Category Archives: General

I caught up with an old friend a few days ago about an initiative in my city to block backyard slaughter of animals ( that post will go up next). In the course of our conversation, he told me he has made a tradition of going vegan during paryushan. And that’s how a number of people got started on their vegan diets…

Sagar posts on the Jain Vegan list-serv:

Please consider giving up dairy products this Paryushana
As most of you will know, Paryushana, the Jain festival of penance and forgiveness is due to begin at the end of August.

During this festival, members of the Jain faith traditionally fast and participate in pratikraman. For lay members, fasting often entails avoiding activities that are traditionally thought to cause more himsa than others, such as eating root vegetables.
In today’s complex society, the process of milk production causes far more suffering and killing than first meets the eye. Dairy cows are forcefully impregnated by means of artificial insemination to stimulate milk production.

They are immediately separated from their offspring at birth.  Male calves are killed within hours of birth or sold on to be reared for veal or beef (they are of no other value to a dairy farmer), and their sisters are forced to go through the same agony and suffering as their mothers.

A dairy cow will normally get killed before the age of 10, even though she could live up to 30 years if given the chance.  This is because her milk yield drops after about 5 lactations, and it is not does not make financial sense for a farmer to keep her alive when he is able to obtain milk from her younger (and more productive) daughters.

[My addition to Sagar’s post, with the photo above is to show how they are treated like machines. It is also easy to see how infections, such as mastitis, are likely to develop in these mama cows, adding to their suffering].
It is an unfortunate truth that our consumption of milk and dairy products contributes to the killing and suffering cows. In light of this, it seems natural that Jains (and all adherents of Ahimsa) should acknowledge and consider the suffering caused to cows in the milk production when undertaking pratikramana.
So, in addition to the other activities you undertake this Paryushana, why not also consider giving up dairy products?

For hints and tips on how to avoid dairy products, beyond the resources on this site, you are invited to  e-mail sagar@jainvegans.org and/or visit the Vegan Society website.

Monali and her husband are both busy professionals raising 3 young children near Chicago. She grew up Jain and met him while they were studying environmental engineering . Like me, she became vegan  in college, seeing the connections between the violence in the egg and dairy industry  with that in the meat industry.  She saw that consumption of these animal products was  incompatible with her values of peace and non-violence, which were deeply held Jain values. Her husband went vegan too, the way they are raising their young children vegan is joyful and inspiring.

She was recently interviewed by James Bean of Spiritual Awakenings Radio, who is clearly well informed about Jainism and in tune with the spiritual basis of veganism from the perspective of many faiths . You’ll hear their thoughtful discussion about how people identify with their diets, what might help people to make positive changes and more! You can download an mp3 file of the interview  here.

Yesterday, i sent a letter to the Convention Board members and the JAINA Executive Committee on behalf of a group of vegan Jain organizers, ranging in age from the 20s to the 70s, and an even larger and more diverse group of supporters consisting of leaders in the Jain community and community members from all across the US with a couple of participants from UK and Mumbai.  We continue to update the list of supporters and have gotten 9 more since yesterday!

Read the text of the petition and register your support here:

Our request: An all vegan menu at the convention.

The precedent: Catering for the London Young Jains Convention  has always been vegan and a recent JAINS UK convention has had all but 2 items catered completely vegan.

 The North American Jain convention history: Vegan lines (an option to eat vegan) an JAINA, YJP and YJP conventions for many years> the exact start is murky but maybe 1997. A good start but we can do better. Continue reading →

Dilip Shah is a past president of JAINA, the federation of Jain organizations in North America. Because he is  a generation older than me, in keeping with Indian culture, I call him Dilip uncle.  Among his many other Jain activities, he has organized several trips to India to visit temples and historical sites,  as modern day pilgrimages for Jains in North America.

In 1998, fresh out of my family medicine residency with a couple of months off from work, I took a JAINA organized trip to the famous temple complex Sammet Shikar. I was  accompanied by my parents, my friends Hema and Manda who teach Nonviolent Communication, our family friend Pravin uncle, who heads the JAINA Education committee,  and a large group of people a generation older than me. I learned a lot about traditional ways of worship and travelling in India from them all.  I  and Pravin uncle were the only vegans on the trip. 

Since then, there has been more interest in veganism. The largest change has been among the Jains in their 20s, as evidenced by the demand for vegan food at conventions of Young Jains of America (YJA), and also, to some extent in their 30s and 40s and older. Incidentally, the Young Jains convention in the UK had all Jain vegan food in 1998 — the Brits were way ahead of us, as I don’t think we’ve yet had one JAINA convention with all vegan food.

Pravin uncle has incorporated more and more about veganism in his writings, in addition to his initial article about his visit to a dairy farm and how much of a difference going vegan has made in his cholesterol levels. But the older the Jain, it seems, the less receptive s/he has been to change.  It is in this context that Dilip uncle has written this excellect piece on Jainism and veganism.  Continue reading →