Ancient Kshatriyas, Brahmanas and meat eating

[Guest guest]

Every action has to be performed in accordance with time, place and circumstance

in order to make spritual advancement!

 

It is true that not only Kshtriyas but even Brahmanas used to participate in

animal sacrifices in order to liberate an animal from its body and transform it

to human body! Further, such yajnas were performed to test the power of mantras.

 

Lord Buddha's Appearance was to stop all this, as such He refuted Vedas and

Karma-kand. His followers loved, believed and followed Him. Animal killing was

thus minimized or stopped in India and rest of the world, where Lord Buddha's

missionaries spread Buddhism. Buddhist however still suffocated animals- a kind

of torture- rather than actual butchering- and this was non-sense. Jain religion

was spread by Lord Mahavir, almost same time as Buddhism- 2,500 years ago- and

totally abolished meat eating. Some followers of Jaisnism even cover their mouth

in order not to breath germs and insects, because such inhaling indirectly means

killing- but this is an extremism.

 

Jesus Christ preached: "Thus shall not kill"; however, christians to this day

eat meat, saying that Jesus meant not to murder. And it applied to human beings-

not to animals- who have no soul- according to christianity.

 

Many Gaudiya acharyas have said that they even would participate in meat

distribution- feasts in order to attract masses- if it helps in increasing

Krishna Consciousness- however, such incidents never happened in actuality.

Krishna arranged big crowds- and no meat was ever served in those gatherings in

Mayapur.

 

Simply said there are six sins in killing, cutting, cooking,distributing,serving

and eating meat. By avoiding meat-eating, one gets 50% liberation ( moksha)-

which of course is the goal of karmees, jnanis and yogies.

A devotee follows four regulative principles and chants Holy Names:

 

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare!

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare!!

 

Dasanudas

Prayag Narayan das Misra

********************************

 

 

 

 

I am sure there are many ISKCON friends who have read the great epics verse by

verse. Is this claim true or false?

 

Clearly, consuming meat is an invitation for Karmic retaliation and an unGodly

act, of course excluding the few cases where the slaughter has been purified by

the Karma Kanda verses in Vedas.

 

Please give me enough grounds, by which I can refute a person claiming that meat

eating is not bad and the great ancients have done it?

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna

 

Some time back I had the same doubt about Ksatriyas hunting and eating meat

after I had read the Mahabharata. I approached a senior devotee and he solved

my doubt in the following manner:

 

Before the advent of Kali Yuga there existed true Ksatriayas who were primariliy

kings and their main business was administration of the affairs of their

kingdoms and protection of all inhabitants of their kingdom including animals

and plants. In order to perform this service they needed to engage in animal

killing, for three reasons. One was that they needed to maintain the ecological

balance of the jungles. So if there were too many tigers in the jungle and the

tigers were killing too many deers then in order to protect the deers they

would kill the tigers.

 

The second reason was that they needed to keep their bow and arrow skills sharp

for warfare to protect the citizens, so they practiced their skills by hunting.

And finally fighting a war a an activity predominantely in the mode of passion,

so when nearing a war some Ksatriyas would engage in eating animals so that

they would be in the right mental frame of mind for war.

 

This does not mean that all Ksatriyas ate meat. Also there were demoniac kings

who engaged in these sinful acts not as a service to the Lord but for their own

sense gratification. Apart from that I am don't know if there is a referance to

Krishna or Lord ramcandra eating meat.

 

In this age of kali yuga we have to follow the process as given by the Acarayas.

In this regard we are followers of the six Goswamis of Vrindavan, headed by

Srila Rupa Goswami, following their teaching in the line of Srila Prabhupada.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Hare Krishna

 

Your servant,

 

Ashwin

 

On Sun, 12 Dec 2004 05:41:07 +0000, wwti wrote:

 

Every action has to be performed in accordance with time, place and

circumstance in order to make spritual advancement!

>

> It is true that not only Kshtriyas  but even Brahmanas used to participate in

animal sacrifices in order to liberate an animal from its body and transform it

to human body! Further, such yajnas were performed to test the power of

mantras.

>

> Lord Buddha's Appearance was to stop all this, as such He refuted Vedas and

Karma-kand. His followers loved, believed and followed Him. Animal killing was

thus minimized or stopped in India and rest of the world, where Lord Buddha's

missionaries spread  Buddhism. Buddhist however still suffocated animals- a

kind of torture- rather than actual butchering- and this was non-sense. Jain

religion was spread by Lord Mahavir, almost same time as Buddhism- 2,500 years

ago- and totally abolished meat eating. Some followers of Jaisnism even cover

their mouth in order not to breath germs and insects, because such inhaling

indirectly means killing- but this is an extremism.

>

> Jesus Christ preached: "Thus shall not kill"; however, christians to this day

eat meat, saying that Jesus meant not to murder. And it applied to human

beings- not to animals- who have no soul- according to christianity.

