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Jai jinendra. I am a Jain and this message is for all Jains in the world. As a true Jain, I want to believe in Jainism but also want to follow it according to its principles. Today I need just 30 minutes of your valuable time to share with you some information that I think you do not yet know. I hope you will sit and listen to this whole audio, preferably with your family so that it benefits all of you. By the end of this audio, you will learn something that you did not know but more importantly it might improve your life .I think you also feel proud about being a Jain just like I do. I think Jain community is special becauseEven though we are a minority religion, we have over 94% literacy rateWe are very active in business community and thus responsible for India’s progress and developmentBeing a minority has never stopped us from succeeding. We have proved to the world that if you work hard, you can achieve all success.In the whole world, vegetarian people are the healthiest. Among these people, Jains are probably the healthiest because we have some great rules about what to eat and what not to eat which keeps us at our best health possible.Jain community is so successful primarily because our religion has given us some very strong and clear guidelines for our diet and lifestyle. These principles are so strong that in spite of being an ancient religion, we are still modern and relevant in the world today. The principles of Jainism are based on a combination of science as well as spirituality. Jainism is also unique in a way that it is the most ancient religion that gave guidelines around diet, and not just lifestyle. Jains have been successful all over the world, wherever we have moved.Jain religion has evolved over time as the situations and environment changed while keeping its core principles intact and that makes it a very special religion.Let us see how Jainism principles are still relevant in today’s world.Principle 1: Ahimsa or non-violence - According to Jainism, its followers should minimize any harm to any living beings. Since humans are capable of surviving on just plant foods, humans should not be killing animals for food. Modern science tells us that animals or people who depend upon just plant foods, do minimal harm to environment and transform energy more efficiently.Principle 2: Aparigraha or non-possession - Jainism states that we should minimize the material things we use in our life. This is a great principle and aligns well with reduce, reuse and recycle principles of environmentalism in today’s world.Principle 3: Anekantvad or multiple viewpoints - Jainism believes that any truth has multiple sides and you cannot prove anything without looking at many sides. This principle teaches us that we have to respect everyone’s viewpoint. In today’s world scientific discoveries are made using this principle. Also, if everyone in the world applied this principle, there would be more harmony among various peoples.It is hard to say when Jainism originated because it is one of the most ancient religions in the world and there hasn’t been historical evidence to prove its exact origins and timeframe. Mahavir Swami was 24th Tirthankar of Jainism. He traveled across India for 12 years and interacted with many people and learnt how people lived and what can they do to improve their life. He preached the principles of Ahimsa, Aparigraha and Anekantvad to these people. He knew that these three principles will form a great foundation for people to be kind to each other and the environment. His principles are really the ones that connect people to animals (through Ahimsa), people to nature (through Aparigraha) and people to people (through Anekantvad). It was probably the best way to live then and even today.Mahavir Swami and his followers also incorporated principles of healthy diets from Ayurveda which was far advanced in India by that time. As an example, Jainism states that we should only eat strict vegetarian foods. Ayurveda also states that the best health is possible when you eat fruits, veggies, grains and seeds. Modern science has also proven that plant-eating animals transform sun’s energy in the most efficient way possible. In other words, plant-eating animals are almost like “solar powered”.Jainism also states that we should not eat after sunset. According to modern science, if you don’t eat for 3 hours before sleep then you will have much better sleep and your memory improves and you live longer.Jainism states that during the months of monsoon, we should not eat green vegetables. In old times, green vegetables would be spoiled during monsoon due to heavy rains and insects. During this time, beans and grains can be used because these crops can be stored away for long. Modern science promotes agriculture system where every farm should rotate the crops such that beans and legumes should be grown at least one season in a year to improve soil quality and nitrogen. So Jainism actually supported an excellent farming system, soil quality and best possible health outcome all at once.As you can see, Jainism is very closely related to science and has stayed ahead of its time.Now I will talk about another aspect of Indian history which you will find interesting.There was a long timespan between the times of Bhagwan Aadinath and Bhagwan Mahavir. During this time, many events occurred in India. Around 10,000 years ago with the rise of civilization and agricultural settlements, in India, people started using bulls for plowing fields. Due to this, people also started using cows as well. In parts of Europe, bulls and cows were also domesticated. But in Europe, due to colder climate they depended upon bulls and cows primarily for their meat. In India, bulls and cows were considered sacred and that is why they were not slaughtered for their meat. However, cows were used for their dung as well as milk. It is believed that there was very well-documented system in place for how to keep cows and bulls as family members or pets and how to extract milk from the cows for personal use. During Lord Krishna’s time, cows were given the status of “mother” in Indian culture. I think the status of mother actually meant that we should treat cows with utmost respect but more importantly we should depend upon cow’s milk in early part of life and should depend less on it as we grow. You will also notice that most Tirthankars’ life story talks about generally wild animals such as snakes, horses, elephants but not pet animals such as cows, dogs or