A part of being vegan is not wearing silk and diamonds. So one of the things I did after going vegan, was to give away my 4 existing silk sarees from my wedding to my household staff. This was a great source of frustration / consternation to our family and several well meaning aunts tried to intervene to talk some sense into us. A friend we met at the time was part of a family which followed the Sankaracharya, and he spoke to us about the Periyavars views on silks. The Kanchi Periyar was known to have requested his followers not to meet him wearing silks - he said that he could feel the suffering emanating from the fabric they wore. I was happy to read this update posted by Agni Barathi and Vaidehi Sriram who have decided to go vegan and raise their daughter vegan and they have quoted one of the Paramacharyas discourses about the use of silks and diamonds. The Paramacharya said this at a different time - a time of dowry, and a time I would say of great disrespect to women. Things have changed somewhat today, but I find that our fascination for silks and diamonds have only continued to grow. I am not a follower of the Paramacharya myself, but find his views on the subject very refreshing. Im not suggesting that you should also give up silks and diamonds immediately. Im only requesting that you read this alternate point of view and explore the impact of your choices: Our women must give up their fondness for diamonds and silks. This will be great help to our family and social life. Indeed womanhood itself will stand to gain and stridharma will flourish. Woman should think of the millions of silkworms killed to make the sari with which they drape themselves. They claim that they are vegetarians. So should they not feel remorse about being indirectly responsible for the destruction of countless silkworms because of their love of silk saris. If women of well-to-do families realise this and stop wearing silk, they will no longer set a bad example to their less fortunate sisters. It is because if the example of the wealthy that the poor too hanker after silks and diamonds. A happy, thoughtful, reflective thursday to you. p.s: I have given up all leather, silk , pearls and most of my diamonds and gold. I still hold onto a single diamond ring that was a gift from my husband to myself. My daughter wears neither silk, gold or diamonds. I realise the mining and human exploitation continues to apply to silver as well. So I have bought nothing new in silver for sometime now. Hopefully, I will phase out this as well soon.
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 04:54:06 +0000
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