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concerned with it. My sannyasins are not like George Bernard Shaw and his FabianSociety, where vegetarianism was a religion. Neither George Bernard Shaw knows

anything about meditation, nor does his Fabian Society. They are just eccentricpeople who want to do something different from everybody else so they look better,

they look higher, they look holier. Vegetarianism is their philosophy.

It is not my philosophy, it is simply a by-product. I don't insist upon it. I insist uponmeditation. Be more alert, more silent, more joyful, more ecstatic, and find yourinnermost center. Many things will follow of their own accord; and when they come

of their own accord, there is no repression, there is no fight, no hardship, no torture.

But if you live vegetarianism as a religion or a philosophy, you will be continuallyhankering for meat, continually thinking, dreaming of meat, and your vegetarianism

will be just a decoration for your ego. With me, meditation is the only essentialreligion.

And everything that follows it is virtue, because it comes of its own accord. You don't

have to drag it, you don't have to discipline yourself for it. I have nothing to do withvegetarianism, but I know that if you meditate you are going to grow new

perceptivity, new sensitivity, and you cannot kill animals.

Have you observed one fact? -- that the vegetarian societies have the most deliciouskinds of foods. The Buddhists, the Jainas -- they have the best dishes in the world,

for the simple reason that through their meditations they had to drop meat-eating.They became more inquiring into delicious food so they didn't miss meat, on which

they had been brought up from their childhood -- it had become almost their secondnature.

There are millions of people who have never thought of vegetarianism. From the

very childhood they have been killing living animals. It is not different fromcannibalism. And since Charles Darwin it is absolutely a scientific fact that man has

come, evolved, from the animals -- so you are killing your own forefathers and

eating them joyously. Don't do such a nasty thing!

And the earth is capable, man is capable of creating enough vegetarian food --vegetables, fruits, new fruits which have never existed before. Just crossbreeding is

needed, and we can have the best kind of food available for everybody.Your sensitivity and perceptivity, your aesthetic understanding is immediately

understood by the animals. Here you can find so many deer -- they have come

because this is the only place in the whole of America where they are absolutelysafe. Nobody is going to hunt them.

In Oregon, for ten days per year, the government allows people to hunt deer. The

deer are such beautiful animals, so agile, so lovely.... We stopped hunting on ourown ground, so from other ranches deer have moved to our place. And now they

must be the best-fed deer in the whole world, because we are taking care of them.We are growing grass that they like, specially for them.

They would never have thought that people would be so considerate. They like a

certain grass called alfalfa, and I have told my people, "Grow as much alfalfa aspossible, so all the deer of the whole of Oregon by and by start moving to our

commune. And they will be respected as members of the commune."

And they already understand it. They stand on the road -- you go on honking your

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horn, they don't care; they are meditating in the middle of the road. And theyunderstand one thing: that you are not going to do harm, so there is no need to be

in a hurry.In my garden I have three hundred peacocks. The moment they see my car, they all

start moving in front of it. They know that they cannot be hurt, that nobody is goingto run over them. They will not move; sometimes Vivek has to get out and push

them. They are enjoying!

There are a few really crazy ones -- the moment they see my car they come running

from far away, just to stand in front of my car. I will move slowly, and they will

move slowly backwards, but they will not move away from the road. Theyunderstand something, their hearts have felt something, that "these people are not

enemies; these people are part of us, friends."

And the whole animal kingdom is part of us, even the trees. Now the scientists havecome to an established conclusion that trees are living beings. Not only that, they

have a very fine sensitivity, far more sensitive than you have. They have placedmachines around trees, plugged wires into the trees -- machines like a cardiograph

which shows your heartbeat. It shows the heartbeat of the tree, and if somebody is

coming to chop the tree, immediately the graph on the cardiogram goes crazy. Thetree is feeling really afraid and trembling.

Not only that, other trees around also go crazy, although they are not going to becut. But someone, some friend is going to be cut and they have a great feeling for it.

And the most strange thing that has come to the knowledge of the scientists is that if the person who is coming with an axe is just pretending -- he is not really going to

cut the tree -- the graph remains harmonious. This is something unbelievable, thatthe tree knows whether the man intends to cut it or is just pretending.

They are more sensitive than you. You will not be able to figure it out: if somebody

comes with a sword at you, you will not be able to figure out whether he is really

going to hit you or is just pretending, acting. You will not be able to find out throughyour sensitivity. The reason is, man has lived for millions of years so insensitively

that he has lost one of the greatest qualities of his being. Meditation slowly slowlygives you back your sensitivity; and a man who has reached to the ultimate ecstasy

of meditation is as sensitive as any tree, any animal, anything in the wholeexistence.

This sensitivity makes my people vegetarians. And it is a gain, not a loss. It willmake you simultaneously more loving, more compassionate, more feeling, more

understanding of beauty. It will make you aware of great music, even the music thathappens when the wind blows through the pine trees, or the sound of the running

water-even the music that happens, that is happening, in this gap, in this silence.

Silence is the highest music. It is soundless, but it can be felt. Can't you feel thesilence here? Can't you feel that the people who are here are all one, pulsating in thesame rhythm, their hearts beating in the same rhythm? Vegetarianism is a small

thing. We have to create a world of really sensitive people, who can understandmusic, poetry, paintings, who can understand nature, who can understand human

beauty, who can understand the world that surrounds them: the stars, the moon,the sun. Just a bird on the wing can fill you with immense rejoicing. The freedom of

the small bird, the song of the small bird, may make you dance, sing. Humanity has

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lost its heart, and we have to give it back to everyone who is willing. That's themeaning of my sannyas.

Source : from Osho Book "From Death to Deathlessness"