“Do you eat and drink?” Swamishri asked a youth in Gujarati.

“What?” the Gujarati youth, not knowing the language, asked.

“Are you vegetarian?” Swamishri asked in English.

“Occasionally I take meat.”

The dialogue continued with the help of a translator.

“If someone were to beat you, wouldn’t your parents be hurt? And if someone were to hurt your parents, wouldn’t you be pained? Animals also love their children. To be compassionate is the duty of a human being. And secondly, cows, buffaloes and oxen offer so much service to us. How would it be to kill those that serve us!” Swamishri’s words touched the youth.

“What do you feel?” Swamishri asked.

“You are right,” the youth agreed.

“Take a pledge today that you will be a vegetarian.”

“My mother is vegetarian, my sister is vegetarian. So there won’t be a problem. Now I’ll be a vegetarian,” the boy pledged.

Swamishri blessed the youth.