>

> Many Gaudiya acharyas have said that they even would participate in meat

distribution- feasts  in order to attract masses- if it helps in increasing

Krishna Consciousness- however, such incidents never happened in actuality.

Krishna arranged big crowds- and no meat was ever served in those gatherings in

Mayapur.

>

> Simply said there are six sins in killing, cutting,

cooking,distributing,serving and eating meat. By avoiding meat-eating, one gets

50% liberation ( moksha)- which of course is the goal of karmees, jnanis and

yogies.

> A devotee follows four regulative principles and chants Holy Names:

>

> Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare!

> Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare!!

>

> Dasanudas

> Prayag Narayan das Misra

> ********************************

>

>

>

>

> I am sure there are many ISKCON friends who have read the great epics verse by

verse. Is this claim true or false?

>

> Clearly, consuming meat is an invitation for Karmic retaliation and an unGodly

act, of course excluding the few cases where the slaughter has been purified by

the Karma Kanda verses in Vedas.

>

> Please give me enough grounds, by which I can refute a person claiming that

meat eating is not bad and the great ancients have done it?

>

>

>

>

>

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________________________

Ashwini Jagtiani

Industrial Engineering

Penn State University

[Guest guest]

achintya, wwti@a... wrote:

 

> Many Gaudiya acharyas have said that they even would participate in

meat distribution- feasts in order to attract masses-

>

 

Folks, there is a lot of mental speculation going on in this thread.

 

First establish who ate meat and when, and THEN refute or respond to

it.

 

It is extremely odd to me that any Tom, Dick, or Harry can say, "Oh,

in Vedic culture I heard that (insert ludicrous rumor here)" and

people, taking this seriously without any discrimination, come here

saying, "How do I refute this?"

 

The answer is, you don't bother yourself with people who do not

provide evidence for their claims. If someone tells you that

kshatriyas ate meat, then the proper response is to request explicit

proof of that.

 

Please, don't just take seriously whatever you hear from someone

speaking on the basis of word-of-mouth!

 

By the way, "many Gaudiya acharyas" have not said they would

participate in meat distribution for the purposes of attracting

people to Krishna consciousness.

 

Please make accurate statements and quote evidence to support your

claims.

[Guest guest]

I think Krishnaji has a very important point in not

allowing oneself to get influenced by unsubstantiated

allegations. One of the sad things is that the Vedic

religion has had to face the same questions being

repeated century after century, mainly by atheists,

who are just not willing to relent. These questions

have been answered time and again, but still the

process goes on. Unfortunately, the mind being like

the wind (BG), allows itself to entertain doubts at

the slightest provocation. A true man is the one who

can keep his/her faith secure from the attack of Maya.

 

 

I got the following quotes from the website

http://www.eatveg.com/:

 

He who desires to augment his own flesh by eating the

flesh of other creatures lives in misery in whatever

species he may take his birth.

Mahabharata, Anu. 115.47. FS, pg. 90

 

The great warrior Bhishma explains to Yudhishtira,

eldest of the Pandava princes, that the meat of

animals is like the flesh of one's own son, and that

the foolish person who eats meat must be considered

the vilest of human beings [Anu. 114.11].

 

The purchaser of flesh performs himsa (violence) by

his wealth; he who eats flesh does so by enjoying its

taste; the killer does himsa by actually tying and

killing the animal. Thus, there are three forms of

killing: he who brings flesh or sends for it, he who

cuts off the limbs of an animal, and he who purchases,

sells or cooks flesh and eats it -all of these are to

be considered meat-eaters.

Mahabharata, Anu. 115.40. FS, pg 90

 

!Subash

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

--- krishna_susarla <krishna_susarla

wrote:

 

 

 

achintya, wwti@a... wrote:

 

> Many Gaudiya acharyas have said that they even would

participate in

meat distribution- feasts in order to attract masses-

>

 

Folks, there is a lot of mental speculation going on

in this thread.

 

First establish who ate meat and when, and THEN refute

or respond to

it.

 

It is extremely odd to me that any Tom, Dick, or Harry

can say, "Oh,

in Vedic culture I heard that (insert ludicrous rumor

here)" and

people, taking this seriously without any

discrimination, come here

saying, "How do I refute this?"

 

The answer is, you don't bother yourself with people

who do not

provide evidence for their claims. If someone tells

you that

kshatriyas ate meat, then the proper response is to

request explicit

proof of that.

 

Please, don't just take seriously whatever you hear

from someone

speaking on the basis of word-of-mouth!

 

By the way, "many Gaudiya acharyas" have not said they

would

participate in meat distribution for the purposes of

attracting

people to Krishna consciousness.

 

Please make accurate statements and quote evidence to

support your

claims.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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