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Recently I’ve been come to realize that over the course of my life, I’ve probably taken the lives of so many insects unintentionally or even intentionally. It’s come to the point that I feel guilty going for a walk, going for a run or even for a drive, because it’s inevitable that a tiny creature will die because of me. It’s causing me some distress and I don’t know how to rationalise these thoughts.

Is there any way I can stop feeling guilty?

Has anyone else felt the same?

Ben Gil
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    Even I used to feel the same but by practice you can avoid killing insects, atleast during walking and running. – YOu will not know Jul 19 '22 at 03:24
  • Does this answer your question? Why is it said not to eat before worshiping God? – ram Jul 19 '22 at 03:56
  • simple - you do prayaschitta (penance) for it every day. since even breathing kills microbes, and only way to avoid it is to commit suicide - but that is also a much bigger sin. see - https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/45618/4435 . and yes, sanyasis voluntarily refuse to walk during rainy months cos many small worms come out of ground. jains cover their mouth and use a broom to sweep away insects when walking. and yes, if you feel really bad, you too can avoid killing insects by simply sitting in your home and doing nothing. – ram Jul 19 '22 at 03:57

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Yeah, I have also felt the same as what you are going through right now. Because even by doing a simple task, such as watering the plants, or going for a small walk. Many small creatures especially ants will be killed. One way to rationalize your guilt is that there roughly 1000000000000000000 ants in the world according to https://www.cuemath.com/numbers/quintillion/. Ants are such small creatures that even by doing our simple things, they will be killed. So it is best that we focus on what we can control, by not intentionally causing harm to them. ants also reproduce very quickly and have a short lifespan, so their population will stay relatively level.

PronetAI
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