That Is How I See It Folks 3 – Value of Life

Sometimes I wonder what the world would be with kindness, peace and happiness all the time without hurting any living being. We normally identify the importance of life particularly in a birth or death of our loved one. Yet, have we ever thought about the value of life? I really felt the value of life from the following incident.

When my husband and myself arrived Sri Lanka for our vacation in December 2015, we wanted to free a cow from slaughter. Though we have not seen the animal, we agreed upon US $ 200 for a particular cow over the telephone by an intermediate person who usually does these kinds of businesses. Special arrangements were made by us to transport the freed cow to a caretaker of an estate after that.
Being a lacto vegetarian for nearly 15 years, I have never encouraged anyone to eat meat of any animal. Even, I have never ever cooked meat in my life for any occasion as it is not a pleasant experience for me too. In all those years, I really think by being a vegetarian and deducting my meat consumption might have saved a big number of animal lives. I even observe that there is a growing population of vegetarians in the world as it has become a trend in the society for food selections where ever I go.
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Later on we went to inspect the cow on a particular day where she was scheduled to be killed in the slaughter house.

Near to her was another cow in smaller size. My heart gave a cry when I realized that she too was supposed to be killed on that day for the beef demand. Both of us felt the need to free the small black one as well.

Then came the bargaining of money with the owner of the slaughter house for the two lives. It was a new experience. I have bargained for foods, clothes, shoes and books in my life but not for a life of a living being. Both of them were really skinny with visible ribs and there were hardly enough flesh in them too. Finally both parties agreed upon US $ 320 for two cows. Even the caretaker agreed to take the two freed cows to our amazement though he already has two cows under his supervision. We were delighted about our meritorious act and tried to pat these cows. They were really scared and did not let us to come near. With much difficulty they were put into a small tractor for the transportation. I guessed that they were scared about their new future.

As soon as they were transported to the estate, the caretaker removed the previous ropes which were used to tie them and put new ropes on their necks. Then the two cows were freed to the grassland in the estate. They became very busy in grassing grass indicating their prolonged hunger.Later on we got to know that, normally it is a practice to keep the animal under starvation for couple of days before killing. As a result, there will be few secretions during the slaughter time due to the fear. I never thought that humans could be so cruel up to this magnitude. That was when I realized the value of a particular life of any living being.

We may spend billions and billions of money for our well being to give a better quality to our lives. Yet, the true value is being hidden from our sight as we move with this busy, fast moving world to satisfy our needs even to a certain extent by neglecting our good morals. Once Tenzin Gyatso or 14 th Dalai Lama, the famous Tibetan Buddhist monk has said “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.”
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For everything related to value, we try to speak in monetary terms. Actually you are born in this world as a living being because it needed a particular personality like you where nobody can copy physically, mentally or biologically. The value of any living being should not be a number in monetary terms. It is a much more precious entity in the society where the society can be benefited with time. That is how I see it folks!