Death Penatly/Capital Punishment: What is our stance?

[Guest guest]

Can devotees kindly throw light on this topic? I think there is a great need for

deeper discussion on this and other topics based on guru, sadhu and sastras- I

seek the permission of KS to allow such discussions - I will accept if he

doesn't want to use this forum for such a purpose.

 

iys

 

Aravind.

 

 

Aravind Mohanram

Ph.D. Candidate

Dept. of Mat Sci and Engg.,

Penn State University,

University Park, PA 16801

www.personal.psu.edu/aum105

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Well it is very clear that Prabhupada supported the death penalty in cases

of murder. While I don't have the specific references in front of me I know

I have personally read them . He stated that it helped the murderer also

because he pays for his crime in this life and not in the next.

 

jdbrewster

 

-

"Aravind Mohanram" <psuaravind

<achintya>

Thursday, April 14, 2005 7:12 AM

Death Penatly/Capital Punishment: What is our stance?

 

 

>

> Can devotees kindly throw light on this topic? I think there is a great

need for deeper discussion on this and other topics based on guru, sadhu and

sastras- I seek the permission of KS to allow such discussions - I will

accept if he doesn't want to use this forum for such a purpose.

>

> iys

>

> Aravind.

>

>

> Aravind Mohanram

> Ph.D. Candidate

> Dept. of Mat Sci and Engg.,

> Penn State University,

> University Park, PA 16801

> www.personal.psu.edu/aum105

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> Achintya Homepage: achintya

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[Guest guest]

Dear Prabhus,

 

Regarding the application of the death sentence as referenced in our

literature, try this for starters:

S.B. 1.7.37

 

TRANSLATION

A cruel and wretched person who maintains his existence at the cost of

others' lives deserves to be killed for his own well-being, otherwise he

will go down by his own actions.

 

PURPORT

A life for a life is just punishment for a person who cruelly and

shamelessly lives at the cost of another's life. Political morality is to

punish a person by a death sentence in order to save a cruel person from

going to hell. That a murderer is condemned to a death sentence by the state

is good for the culprit because in his next life he will not have to suffer

for his act of murder. Such a death sentence for the murderer is the lowest

possible punishment offered to him, and it is said in the småti-çästras that

men who are punished by the king on the principle of a life for a life are

purified of all their sins, so much so that they may be eligible for being

promoted to the planets of heaven. According to Manu, the great author of

civic codes and religious principles, even the killer of an animal is to be

considered a murderer because animal food is never meant for the civilized

man, whose prime duty is to prepare himself for going back to Godhead. He

says that in the act of killing an animal, there is a regular conspiracy by

the party of sinners, and all of them are liable to be punished as murderers

exactly like a party of conspirators who kill a human being combinedly. He

who gives permission, he who kills the animal, he who sells the slaughtered

animal, he who cooks the animal, he who administers distribution of the

foodstuff, and at last he who eats such cooked animal food are all

murderers, and all of them are liable to be punished by the laws of nature.

No one can create a living being despite all advancement of material

science, and therefore no one has the right to kill a living being by one's

independent whims.

 

And this, also from S.B. 1.17.6

 

TRANSLATION

You rogue, do you dare beat an innocent cow because Lord Krsna and Arjuna,

the carrier of the Gandiva bow, are out of sight? Since you are beating the

innocent in a secluded place, you are considered a culprit and therefore

deserve to be killed.

 

PURPORT

In a civilization where God is conspicuously banished, and there is no

devotee warrior like Arjuna, the associates of the age of Kali take

advantage of this lawless kingdom and arrange to kill innocent animals like

the cow in secluded slaughterhouses. Such murderers of animals stand to be

condemned to death by the order of a pious king like Mahäräja Parékñit. For

a pious king, the culprit who kills an animal in a secluded place is

punishable by the death penalty, exactly like a murderer who kills an

innocent child in a secluded place.

 

Unfortunately, how many qualify? As an ounce of prevention is worth a pound

of cure, we need good training and government to counteract the evil effects

of the age and prevent the population in general from engaging in activities

they might not do otherwise in knowledge.

 

Your servant,

Shanti Parayana dasa

 

-

"J D Brewster" <jdbrewster

<achintya>

Thursday, April 14, 2005 3:01 AM

Re: Death Penatly/Capital Punishment: What is our

stance?

 

 

>

> Well it is very clear that Prabhupada supported the death penalty in cases

> of murder. While I don't have the specific references in front of me I

> know

> I have personally read them . He stated that it helped the murderer also

> because he pays for his crime in this life and not in the next.

>

> jdbrewster

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna

 

One issue with this is the fallibility and corruption in law

enforcement. Many people who have been executed were in fact innocent

of the specific crime of which they were convicted. Perhaps it can be

assumed that a so-called innocent person who was executed had

temporarily escaped punishment in a previous birth, but that seems to

be pretty shaky ground to stand upon.

 

By Manu's standards, nearly every person presently inhabiting Earth

would be throughly condemned, although I can't argue with that.

Animal killing is simply horrible. Still, it seems like more than we

can handle, to push for the execution of meat eaters. It's the kind

of thing that it might be better to leave up to the due course of

time, while purifying the whole scene by chanting Hare Krishna.

 

Hare Krishna

 

your servant,

Pandu das