Making vegetarianism way of life

Indore: Religious teachings of Hinduism and Jainism have been promoting the benefits of vegetarianism in India for centuries but now it appears that foreign countries like US are also adapting to the vegetarian lifestyle adhering to the age-old belief of a pure and healthy living as religious texts mandated for the believers.
Mary Hicks, a scholar from US has been following Hinduism for the past 25 years.As a part of conversion to the religion, she has also been practising vegetarianism, which has become relatively easy for her over the past 25 years due to expansion of diet choices in the modern times.
Mary is a member of the foreign delegation that has come to Indore as a part of a special programme organized by the International School of Jain Studies.
The six member delegation will be attending a four-day seminar on Jainism here in the city, which was initiated at Kundakunda Gyanpeeth on Monday. This seminar is being held in the city for the second year in a row now. Like Hicks, another delegate from Norway began practising vegetarianism, inspired by the Jain philosophy of not hurting animals and reducing their suffering. Ole Martin Moen, a scholar from Norway said, "I have studied Jainism and I have been deeply inspired by their ideology of saving animals and reducing their suffering. This has led me to give up meat completely and my changed food habits have also affected my health in a positive."
The seminar will continue till Thursday and the sessions will be held from 9am to 12 noon for all the three days.