Today’s Vegetarian Elite will be presented in Spanish, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Nepali, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Thai.

Today, we are delighted to present to you Nicolás Pauls, Argentine musician, actor, and television host. Nicolas leads a prosperous vegan lifestyle together with his wife and his two children. He is an environmental advocate, a tireless defender of free and dignified lives for all animals, and is committed to diverse social and humanitarian causes.

Nicolás Pauls was born into a family of gifted artists. His mother is Marina Guerrero, an actress; his father was Axel Pauls, a prestigious movie producer and actor; and his paternal grandparents were ballet dancers. Nicolas’ brothers are Christian Pauls, a prized scriptwriter and movie producer; Allen Pauls, a writer and journalist; and Gaston Pauls, a renowned actor and movie and television producer, with whom Nicolas shares the closet kinship growing up together. Nicolas’ youngest sibling is his sister Ana, who is also an actress.

Nicolas was greatly inspired by his family since childhood.

I always knew I wanted to do something related to music and art. And I began to study music. Well I studied music as a small child – flute, percussion… And at the age of 13, I began to study the drums and then I started to study theater. I found in music, a place for creation, and of the most marvelous joy that there was at that time. That lesson from my parents to enjoy myself and to play – that today I apply to my profession, to music, to acting – was very important.

The act of doing something artistic for me and to live off this is a kind of privilege, a privilege that I have to be very conscious and very grateful for. I think that my parents, and my brother Gaston also because the two of us were walking hand in hand, as they say, discovering the music, creating art in this way – they were absolutely important to my career.

His passion for music began when he was very young, while playing with different kinds of instruments.

For me music is everything. It seems to me that art is the most complete of everything; because it is inexplicable. It’s so difficult to explain the sensation that music produces. That makes it unique. I read some words of Miguel Angel that talked about that. He said that of all the arts, music is the most infinite, because it is inexplicable. The word, one can express in literature. The light, one can express it in painting. The forms, one can express them in sculpture.

But musically created ideas are impossible to explain. Contemplation is something that reveals Creation, the universe. And music also is that for me. Everything is in music, let’s say. Life is in music, Creation is in music for me.

Throughout his career as a musician, Nicolás Pauls was a member of several groups, contributing his talents as a drummer.

Musically speaking, at 13 years old, I began to play the drums. And at 14, 15, we put together a music group with some friends, that was called “The Foreigner.” Later there was another band that I played with for almost 10 years, that was called “The Four Seasons.”

Later, another band with whom we recorded another record, that was called “The Terminal,” and we played for four or five years. Later there was “4º Space.” That was a marvelous, marvelous musical project, gorgeous. They were 10 years of beautiful music, of composition, of beautiful brotherhood, like that with the group members.

Think the vestiges of yesterday
everything has been reborn here
you’ll have to see and hear
Think that everything will grow
even if you choose to return here
you will have to see and hear
Dream all rivers return to the sea
you will have to go
Dream all rivers return to the sea
you will have to go and return

“Horizon,” his present band, made its debuted in October 2010 at the Ecological Festival that was held to raise environmental awareness in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

On screens they projected many images of some of us artists who had participated in the festival, giving messages to take care of the environment and do something ecologically correct, so to speak. Like consuming less wáter and less light. And I, what I told the organizers, was that I wanted to make those videos, but I wanted to speak directly about the importance of meat consumption, of cattle, the importance of global warming. So my messages were directly related to that.

Air beneath the shade of the tree In so little as 1 year a vegan avoids cutting down 4,840 square meters of trees. To be vegetarian is to be ecological. You will find all the tips at sustentator.com/ecotips

Another campaign Nicolas has participated in that promotes the noble and healthy way of living, was the production and distribution of the video “Reasons to be Vegetarian” from Anima Naturalis of Argentina.

Reasons to be vegetarian Because you should not lie to your children about what they eat. Because a vegetarian diet counters heart disease. Because eating meat and sausages is related to obesity and digestive problems. Because no sentient being wants to see a family slaughtered. Because raising animals for food can continue to cause serious illnesses. Because nobody should earn a living by killing. Because only a miserable person hits a defenseless animal. Because no animal deserves to die for the pleasure of your palate. Because we don’t need to ingest extra cholesterol; our liver produces it naturally.

Because the production of 1 kilogram of meat, requires 30 times more water than for 1 kilogram of wheat. You shouldn’t eat meat and call yourself an environmentalist. Do you need more? Because to eat pork doesn’t favor your sexual activity. On the contrary, eating meat can cause impotence. Because all of us beings with a nervous system feel pain. Because it doesn’t matter how, it is cut it is still a cadaver. Because to say that probiotics fortify the organism’s defenses is not a scientific truth. It is a lie.

