The Buddhist religion has taught to humanity the sense of compassion for life in every form and in all forms. The central theme of Buddha's teaching was ahimsa parmo dharmaha. That was Buddha's watchword, and it means harmlessness is the essence of religion. And it is wonderful to see that, though mankind has lived for centuries on animal food, the first principle of those who followed Buddha's message was to leave animal food, to live on a vegetarian diet. But, one might ask, "Is that all? Is Buddha's teaching to become vegetarian?" No, vegetarianism is a principle for becoming harmless.