Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji traveled from Dhubri…

Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji traveled from Dhubri city in Assam to Paro, the ancient capital of Bhutan. During those times, Thimphu was just a small village. Buddhism was being widely propagated there, and monasteries had been established in every major town. Thus, people were trying to live according to the principle of Ahimsa Parmo Dharma (Non-violence is the highest virtue). However, since the general population was non-vegetarian, they were unable to fully embrace this principle.

To resolve this dilemma, they devised a new method to obtain meat without directly killing animals and without becoming sinful. They would take cattle to the mountaintops and frighten them with terrifying sounds, causing them to lose balance and fall off the cliffs into the deep valleys below. After the animals died from these falls, the people would cut their carcasses, bring the meat home, dry it, and consume it over time.

Guru Ji objected to this practice and said to the Bhutanese people: "You pretend to be non-violent, yet you commit cruel killings. Your hypocrisy causes creatures to suffer immense agony before death, making their pain far worse. In this way, you become participants in sin. Your principle of Ahimsa Parmo Dharma proves to be false in itself. That Almighty Lord is not distant—He is omnipresent and sees all of our actions. His justice will prevail. If you believe that only the killing of large creatures constitutes violence, you are mistaken. That Lord exists equally within the smallest of beings. Even grains of food contain life. And as far as water is concerned, without which we cannot survive, it too contains countless microscopic organisms."

As stated in Gurbani:

Jete Daane Ann Ke Jeea Baajh Na Koi. Pehila Paani Jeeu Hai Jit Haria Sabh Koi. — Raag Asa, Ang 472

The essence of this is that pretending to be non-violent is meaningless. The reality is that we must understand the divine play of the Lord and live according to the natural laws of creation.