Because protein of animal origin is the main cause of decalcification of your bones. Because the nitrates that give meat its unnatural red color are carcinogens. Because the cattle industry generates more greenhouse gases than all the airplanes, trucks, boats, tractors, and cars in the world. Because commerce is not an excuse to kill. Because wings are not for this. Because everyone wants to be free.

Because eating fish does not make you a vegetarian. Because no matter how far you are from the slaughterhouse, you are an accomplice. Because the grains used to feed them, could feed them. Because you know that it is not fair. Perhaps it is time to become a vegetarian.

Why would you say that this lifestyle is important?

Well, in principle because out of respect for all living being, I think that there are other methods. After years, I began to understand that no, that our body is not developed for that, to feed itself from meat. And from this change in eating, the change is much greater; it isn’t simply a change to stop eating this to eat that.

The change is a change of consciousness. To me it is inconceivable the idea to think of satisfaction when I know that alongside it there is pain. The idea of using clothing that involves the suffering of an animal to me is inconceivable, because it is possible to use other clothing that doesn’t include animals suffering. But with respect to eating, there’s no need [to eat meat]. And I say, to change that, also changes the view of many other things.

Conscious of and sensitive to those who suffer, both humans and animals alike, Nicolás Pauls is devoted to a number of social and humanitarian causes, collaborating with organizations like “Solidarity Network,” “Solidarity Consciousness,” and “House of Street Culture.”

Now we’re with the House of Street Culture, which is a foundation that my brother Gaston set up a few years ago, that is dedicated to giving classes of art to children from different backgrounds. They’re given classes in theater, in photography, literature, in painting. And it was requested of the children at one time , in some of the literature workshops, that they write the lyrics of lullabies. These children come from violent homes... situations of much violence.

Children who lived on the street and went to live in homes, and with some very difficult family histories, some of them, very painful. So it was requested of the children that they write these lyrics, and the House of Street Culture called me to executive-produce the record, inviting artists to put those lyrics to music. And the record is set to come out any day now.

And it is a beautiful record, beautiful, where many were involved, 17 artists participated: Argentines, Uruguayans, Brazilians, Irish, who put music to these writings and recorded them as the songs that these children, well, that they would have liked to have sung to them, or those that they are going to sing to their children. So that here a partnership was formed between artists, musicians, very dedicated, and children, poets from 6 to 20 years old, with results of an almost inexplicable beauty.

From an early age, Nicolás Pauls has stood out for his sensitivity.

I think I was always very conscious of others’ pains, so to speak. I say others but in reality it became also a sensation of my own. What brought me to feel that pain in me. And I imagine that here something must have been uprooted, must have been started in my life that led me to today to live the way that I do.

But I don’t know how old I was; eight years old maybe. I remember that we were in a type of countryside, with my brother Gaston and a friend. I didn’t have the feeling of having had a good time, of doing well in those situations. But I did it to do something as part of a group. I remember that someone caught a fish, and upon removing the hook from the fish, he injured the eye. And I have the memory of crying inconsolably about that fish. I suppose that here there must be, I can think of that as the beginning of something that many years later returned in this way in my vegetarianism and in my fight, my struggle for the rights of others, also.

Nicolas recounts how he came to adopt the compassionate vegan way of living.

It must have started as an embryo, long before birth, but the day that I made a radical change in my life, in my eating habits and in my life, was in December of 1992. I was in Brazil, sitting on the street with a friend who lives in Brazil. And in a conversation I understood how unnecessary it is to kill animals to feed oneself. This friend of mine [had been] vegetarian almost his whole life. And I understood that suffering had no sense, to generate suffering like that to feed oneself in this way… very radical the change. Since that change, everything changed.

We invite you to join us again next Saturday, June 11 for part 2 of this presentation on Nicolás Pauls. We will talk about the rise of his star status as an acclaimed actor, and learn how his life has changed while changing the lives of others. We will also hear how his work with vegetarianism and the environment led him to meet Supreme Master Ching Hai.

Thank you for your company today for this episode of Vegetarian Elite. And now, soulful viewers, please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for Between Master and Disciples. Wishing you a blessed serene weekend in the care and comfort of loved ones.

Today’s Vegetarian Elite will be presented in Spanish, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Nepali, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Thai.

Hallo, esteemed viewers! Today, on the second of our two-part program, we are delighted to present to you Nicolás Pauls, brilliant Argentine musician, actor, and television host . Nicolas leads a prosperous vegan lifestyle together with his wife and his two children. He is an environmental advocate, a tireless defender of free and dignified lives for all animals, and is committed to diverse social and humanitarian causes.

