Helping the Helpless and Loving the Faithless

I was browsing on this Hare Krishna website and I happened to come across this video filed under "Hare Krishna Today". This video is titled "Africa" and the short description given on the website is as follows:

Touring East Africa: A Hare Krishna festival team adventures across East Africa feeding and entertaining hundreds of thousands of people along the way. (Size: 20 MB)

Page link

So I checked out the video and boy, was I amazed. While the Hare Krishnas preached to the people of Africa and tried to make them realize what who their souls were calling out for, they also provided them with entertainment and foodstuff. One of the Hare Krishnas in the video said something along the lines of making a difference and making their lives better, not just preaching. And that, my friends, just hit me right there. It was totally awesome that their main aim was to make a difference. They gave them vegetarian food of course, but you have to hand it over to the Hare Krishnas for making delicious and really healthy vegetarian meals. They weren't just going there to get people to become Hare Krishnas. They preached and then they fed. And that was food for the stomach, as well as food for the soul. Recently, I read on the same website, about the Food For Life relief organization. And it's so badass. All the food that the Hare Krishnas eat and distribute is known as prasadam and it is consumed only after it is first offered to Krishna to taste. It makes me feel awfully nice to see these guys take time out of their day and cook meals and go around distributing them freely (or for a very VERY low cost). Second helpings are welcome, even! The idea behind all of this is that prasadam can help one advance in spiritual life. I think there's some symbolism in the whole concept, too. I think that once you eat prasadam, you lose the taste you have for other food items, i.e. meat and the likes. Similarly, once you taste Krishna, you lose the taste for the whole darn world. I think the Hare Krishnas distribute prasadam and sing on the streets so much is because they think that the world, by receiving a glimpse of Krishna, through food and through hearing, will be enveloped in never ending bliss. Satchitananda.

On the same page, I found this video titled "Jesus Was A Vegetarian". The description of the video mentioned something about the controversy stirred by the claim. It was a short 6 minute video so I don't know the details of the claims made. However, this isn't the first time I have heard this claim. Anyhow, in the video, they explained in very brief how animals were mistreated to satisfy our hunger. And it was very, very sad. One of my friends has been telling me for ages to check out this video called "Meet Your Meat" and I have been aversive. It's about how cows are treated cruelly in exchange for their produce. I honestly do not want to watch these videos but I think it's time to face the music now. I have been a vegetarian for about 2 months now, sometimes allowing egg in my diet. Trying to cut that out too now. This cruelty done to animals is only helping me to stick to my decision of being a vegetarian. People wouldn't approve of having dogs and cats for lunch. Why kill helpless cows and chickens? In the past few months, I have grown to love animals a lot more than I did before. Seeing stray cats on the street and little birds looking for food has made me feel a lot for those little guys. They look so lonely and sad sometimes. When I get my own house, I am deffo going to get some pets to look after. I don't understand how some people can just slay those animals and eat them. I absolutely hate going through the butchered meat section in stores. I hate seeing dead animal flesh hanging from the ceiling. It's as bad as seeing a human being hanging there. But of course, that would be outrageous. Animals don't feel pain. Absolutely not. They can see and smell and touch and hear and they need food to survive. But there is absolutely no way they feel pain.
It really is shameful, isn't it?