Vesak – a Unique ‘No Harm’ Religious Festival
The most outstanding religious festival in the world in the sense of moral eminence is Vesak. Why? Because no harm is caused to any sentient being in the celebration of Vesak, which is slaughter-free by both custom and law (in Sri Lanka).
Slaughterhouses are closed. Meat houses are shut. Supermarkets are prohibited by law to sell flesh foods on this thrice blessed day. If animals can speak, they will overwhelmingly pick Vesak as their most cherished day in the annual calendar for the simple reason that their precious life will be spared on this day as a tribute to the Buddha.
Almost all religious festivals, particularly of the Abrahamic faiths or non–Dharmic faiths are blood-soaked. Millions of animals are put to death as sacrifices to earn a reward for the perpetrator of the killing and not the victim. People make merry, e.g., Christmas, on these days at the expense of the lives of innocent animals. The spiritual element is markedly lacking when there is shedding of blood. All lives of all species (Siyalu Sathwayo) are precious. What is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander.
A truly sensitive person will think of the agony and suffering that an innocent animal must go through before death in a slaughterhouse. He will think of the animals who suffer dreadfully on the way to the plates of those who eat them.
“You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Killing an animal is never a pious act. It is an immoral act. A high-handed abuse of power. One of Emperor Ashoka’s edicts clearly states, “that the greatest progress of Righteousness among men comes from abstention from killing living beings”.
“ All beings tremble before danger, all fear death.
When a man considers this, he does not kill or cause to kill.
All beings fear before danger, life is dear to all.
When a man considers this, he does not kill or cause to kill.
Whosoever tries to find happiness through hurting other beings, will not find happiness.
Dhammapada
The looming choice in a world becoming more literate and civilized is to adopt a lifestyle of doing no harm, which the Buddha advocated throughout his life as a teacher. A key ingredient of such a practice would be to refrain from consuming animal products. It is not only kindness to animals that needs to be fostered but more importantly a planetary sense in all of humanity. It is abundantly clear that much damage is being done to the natural environment by raising animals for food, to our health by consuming animals, and to our sense of righteousness and justice for all species. Every living being has a moral entitlement to pity and compassion. Humanity’s claim to be civilized as a species is dependent on the extension of our compassion for the members of other species. That is the test of civilization that the Buddha displayed and shared with others, without qualification.
Kill and eat is not a Buddhist tenet. Vesak is cruelty-free, and slaughter-free. Sri Lanka can become a role model for the rest of the world if all religions adopt the Vesak model not only as a festival of colour and lights but by celebrating their festivals without harming animals.
Senaka Weeraratna