On part one last week, we learned that Nicolás was born into a family blessed with artistic talent – his grandparents were ballet dancers, his father Axel Pauls was a prestigious movie producer and actor, his mother Marina Guerrero and youngest sister are actresses, and all of his brother are movie and television producers or writers. In 2006, the Pauls family received special recognition for their contribution to Argentinean national cinema at the Latin American Film Festival of San Rafael.

With the arts beckoning his heart since an early age, Nicolás first love was music.

For me music is everything. It seems to me that art is the most complete of everything; because it is inexplicable.

In addition to a career in music, Nicolás Pauls made his grand debut as a movie actor in the film “Buenos Aires Vice Versa,” written and directed by the Argentinean director Alejandro Agresti.

In the year 1995, Alejandro Agresti, an Argentinean director who lived at the time in Holland, was returning to Argentina to film a movie after 10 years in exile. And he proposed that I play a person in this film, in “Buenos Aires Vice Versa” So I filmed this movie, which was like a seed for what happened next.

“Buenos Aires Vice Versa” received diverse nominations and awards: “Best Iberoamerican Film” in the 1996 Mar del Plata International Film Festival, “Special Mention” in the 1997 International Film Festival of Human Rights, “Special Award of the Judges” in the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema of Havana; as well as Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Script.

And from that moment until today, the truth is that since 1995 until today, I haven’t stopped working. And I enjoy it more and more.

After his triumphant debut, Nicolás has continued to receive offers for movies and television, and has become a favorite of national cinema. He has appeared in celebrated films such as “Nuts for Love,” “Sisters,” “Christian’s Jump,” “Three Minutes,” “Small Country,” and “Lovely Loneliness.”

Since then, Nicolás Pauls has also ventured onto the small screen. He has worked on successful television shows such as “Gasoleros,” “Final Time,” “I Will Resist,” “Almost Angels,” and “The Brave”, among others.

I enjoy television a lot, working in television. I really liked the program I did last year. I think that of all the programs I have made in television, it was without a doubt the one I liked doing the most. The script, the direction, the actors… Everything was perfect. It was called: “Blind Dates.” It was a great experience.

“Blind Dates” was noted for its production, creativity, and exceptional cast. In 2009, at the Martín Fierro Awards given annually by the Association of Argentinean Television and Radio Journalists, “Blind Dates” received 9 nominations, making it the third most nominated program ever.

Nicolás Pauls also excels as a television host with two classics in Argentinean television history, “Return Rock” and “LP,” two programs that paid homage to music.

Hi, welcome to Elepé, the program where we remember the records most important to Argentinean rock.

Despite his busy schedule in the entertainment industry and as a devoted family man, Nicolás finds time to indulge in one of his great passions – good vegan cooking.

I think the thing I like most to do in life, out of all the things that I have done, is to cook. I think that is what I enjoy most. And I love it. Now we are living here, these months here in the country, with friends. And almost tacitly it was decided that the couple cooks would be us, Sofi, my wife and I, which for me is no problem at all. In the kitchen I found something very similar to that which music produces.

In the sense that music is a very important food in life, extremely important – it nurtures the spirit. And food is not only creative, because for me it is an act of absolute creation and total freedom; it’s all in the process. It is like acting also, I mean, it is a truly a creative act that ends in an offering, in something that you are offering. I do it with great love, I really like to cook. And I do it with a lot of love because I enjoy it a lot. And it ends in everyone sitting down at the table to eat. . So, the end of the process is something very communal, very beautiful.

Christmas 2010 saw the very successful launching of a campaign in Argentina called “Christmas Without Cruelty,” in which Nicolás also participated. It was organized by the international vegetarian movement “The Spoon Revolution.”

In these parties, feed yourself without cruelty. Let’s not take from animals the right to life. I support the Love Revolution. Yes to life. No to violence. Yes to animal rights.

For me, the utilization of an animal for consumption... I don’t say it just only because of their meat, but rather also their milk. It seems to me that it is like expropriating, it is like robbing; for me, it is to steal something. It is like stealing a baby; it is a crime for me, to steal a baby is a crime. And it is also a crime to steal food from a baby. Then the food that this cow produces, is not for us, it is for her child. So, it seems to me that this invasive exterminating consciousness, I mean, that to take this away is to exterminate and it is to exploit, and I am in absolute disagreement with the exploitation of anything.

To understand that the cow produced that milk for a calf and not for us, it makes me see that if you go and you take away that milk you are robbing something. It is like someone coming to steal the milk that my wife produces for my children. It seems inappropriate; not only inappropriate, but unnecessary.

Nicolás and his wife Sofia enjoyed two vegan pregnancies. Their beautiful, healthy children have been raised on a pure plant-based diet.

The experiences were great, of the two pregnancies. Well, it is clear that the diet that we follow, this is contrary to what many times is said that it is necessary to eat certain foods that implicate animal suffering, that are necessary in pregnancy. Well, Olivia was born at 4½ kilograms, and Leon at 4 kilograms 200 grams, with super strong health, with beautiful births.

