The Vegan Summer 1961

criterion which he now obeys. His own desires and wishes no longer count, for he sees a world in travail, where the weak are exploited and oppressed. Where the creatures should be free in their innocent expression of life he sees them confined and tortured, and sacrificed to the merciless Midas of Materialism, and pity has no place in the world turned commercially mad.

But this is not the whole picture, for dreadful as the atrocities are to the sensitive soul, the very extent of them is waking people from their terrible lethargy. The Bhudda said that inaction in a deed of mercy is an action in a deadly sin. This seems to be the malady of the world. Many of us in our hopelessness and sorrow are apt to feel anger and intolerance at the thousands of tepid people who walk, like robots, with a selfish detachment from the suffering on every side, but rather than hamper our own cause by a militant attitude, it is better to win them over with gentle enlightenment to the truth.

Resist not evil is a truism that never fails to bring the desired results. Great souls like Mahatma Ghandi proved this only too well.

Having dealt with the things which lie in the path of the pioneering Vegan, let us dwell on the more happy element. There is, among a group of people working towards some universal good, a communion that makes relationship a truly joyous thing. I think that selflessness alone brings true happiness and spontaneity of being.

The pure living food taken by the Vegan, with its undiminished energy drawn straight from the sun, the source of all life and beauty, renders him more sensitive to the ebb and flow of life, enabling him to live more fully and creatively, as he was meant to live. Some people think that Vegans are too sensitive, but look around at the cruelties and barbarity on every side and see what insensitivity does. Let us be continually aware and sensitive.

Surely this is life's greatest gift, for it opens the eyes of the spirit.

A poet said we should be as a stringed lute upon which all winds can play. Unless we are conscious of the darkness, how can we comprehend the light. When we see the anguish on every side, where the strong prey upon the weak, and the sanctity of life has no meaning in a world on the brink of annihilation, we know the time has come to end this era of spiritual famine, and to free ourselves from the herd instinct. Let us go bravely forward into the future, forging our way fearlessly through the debris of outworn ideas, a spearhead into the dawn of a new era when all life will be recognised as one, using the form that the consciousness has evolved.

Then Man and the beautiful creatures of the earth, his younger brothers, will live in harmony, which is love.

This is the meaning of Veganism, a great panacea for most of life's problems. Then the promise will be fulfilled : " Behold, I make all things new."

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