Awakin Calls

Exploring inner journeys to expand outer edges.

Conversations with changemakers to inspire deeper awareness and transformative action. Each offering is co-created by a team of volunteers distributed across the world, in the spirit of service and kinship. That's Awakin. More ...

"In a gentle way, we can shake the world." --Gandhi

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 Parag Agarwal

Parag Agarwal

Reducing Animal Suffering: Compassion For All Sentient Beings

Parag Agarwal is the CFO of Dr. Reddy's Labs, a multi-billion dollar Indian multinational pharma company. He has 35 years of experience in the corporate sector with Fortune 500 companies globally. As he started doing well in his career, he started to notice a lot of suffering around him.  “I used to sit in a car with my son next to me playing with a toy while there were kids outside who were begging. Pretty early on, I decided I wanted to do something for the vulnerable.” 

His heart’s journey started with helping educate underprivileged children. But when her niece sent him videos showing how animals are abused in our society, he says “it opened a door of awareness for me which cannot be closed.” He decided to dedicate “the second-innings of his life” to reducing the suffering faced by animals in India. In 2022, he co-founded India Animal Fund with the blessings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. India Animal Fund is a backbone organisation for all-round ecosystem development for animal protection movement in India. It works to reduce animal exploitation including their use for consumption, as objects of research and testing, and other forms of labour and to enable them to live a life of diginity without fear, hunger, confinement. “No one gets up thinking I am going to exploit and be cruel to an animal today. But somehow it has become part of the system… The suffering of animals is intense”.     

He has co-founded several other organizations in this area including Ahimsa Trust (an organization to catalyze more investment and leadership talent in the field of animal welfare), Plant-based Foods Industry Association (an industry body of plant-based alternatives start-ups), and Physicians’ Association for Nutrition (a body of doctors that educates medical professionals about nutrition). 

Another pivotal turning point in his life came when he sat a 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat followed by extensive reading of Buddha's original teachings about the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. “This has been the start of my real inner transformation. I feel as if I have just taken a few steps on a very long and beautiful path.” 

Parag is a Chartered Accountant & a Company Secretary and has previously been associated with organizations such as Reckitt, Unilever, GSK Consumer Healthcare & Genpact. He is also the founder of TAP India Foundation with the vision of an India where no child is out of school. Parag’s family has taken a pledge to share 50% of their net worth with society, and are signatory to Living My Promise. 

Join us for a conversation with this passionate vegan and a voice for the vulnerable. 

The talk will be moderated by former Awakin Calls guests Ariel Nessel and Rev. Bonnie Rose. Ari is currently alternative proteins sector to address animal cruelty. Bonnie is a minister with Ventura's Center for Spiritual Living and has recently authored a book titled Dances with DogsRead Full Bio »

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Awakin Calls is an initiative of ServiceSpace, a global, all-volunteer community dedicated to small acts of great love. Our webinar and podcast series highlights the outer work and inner journeys of individuals who are transforming our world in large and small ways. We aim to inspire and seed shifts in consciousness by highlighting paradigm-shifting ways of being and doing in the world. We are a heart-centered learning community across wisdom traditions exploring the ServiceSpace principle of “change yourself, change the world”. We organize our processes in accordance with the principles we seek to lift up, and so each conversation is co-created by a team of volunteers distributed across the world, in a spirit of intrinsically motivated service and kinship.

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