9], '
As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields.' I think this should be extended to 'As long as there are slaughterhouses, animal testing of cosmetics/medicines, pesticides, household insect control chemicals etc etc..., there will be battlefileds, cancer, etc...' That is, humanity will know no peace as long its hands are stained with the blood of other species. As long as we see other species as something inferior, there can be no peace on our planet.
Reference[1]
Bhagawadgita: Chapter 5, verse 18[2]
Thirukural: verse 251-260 - Abstaining from eating meat[3]
Story of Manu needhi cholan[4]
Slow poisoning of India[5]
Movie 'Instinct' on IMDB[6]
The secret life of moody cows[7]
What separates from the apes - talk by Jane Goodall[8]
Do fruit flies have free will[9]
Vegetarian quotes