For me, the only experience is the one I have experienced in my life. That is the only one I have passed through, and I would return to do it this way again. And without a doubt, I would encourage this lineage to continue. Both of them were born in different houses that we lived in. Olivia was born in one and Leon in another. And they were beautiful. Yes, absolutely naturally, in our home. They were divine births, divine.

Given his concern with climate change and his understanding that organic veganism is the best way to address the problem, Nicolás Pauls was invited to speak at the conference “Global Warming: Yes, There is a Solution!” held in Lima, Peru in September 2009. The event was globally broadcasted live on Supreme Master Television, as well as locally on RBC Television’s Channel 11 and Radio Latina at 990 AM.

And if, in addition, we know it will change the course of a devastated planet, we must join forces with haste.

We must begin to communicate the concept of a vegetarian world, because we know that by changing this idea, and this conception and by beginning to prioritize the respect for all living beings, we can return the air to the planet so it can breathe again. Thank you.

Invited as the Guest of Honor to this very conference was Supreme Master Ching Hai, who graciously accepted to attend via videoconference. Nicolás, along with other dignitaries, had the opportunity ask her a question.

Hallo, Master. Thank you. We know about the economic interest behind the meat industry, so the question is: What do you think is the way to inform about this truth, the importance of the meat industry in relation to global warming when neither government nor mainstream media talk about that?

Good afternoon, Mr. Pauls. How are you? Very well, thank you. Thank you, too.

I’m glad to see that you are a vegan yourself and you look a picture of perfection - healthy, handsome, intelligent. Congratulations! In your question of how to communicate the truth about meat, the first thing I can say is that you are already living this truth by example. So, congratulations again for that. Thank you.

we cannot wait for the government and the media to get the message out.

We must take the lead. We must do it by example. And you would be one of the natural agents for this kind of message since you are already well-known and I’m sure well-loved by the public. Well, I love you already. So I’m sure everybody else loves you.

We have to inform people of the truth and we have to live by that truth.

This truth, our need to stop the killing of animals, is the only one that will stabilize the Earth physically, as well as bringing peace and restoring hope to humans and the planet. So please, help us spread this message, Mr. Pauls, and you will see the change that comes from more and more people returning to a humane, considerate way of life. I have said before, we can have Eden on Earth, and it is true.

Thank you for being so kind to all of us by being kind to the animals. Thank you for doing your part in saving the planet. Thank you very much.

Nicolás offers a message to Supreme Master Ching Hai about this encounter, and shares his thoughts about participating in the event.

It was nice to have you answering questions, I still feel like I’d like to... Surely, after writing down the questions and sending them out and so on, I started to think of a few other things. But well, I guess there is no longer a chance to ask them. But I like what she says, I like her message. I like it, it seems very clear to me. I am in tune with her, with her way of thinking.

This trip was very revealing on many levels. It seemed to me very, very important, to attend this conference. The invitation to the conference helped me to also understand that this position that I have due to being a person who has worked for many years in communication media, and making music and acting, it is important to be able to say something. Or perhaps the lifestyle I have, that we have with our family, is a way of living that could apply to others. I felt that from some place, like even an obligation – this obligation to communicate that.

So, if what I say can make a person see, begin to see things from the other side, I have to be conscious of that, that it may be even important and can change something. I began to think like that when I received the invitation. I thought, “Why are they inviting me? What do I have to say?” So I said, “Well, yes, I have something to say.” I began to reassess that message, or what I have to say. I began, because of that, to apply it afterwards also. To say, “Well, then, it shouldn’t simply stay at an excellent conference in Lima, Peru, but rather, let’s use it also in other places, let’s spread it out.” And that is what I began to do.

So this trip was also revealing because it woke me up. It woke me up: “Well, you’re in a position where perhaps what you say will be heard by many.” Let us continue to build this, and we continue communicating what we think. Let’s walk forward together, because there is a lot to do.

Nicolás has a parting thought for Supreme Master Television viewers.

Well, respect for everyone, basically, as a fundamental pillar. It seems to me that without that, nothing works. It seems to me that from here one can begin to build. I think that what is being built from respect has an absolutely solid and indestructible foundation. And that is the only way to make our passage through here more harmonious, through this experience that is the only one we are going to have. So let’s nurture this, let’s defend this, let’s proclaim this – the idea of harmony between us, between all of us.

Thank you, loving viewers, for the pleasure of your company today. We look forward to seeing you next Saturday for another episode of Vegetarian Elite, here on Supreme Master Television. Coming up next is Between Master and Disciples. May the Divine melodies of Heaven be the peace anthems of our time.