Ajita Pande
Student Of Medicine
I was born to a Hindu family. While Bhagawat Geeta taught me to live with compassion, during my childhood, each year, I witnessed an innocent, terrified creature, a goat and hens, gettinh slaughtered within our compound during Dashain. It did entertain our taste buds for ten or so minutes and that's it. Little did I know about the cruelty we inflict on our fellow earthlings then. However, I soon began to question the senseless everyday practices, the cruelty and hypocrisy behind them.
I grew up to enter medical profession. All the while, I kept wondering about the world that requires killing innocent animals and birds for ‘healthy living’. However, the more I learned about medicine, human physiology and health, the more I found that meat and most animal products are not really essential for our health in general. I myself a living evidence (happy fit and healthy without a piece of meat.) At the same time, it became increasingly clear to me that though most animals may not share our intellect, they are equally capable of suffering and share our desire to live and survive without being harmed or tortured.
However, I see them suffering every day for reasons barely ever justifiable. Ever wondered what it is like to be tied up outside a meat shop and witness your own friend/family members being put to death? I see them shiver as the butcher prepares boiling water to immerse them. I see sentient beings, equally capable of suffering, subjected to a life full of mistreatment. I see us, humans, blissfully unaware and ignorant about our everyday choices that create unnecessary suffering for countless animals.
Today, we have enough alternatives to animal products. We do not require meat to survive, skin to cover up, and fur to keep us warm: we do not live in the Stone Age. So, I wonder why it is so difficult for us to choose compassion, living and survive without putting an end to other creatures.
I also see people getting pets, just to abandon them soon after thrill is gone. They stray around with empty stomach and aching body, wagging their tail to each passerby with eyes full of expectations. In return, they receive hatred and neglect and eventually die a slow painful death, diseased and starved. The list of abuses goes on.
I have a dream: it may be very long in coming but it is not unachievable. I dream of an earth that belongs to my earthlings, a place where every sentient being lives a natural life and is not killed or abused in the name of taste, entertainment, clothing, cosmetics and tradition. That’s my definition of paradise.
I know majority of people believe that they are somehow entitled to decide on other animals’ lives; however, I hope more of us will have the correct insight and courage to stand for what is right in coming days, as the ignorance fade away.
I hope someday I will wake up to the paradise that I have always dreamed where my earthlings and human living in harmony, full of love and compassion until the last breath.
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