Consideration
Being half Jain, my parents have taught me the values and morals that are taught by Jainism. Although I don’t consider myself Jain, some of those ideas have stuck. For example, I am a vegetarian because Jainism teaches its believers to respect all life. This has made me feel rather squeamish when people talk about all of the different kinds of meat they eat. I’ve grown accustomed to the sight of chicken and beef, but I don’t like to think about people eating some of the rather delicate cuisines.
Still, I can understand that people will eat meat, no matter how strange some of the meals might seem to me. What I don’t understand though is when people can treat animals as though they were playthings. Yesterday my brother told me about how one of his classmates dropped a hamster he had only received that same day.
My friends were also talking during class about the different things they used to do to bugs. Some of these were pretty disgusting in and of themselves but what really appalled me was the way they were talking. It was as if they were retelling some of their favorite pastimes.
Granted, I’m no too fond of bugs, but to kill them? I don’t think so. On top of that I don’t think I would have taken pleasure out of it. Animals, no matter how small, are living things, and I think people need to be taught to respect life. I don’t want to sound preachy, but perhaps we should stop and think about what we’re doing when dealing with other creatures. Besides, I don’t think anyone would be happy if someone decided to stomp on him or her, and so it shouldn’t be any different for a bug.
— Avanti Chajed