animal products in KRsna service-karma or not?

[Guest guest]

>

> yet in Denver temple in 1972 I heard, (not verified by any authority I

> knew-thus I add Hari sauri) That SP had mentioned that the animal products

> were so far cooked down, that when put /used in "ivory" soap (which

> contains animal slaughterhouse products in it,) it was not too

> sugnificant. comments/ clarifications.. Hari sauri?

 

I haven't heard about that one but I can cite an incident from 1976

and the purchase of sour cream by the devotees in LA:

 

April 6, 1976 -- TD Volume 1

There was a bit of mail today. One long letter came from Puru dasa in Los

Angeles. It had actually been sent to Hridayananda Maharaja in early

February, when he was still the visiting secretary, but somehow wasn't

acknowledged until now.

Puru was concerned about the temple purchasing sour cream that was known to

have rennet, an extract from the stomach lining of a calf, in it and another

batch, that had gelatin in it. The rationale used was that almost everything

in Kali-yuga is contaminated. And Srila Prabhupada had previously allowed

the use of white sugar, which is bleached over animal bones. He had also

allowed the purchase of milk that had fish-liver oil added.

A further motivation was the very cheap purchase price of five cents per

pound. Therefore the GBC, Jayatirtha, had consented to the purchase of the

sour cream because the amount of rennet was very small -- about 1 cc per 150

gallons or 1/50,000 of an ounce per pint.

Still, despite the seemingly insignificant quantity, some devotees were

disturbed by its use, and thus Puru requested a direct statement from

Prabhupada to settle the matter. "It seems to me, though I am a fallen,

fault-finding rascal, that only Srila Prabhupada can say whether or not this

sour cream is offerable to the Deity, and can be used. I certainly do not

know. There are valid arguments on both sides, but the only real point is

whether or not Krsna is pleased with such offerings, and only His pure

devotee can tell us that."

He added as a postscript that the temple has over 400 pounds of it in the

refrigerator, and some had reasoned that Prabhupada would not want to see

the sour cream wasted. Puru wanted to know if they should use it up, never

buy it again, dump it, or continue to use it and not be agitated over its

contents.

Prabhupada's reply was short and clear. "Concerning the use of sour cream in

the temple, it should be stopped immediately. Nothing should be offered to

the Deities which is purchased in the stores. Things produced by the karmis

should not be offered to Radha-Krsna. Ice-cream, if you can prepare it, is

OK, but not otherwise. Now, you have such a big stock of this sour cream, so

sell the stock at any cost. Who is the rascal who has purchased without

permission?"

 

I have heard about the permission to use milk with cod liver oil in

it but my understanding was that was because that was the only type of milk

available to those devotees, and some milk therefore had to be used. But

Srila Prabhupada stressed having our own farms and producing our own foods

in order to avoid these types of compromises.

 

Where something is unavoidable, and the action is sincerley

performed for Krsna, there is no bad karma.

 

Your humble servant,

Hari-sauri dasa