cats. This also shows that domesticating animals as pets started in agricultural times, that is in last 10000 years. Bhagwan Mahavir had emphasized that his followers should minimize the impact of their actions on living beings and their environment. Due to this great principle, Jainism does not allow consumption of root vegetables such as onion, garlic, potatoes and few others in Jain diet. Because root vegetables grow inside the ground, the process of extracting them kills the whole plant and many more insects than other vegetables. You will be however surprised to know that in India there were no potatoes in the time of Mahavir Swami. Potatoes were introduced in India only during British rule. So as you can see Jainism has kept its core principles in mind and evolved to exclude potatoes also from Jain diet. The same is true for gelatin where Jain diet excludes it even though it is a new product of modern world. Now let us talk about what happened after Mahavir Swami’s time in India and elsewhere.Throughout much of the world and especially in India, there has been a significant rise in production and consumption of milk during the last 10000 years. Due to this, cows are no longer treated as family pets but as commodities and they are abused in many ways. In India, cows are fed human waste, trash and grains instead of grass or fodder. In USA and Europe, cows are fed fish pallets and other dead animal organs along with GMO grains. Once the cow stops producing milk after 4-5 years, cows are killed for their meat and leather. Nowadays people use all kind of protein powders thinking that it helps them build muscle. But in reality these protein powders contain “waste byproducts” of slaughterhouses such as bones and other organs of cows and pigs etc. In both India and US, it is now becoming a very common practice to forcefully and artificially impregnate cows in a way that many people consider to be rape. It is also fairly common to separate baby cows from their mothers and to kill male calves in first few months of their birth. Studies have also proved that because of the system of grain feeding, a cow ends up using 400-500 litres of water for just one litre of milk. In India, in very small towns, cows get to eat grass instead of grains but most Jains do not live in such small towns anymore. You will be also sad to know, that to maximize profits, cows are kept pregnant all the time which means cows die at a younger age through rapid aging. And then they are killed for beef. In the US they are killed to be eaten as hamburger meat.Think carefully:In today’s world, most cows are fed GMO soybeans and grains which are grown using pesticides and fertilizers. Use of these chemicals kills billions of soil bacteria and insects and pollinators such as bees.By the time you get the first drop of milk from a cow, billions of insects and bacteria is killed in the process of feeding and raising the cow.If the cow was truly eating grass 100% of time, then none of the insects get killed So what I am trying to tell you here is that just as you save bacteria and insects by not eating root vegetables, you will save millions of insects, bacteria and bees by not using cow’s milk from a cow which is not eating grass 100% of time. More importantly you are not part of a process of having a female cow raped, her baby taken away and then killed and her own life shortened and finally ended by slaughter.You may believe in Ayurveda and according to Ayurveda using raw milk and ghee in very small quantities can be beneficial for health. But if you drink pasteurized milk or eat processed milk products such as paneer, cheese, butter etc then it’s not healthy anymore. In fact, there have been many more incidents of diabetes among vegetarians in last 30 years in India and USA primarily because people have been using too much of highly processed dairy foods. cheese, paneer and butter has very high amount of saturated fats in them and this causes diabetes, and heart disease. By feeding grains to the cows, we cause the cow to be ill and then with the process of pasteurization, the quality of milk is further reduced. As you know, yogurt has millions of bacteria which gets killed when you eat yogurt and that’s why some Jains do not eat yogurt.Modern science suggest that raw milk also does not promote health nor it is essential. If you look at human evolution, you will find that we started evolving from great apes about 20 million years ago. For the first 18 million years, our ancestors relied on plant based foods and had no capacity or tools to get food from animals. About 2 million years ago, humans evolved to start using tools to eat dead animals and then with stone age, humans started hunting animals. But even during stone age humans only ate little meat. Introduction of milk in human societies happened much later than that. So the obvious point here is that milk cannot be an essential food for us as we were able to evolve for more than 19 million years without use of milk at all. If you live in India you should really think about these questions:When is the last time you saw a cow eating grass in open fields? If you have seen cows, how many bulls did you actually see? Do you think you have seen them in same numbers? Since we no longer use bulls for ploughing the fields, why the bulls are not seen easily?In your family, how many old people have high blood pressure, knee or joint pain or are on any type of medication? If they are following a Jain and vegetarian lifestyle, why do you think they get sick? I can tell you that my grandpa had better health than my dad until the age of 75 when he died in a tragic car accident. And I know why he lived a healthier life. He never ate any cheese, paneer or processed dairy products. In fact, in his times these products did not exist in India.If you believe in Ahimsa and Jivdaya, you should definitely try reducing the consumption of products of a very cruel dairy industry. When you gave up root vegetables you found it hard at first. When you switched from full fat milk to fat free milk, you found it hard at first. But you did both of these for compassion and health. I can tell you that substituting dairy products with non-dairy alternatives is much easier than you think. By donating to Jivdaya you can save cows from being slaughtered but by not taking their milk away from them, you can do lot more Jivdaya. The process of extracting or eating a root vegetable kills bacteria and insects, the process of extracting milk from a cow is unfortunately resulting into a dead baby cow as well as the