[world-vedic] Dalai Lama and meat

[Guest guest]

Dear Laxmi N. Gupta,

 

According to Vedic social convention (varnasrama-dharma) Lord Rama was allowed

to eat meat because he was a ksatriya (military class, like king and rulers,

etc). The ksatriyas only ate meat which was killed in hunting. As you will

know, Lord Rama was exiled into the forest for fourteen years.

 

Since this custom is authorized by Vedic injunction for ksatriyas of ancient

times, it was not harmful to eat meat with respect to their karmic reactions.

Other classes, the mercantile, the laborer and the brahmincal classes, however,

were not allowed to eat meat as it gradually leads one to violence. Ksatriyas

had been educated to know how to deal with violence, but other people had not.

Besides this evidence, Lord Rama is Godhead Himself. He can do whatever He thinks best.

 

In Kali-yuga, the age of quarrel and hypocrisy, however, man has lost his

intelligence and takes to all kinds of sense gratification of which meat eating

is one.

 

Swami Vivekananda might have had great success in the Western world since he was

the first swami to teach transcendental philosophy in Canada. However,

Vivekananda was a teacher of impersonal Brahman realization. He was a

brahma-vadi. Brahman realization is the first step in God-consciousness

according to Vedic literature. After impersonal Brahman realization still two

higher stages follow.

 

That which is realized in impersonal Brahman is 'sat' (the notion of eternity).

There is no 'cit' (knowledge of God) and no conception of 'ananda' (bliss).

Brahmavidya is simply dry intellectual knowledge and in that way it resembles

the atheistic doctrines of Buddhism and Shankarism. Therefore, both the Dalai

Lama and Swami Vivekananda are no religious teachers on the higher platforms of

reality.

 

The full concept of the highest truth is 'sat-cit-ananda-vigraha' which is the

technical definition of the Supreme Being: eternity-knowledge-bliss and form.

See please Bhagavata Purana 1.1.1. For some people it may take lifetimes to

accept this truth, or they may never reach it at all.

 

It is also said in these scriptures that by eating meat it is impossible to

understand the higher truths of religion, or God-consciousness.

In the full concept of the Truth not only the intelligence is involved in

realizing, but the heart is a prerequisite in the first place...

 

Perhaps you have noticed, that those who are following the Puranic concepts of

God-consciousness, or suddha-bhakti (pure loving devotion), actually renounce

meat eating. Because they follow the devotional path these people (Vaisnavas)

are by actual conduct automatically elevated to the platform of the brahminical

standard of life, irrespective of caste, creed, nationality or gender. Following

these regulated principles they get initiated in the highest spiritual knowledge

and are given the mantras for the purpose of reviving their lost personal

relationship with the Supreme Lord.

 

Those who follow in the footsteps of God's personal incarnations, like Rama,

Krishna and Caitanya, renounce meat eating out of love for Him and the innocent

living beings He created. Sastra says, 'if you cannot return the life of the

animal you killed (or had being killed), you are not allowed to take that life.

Not even the life of an ant.'

Why?

 

The animal which is killed for the purpose of lust or sense gratification before

it could finish its karma in that particular body, will have to take birth

again in the same body to finish its remaining karmas which are necessary to

evolve into a higher species. In the same way we have become human beings.

Therefore killing animals for sense gratification is a great disturbance in the

karmic organization of Mother Nature and severely hampers the natural progress

of evolution of the animal kingdom and humanity as well...

 

Those who are fortunate enough to love God love all living creatures in the

universe automatically. Those who eat meat, on the contrary, have still a long

way to go before their heart softens enough to attain full self-realization of

that which really is.

 

With love and devotion,

Indira dasi

 

----- Oorspronkelijk bericht -----

Van: Laxmi N. Gupta

Aan: vediculture (AT) eGroups (DOT) com

Verzonden: vrijdag 31 maart 2000 19:02

Onderwerp: [world-vedic] Dalai Lama and meat

It is common knowledge that Dalai Lama and practically all Tibetans are

meat eaters. I remember reading in one of his books, that he gave up

eating meat for a time but then started again at his physician's

advice. A couple of years ago, Dalai Lama was invited to a Zen Buddhist

restaurant in NY city and was served a vegetarian meal. He was unhappy

with it; went to Waldorf Astoria and ordered steak. This was written

about in the New Yorker magazine. Generally a Buddhist will eat meat

if it was not specifically prepared for him and the animal was not

killed just for him. Practically all Thais, Cambodians. Laotians and

Vietnamese eat meat and they are predominantly Buddhists. Lord Rama was

a meat eater as any serious reader of Valmiki Ramayan knows. Swami

Vivekananda and Paramhamsa Ramakrishna were also meat eaters. I think

the link between vegetarianism and spirituality is very tenuous.

 

Sincerely,

Laxmi N. Gupta

 

 

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