[world-vedic] Meat and Lord Buddha

[Guest guest]

Laxmi N. Gupta wrote:

> LOrd Buddha died of eating bad pork at a disciple's.

 

So it is *alleged*. Allegation is *not proof*. Lord Buddha lived,

*practiced* and preached ahimsa paramo dharma, no killing of animals. If

Lord Buddha did as you allege he did, he would be guilty of hypocrisy. We do

not accept Lord Buddha was a

hypocrite see below evidence from Srimad Bhagavatam (A.C. Bhaktivedanta

Swami Prabhupada).

Those who want to *justify* eating meat often take shelter of great

personalities and taint them so as to carry on with their nefarious acts of

needless, cruel and painful slaughter of animals.

 

SB 1.3.24

tatah kalau sampravrtte

sammohaya sura-dvisam

buddho namnanjana-sutah

kikatesu bhavisyati

 

SYNONYMS

tatah--thereafter; kalau--the age of Kali; sampravrtte--having ensued;

sammohaya--for the purpose of deluding; sura--the theists; dvisam--those who

are envious; buddhah--Lord Buddha; namna--of the name; anjana-sutah--whose

mother was Anjana; kikatesu--in the province of Gaya (Bihar);

bhavisyati--will take place.

Then, in the beginning of Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha,

the son of Anjana, in the province of Gaya, just for the purpose of deluding

those who are envious of the faithful theist.

 

PURPORT

Lord Buddha, a powerful incarnation of the Personality of Godhead,

appeared in the province of Gaya (Bihar) as the son of Anjana, and he

preached his own conception of nonviolence and deprecated even the animal

sacrifices sanctioned in the Vedas. At the time when Lord Buddha appeared,

the people in general were atheistic and preferred animal flesh to anything

else. On the plea of Vedic sacrifice, every place was practically turned

into a slaughterhouse, and animal-killing was indulged in unrestrictedly.

Lord Buddha preached nonviolence, taking pity on the poor animals. He

preached that he did not believe in the tenets of the Vedas and stressed the

adverse psychological effects incurred by animal-killing. Less intelligent

men of the age of Kali, who had no faith in God, followed his principle, and

for the time being they were trained in moral discipline and nonviolence,

the preliminary steps for proceeding further on the path of God realization.

He deluded the atheists because such atheists who followed his principles

did not believe in God, but they kept their absolute faith in Lord Buddha,

who himself was the incarnation of God. Thus the faithless people were made

to believe in God in the form of Lord Buddha. That was the mercy of Lord

Buddha: he made the faithless faithful to him.

Killing of animals before the advent of Lord Buddha was the most

prominent feature of the society. People claimed that these were Vedic

sacrifices. When the Vedas are not accepted through the authoritative

disciplic succession, the casual readers of the Vedas are misled by the

flowery language of that system of knowledge. In the Bhagavad-gita a comment

has been made on such foolish scholars (avipascitah). The foolish scholars

of Vedic literature who do not care to receive the transcendental message

through the transcendental realized sources of disciplic succession are sure

to be bewildered. To them, the ritualistic ceremonies are considered to be

all in all. They have no depth of knowledge. According to the Bhagavad-gita

(15.15), vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyah: the whole system of the Vedas is

to lead one gradually to the path of the Supreme Lord. The whole theme of

Vedic literature is to know the Supreme Lord, the individual soul, the

cosmic situation and the relation between all these items. When the relation

is known, the relative function begins, and as a result of such a function

the ultimate goal of life or going back to Godhead takes place in the

easiest manner. Unfortunately, unauthorized scholars of the Vedas become

captivated by the purificatory ceremonies only, and natural progress is

thereby checked.

To such bewildered persons of atheistic propensity, Lord Buddha is the

emblem of theism. He therefore first of all wanted to check the habit of

animal-killing. The animal-killers are dangerous elements on the path going

back to Godhead. There are two types of animal-killers. The soul is also

sometimes called the "animal" or the living being. Therefore, both the

slaughterer of animals and those who have lost their identity of soul are

animal-killers.

Maharaja Pariksit said that only the animal-killer cannot relish the

transcendental message of the Supreme Lord. Therefore if people are to be

educated to the path of Godhead, they must be taught first and foremost to

stop the process of animal-killing as above mentioned. It is nonsensical to

say that animal-killing has nothing to do with spiritual realization. By

this dangerous theory many so-called sannyasis have sprung up by the grace

of Kali-yuga who preach animal-killing under the garb of the Vedas. The

subject matter has already been discussed in the conversation between Lord

Caitanya and Maulana Chand Kazi Shaheb. The animal sacrifice as stated in

the Vedas is different from the unrestricted animal-killing in the

slaughterhouse. Because the asuras or the so-called scholars of Vedic

literatures put forward the evidence of animal-killing in the Vedas, Lord

Buddha superficially denied the authority of the Vedas. This rejection of

the Vedas by Lord Buddha was adopted in order to save people from the vice

of animal-killing as well as to save the poor animals from the slaughtering

process of their big brothers who clamor for universal brotherhood, peace,

justice and equity. There is no justice when there is animal-killing. Lord

Buddha wanted to stop it completely, and therefore his cult of ahimsa was

propagated not only in India but also outside the country.

Technically Lord Buddha's philosophy is called atheistic because there is

no acceptance of the Supreme Lord and because that system of philosophy

denied the authority of the Vedas. But that is an act of camouflage by the

Lord. Lord Buddha is the incarnation of Godhead. As such, he is the original

propounder of Vedic knowledge. He therefore cannot reject Vedic philosophy.

But he rejected it outwardly because the sura-dvisa, or the demons who are

always envious of the devotees of Godhead, try to support cow-killing or

animal-killing from the pages of the Vedas, and this is now being done by

the modernized sannyasis. Lord Buddha had to reject the authority of the

Vedas altogether. This is simply technical, and had it not been so he would

not have been so accepted as the incarnation of Godhead. Nor would he have

been worshiped in the transcendental songs of the poet Jayadeva, who is a

Vaisnava acarya. Lord Buddha preached the preliminary principles of the

Vedas in a manner suitable for the time being (and so also did Sankaracarya)

to establish the authority of the Vedas. Therefore both Lord Buddha and

Acarya Sankara paved the path of theism, and Vaisnava acaryas, specifically

Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, led the people on the path towards a

realization of going back to Godhead.

We are glad that people are taking interest in the nonviolent movement of

Lord Buddha. But will they take the matter very seriously and close the

animal slaughterhouses altogether? If not, there is no meaning to the ahimsa

cult.

Srimad-Bhagavatam was composed just prior to the beginning of the age of

Kali (about five thousand years ago), and Lord Buddha appeared about

twenty-six hundred years ago. Therefore in the Srimad-Bhagavatam Lord Buddha

is foretold. Such is the authority of this clear scripture. There are many

such prophecies, and they are being fulfilled one after another. They will

indicate the positive standing of Srimad-Bhagavatam, which is without trace

of mistake, illusion, cheating and imperfection, which are the four flaws of

all conditioned souls. The liberated souls are above these flaws; therefore

they can see and foretell things which are to take place on distant future

dates.