cow slaughter

[Guest guest]

> I'm not involved in politics, and I think in general devotees should

> not be. However, that does not preclude us from having views on

> things

 

That would appear to be an appropriate path - we may advise the governmental

administrators though we might not want to become personally involved

ourselves. Of course, it would be best if they were pious by nature rather

than what we so often see.

 

> > And regarding cow slaughter, India being a secular country where

> > religion is seperate from state or atleast its suppose to be

> seperate from state, we can't impose such restrictions based on values

and

> > belief of a certain religion. This will not be fair for people

practising

> > other religions and of course against the secular premise of our

> > constitution and preamble.

 

Secularism is a two-edged sword. It can disempower entrenched interests

(Christian, Islamic, Caste Brahmin) thus allowing other things to happen (us

in the West, or even in India for that matter) but at the same time it

allows undesireable elements to flourish. There is a big controversey

involving how secularism should be applied: should separation between Chuch

and State extend to separation between God and Government in its entirety?

Besides, some values are held commonly - spiritual common denomenators. We

should remember that there is no void or vacume anywhere, and without a

systematic and strucutred effort to create and maintain a God concious

society irreligious forces will fill that vacume and quite quickly.

Prabhupada recommeded that the government become involved to make sure that

the Christians act like Christians, Hindus like Hindus, etc.. That would

preserve others rights while encouraging religiosity in general.

 

> a Harvard scholar which

> stated that cows produce more food in the form of milk when left

> alive than they do when slaughtered for meat. This refutes the idea

> that keeping cows alive has somehow led to famine, which is actually

> a British propaganda (in fact, it was actually the British conversion

> of Indian farm-land into non-consumable cash crops like cotton which

> contributed to famine).

 

Milk production is a renewable resource (so is the urine and the dung) but

the meat production from each individual animal is once only. Of course,

the cow must get pregnant to be able to produce the milk, so then what is to

be done with all the calfs. Prabhupada said that either you make a plan to

utilize or you make a plan to kill. It is the dharma of everyone in

general, but the vaisyas in particular to come up with practical plans

(go-rakshya) to make them useful.

 

> > You cannot have a varna asrama based society today.

> > na sudra-rajye nivasenn-adharmikajanavrte

> > " Let him (a brahmana) not dwell in a land that is governed by

> > sudras."

> > (Manu 4.61)

> > All land is governed by sudras mostly. So where will one go ?

 

These are nice quotes that should be used as a "baseline" to measure our

modern society against. As you aptly observed - under the circumstances,

"Where shall one go?" Obviously there is nowhere that meets the criteria

outlined in sastra so we have to stay where we are. Think globally, act

locally - work with others to make changes close to home. For example:

 

> > So we can't work for christian beef eating mleccha masters in US nor

> > in their companies in india ........ neither can we work for those

> > hindus who are ordinary in vedic sense.

 

Maybe work on trying to convince the steak eaters that they are "missteak"

eaters instead; give them a higher taste. We can't force, and should not

threaten their religion, but gradual change can take place nonetheless and

it is in fact happening. (Prostlyetyzing at the office is not recommended

though.)

 

ys, Santiparayana dasa