Jainism has said that there is a life in the plant much before the science has proved it. It is true that vegetables and fruits, both have lives. The ideal situation for a Jain would be to eat the ripe fruit that has just fallen off a tree. Vegetables and fruits are one-sensed living beings. One-sensed living beings have only "touch" sense. Their development of consciousness (knowledge) is significantly less than the higher (two, three, four and five)-sensed living beings like us, animals, birds, etc. For example, the level of knowledge of one-sensed living beings is only a small fraction of one letter. It is impossible to live a life with absolute non-violence. We need to eat to survive and we need to earn to live as a “house-holder”. But the basis of Jainism is “non-violence”. Therefore, we must minimize the act of non-violence. Eating vegetables constitutes minimum act of violence because:
1) Animals have more life-force, called Prän and more knowledge (purer -much more developed- consciousness) than the vegetables. Therefore, killing animals constitutes the higher form of violence.
2) Many other living organisms reside in an animal body and They get multiplied in a dead body.
3) Vegetables have less living cells and more water content.
4) We do not kill the plant for vegetables. We take leaves, vegetables and fruits off the plants. By removing vegetables and fruits from a tree, we sometimes lengthen the life span of the tree.
5) Eating vegetables is healthier.
6) The anatomy (teeth, digestive system, tongue, etc.) of human beings is for eating vegetarian food.