What is meant by being chained to material existence?
The energy God used to create the material universe is the origin of material nature. The latter is so powerful that it plunges man into forgetfulness of his past and his true identity from the moment of birth. Under the influence of the attributes of material nature, passion and ignorance, man believes himself to be the body.
The corporeal conception of existence is the fundamental cause of ignorance, which itself is the origin of atheism.
From then on, everything he associates with his body, his spouse, his children, his home, his material possessions, his wealth, his power, his opulence, and the pleasures of the senses, although fleeting and the cause of fear, illusion, sorrow, and distress, compels him to experience the four forms of suffering represented by birth, illness,
old age, and endless death, and to continually suffer the consequences of his actions through the suffering they entail.
Chainship to existence is all of this, and liberation is rejecting everything for God.
True nonviolence means never interrupting the spiritual evolution of any being, whether human, animal, or plant.
Let us not believe that since the spiritual soul never perishes and survives the death of its body, there is no harm in slaughtering animals for the gratification of the senses. Although amply provided with grain, fruit, and milk, modern man indulges in the consumption of animal flesh. Let us know that there is no need to slaughter land and aquatic animals, nor to destroy plants, from the blade of grass to the tallest tree. And no one is an exception to the truth of this rule. A person wishing to progress on the path of spiritual realization must not, at any cost, do violence to animals when food is abundant.
True non-violence consists of not hindering the spiritual progression of any being, whether human, animal, or plant, because in all these material bodies resides a soul. Now, souls incarnated in animal bodies, by transmigrating from one species to another, follow a certain evolution and progress, too. A slaughtered animal sees its progress slowed. Indeed, before rising to the higher animal species, it will have to return to the species it prematurely left to complete its due in days or years. One must therefore not slow down the evolution of animals for the sole satisfaction of one's palate. Such is true non-violence. Not to harm anyone, human, animal, or plant, such is God's command.