death of millions of bacteria and insects. When you keep an individual in captivity, in a hazardous condition, without her natural food and take her baby away and be the reason for her early death, wouldn’t that be violence?I have seen that more and more young Jains are going towards a lifestyle where they do not rely on dairy products. These youngsters are taking pride in their actions because they not only help the animals but also their own health and the planet. If you want to join them in reducing dairy consumption, you can follow some of the suggestions I am about to share with you.You can avoid taking dairy products on certain days of the weekIf you are addicted to tea, give up everything except teaWhen you are eating out, you can probably make an exception but at least follow dairy-free life at homeYou can probably give up all processed milk products except milk and yogurtIf possible, buy milk from a milkman or a company which definitely feeds 100% grass to the cows and aren’t taking their babies awayDuring paryushan, please try to follow strict dairy-free diets.Dairy alternatives are becoming very easily accessible due to the growing demands in USA and India. Instead of milk or tea, you can switch to soy milk or green tea or fruit juice. Instead of ghee you can use coconut oil. You can make cashew cream at home to replace cheese. You can use vegetable spread instead of butter. Just like raw bananas can be used in any recipes for a potato, dairy alternatives are an easy choice nowadays.Modern science has already proven that calcium from cow milk is not as easily absorbed as the calcium from green vegetables. Modern science has also confirmed that increased calcium does not make bones stronger. In fact, all modern research suggests that higher dairy consumption is linked to higher rates of diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer and bone fractures. You can read about all this research on website. If you want more calcium, you need to eat more green vegetables and spend 15-30 minutes in the morning sun. According to modern scientific research, milk is as non-veg as meat and can be as harmful as meat for health. Milk has cholesterol, protein and high saturated fat just like meat. In fact, in the year 1967 Indian researchers TV Madhavan and C Gopalan proved that if you feed more milk protein to rats or humans the cancer cells will grow more rapidly. This happens because cow’s milk has very high amount of protein which boosts cell growth. Not many people know about this research because media never tells you anything that can hurt a profitable industry or media's main sponsors. Most people do not get to know about dangers of dairy consumption because most countries have large scale milk production companies and industries with huge marketing budget to promote dairy products. These companies make sure to hide the truth from the public and feed more and more dairy products to them. In last few decades most people go for fat free milk thinking that they will eat less fat but in reality all this fat is put by dairy companies into the cheese they sell and people are eating double the amount of cheese than before and they are also paying more for cheese. It is hard to believe that until last century, more than 50% of adults in the world were not using milk at all and now milk is produced and consumed in almost every country because of the aggressive international marketing campaigns. Not to mention that heart disease and cancer rates have gone up in all these countries.Humans need 13 different vitamins for perfect health. Vitamins A, E, C etc as well as protein, calcium and even healthy fats are all readily available in plant foods. The only vitamin that is not available in plant foods is Vitamin B12, which is also not available in milk from cows eating grains instead of grass. So switching to non-dairy alternatives is a great strategy because you will get your calcium and protein without the cholesterol and saturated fats and without the increased risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes. 100 years ago, strict vegetarian really meant foods of plant origin. But times have changed rapidly and now some people think that eggs and even chicken or fish is vegetarian. I urge you to not be fooled by dairy company marketing and manipulative media.Now I will share some personal experiences of mine with you. I have been on a dairy-free vegetarian diet for last 13 months and I can tell you that my health has significantly improved. I no longer get sick due to allergies or flu. I lost excess weight, my cholesterol dropped to healthy levels and I have increased energy and stamina throughout the day. I have better hair and nails and my gums and teeth got stronger than ever before. I used to think that being vegetarian I was eating the healthiest way possible. But now I realize that on a vegetarian’s plate, the dairy products are the worst food group and once you remove that, you really achieve the true benefits of a vegetarian diet. In last few decades, number of ethical vegetarians have risen across Europe and USA. In USA about 10 million people are now vegetarian, 1 million of these also live dairy-free. Out of these 1 million people many are doing it for health reasons but at least 200000 people are on dairy-free diet just for the compassion and ahimsa. Jains that believe in principles of Ahimsa need to really think about this. If non-Jains can give up dairy for the sake of Ahimsa, Jains should be able to do the same.I believe that western medicines have funded research for last several decades trying to prove the same thing that Ayurveda told us 5000 years ago. I think Ayurveda was way ahead of its time. And many doctors worldwide have recognized this and the great thing about this is that these doctors are now incorporating principles of Ayurveda in their research and practice to establish that dairy-free vegetarian diets are most protective and best health promoting diets. You can find more information about their recommendations on or websites. I sincerely request you to think about this message deeply and see if you can make a small change in your life to apply your compassion in true sense. The same reason that drove you to exclude root vegetables from your diet should be the reason for you to exclude dairy products of an industrial dairy farm from your diet. If you want to contact me regarding this message, you can email me at pranavkmehta@ or talk2pranav. Jai jinendra and thanks. ................
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