Swamiji's Q & A session at Detroit.

[Guest guest]

Dear Devotees,

 

During Shri Puttige swamiji's visit to Detroit, we had a wonderful

Q & A session. I am trying to post some of them for the benefit of

others. If there is any mistake or improper message, it is only due to

my poor translation.

 

I hope this to lead for further " jijnasa " to enlighten ourselves.

In this part I am covering questions related to Vegetarian and Non

vegetarian related things. Further parts cover the other topics.

 

 

Shri Hari Priyatham.

B.Gopalakrishna.

 

 

Q.1) Plants are also having life and killing plants is also sin. So in

what sense vegetarian food is better than non-vegetarian food, in terms

of killing or 'sin'?

 

SWAMIJI: This is a very good question. It is true that plants also have

" life " and killing plants is also sin. So the best way to observe total

non-violence is to follow " Shiloncha Vraththi " . That is to take only

those fruit fallen from the trees, plants. In this way we are doing

harm to none. But everyone can not follow that. We have to take food

to survive and sustain this body and it the question of survival. So we

need to take that path which is less sinful and less harm to other

" jivi " .

 

Now there are two reasons to say that vegetarian food is

having insignificant sin. Many of the plants like rice, wheat etc. are

having life only for one crop time. Once their yield is over, they die,

even if we don't cut them. So by cutting those plants we are doing we

less sin or no sin at all. In many other plants, like mango, coconut

etc, by plucking the fruit, we are not killing the plants and so we are

doing very minimal sin or no sin at all. So vegetarian food is less

sinful. More over it is inevitable for our survival, but non-vegetarian

food is a luxury to us and we can afford to avoid that. It is more

sinful since we are killing animals all the time.

 

Next we need to know why certain acts are sinful. Each and every

life (plants, animals etc) has come to this world, to do

" sadhana " (efforts), to get better life and finally get " moksha " .

Whenever such " sadhana " opportunity is cut short, it becomes sin. For

plants there is no much " sadhana " . They can not do any kind of physical

or mental activities, in terms of " sadhana " . So by cutting them, we are

not doing many harms to their " sadhana " or reducing their opportunity

for " sadhana " . So it is not sinful. But animals can do a good amount

of " sadhana " by means of physical and / or mental activities. By

killing them, we are cutting short their opportunities to do " sadhana "

towards moksha. So it is more sinful.

 

To support this aspect further, " suicide " is considered as biggest

sin, eventhough no one else is troubled other than the self, because

God has given us this wonderful body and mind to do " sadhana " towards

moksha and by rejecting this offer or by cutting short this " sadhana " ,

we are insulting God and betraying him. So it is highly sinful. There

is another example in " Sasthra " . Suppose there is a very very old man,

incapable of doing any physical and mental activities. Then he can

enter to fire to end his life. That is not sin because he can not do

any more " sadhana " by himself or through others. So in general any act

which is cutting short others or self " sadhana " , it is considered as

sin. and vegetarians are doing less sin.

 

 

Q.2) We were thinking that only human beings, having 'thinking power'

can only do " sadhana " and other animals can not. Is it not true? How

animals can do " sadhana " ?

 

SWAMIJI: It is not true. All animals can also do " sadhana " .

Otherwise there is a fundamental problem in the system. If animals can

not do " sadhana " , they can not get better life, namely human life. If

they can not get human life, then they can not get " moksha " at all at

any time. This is not true and so it is proved that animals also do

" sadhana " and get better life.

 

They do 'sadhana' by their mental activities. We can see lot

of difference in the behavior of animals. In the same category say cat,

dog or cow, we can see lot of difference like some are soft, some are

sensitive, some are more active etc. This is due to their mental

" sadhana " . Also in kids who are not having any thinking power, we are

seeing lot of differences. We have seen a kid, in Bombay, around 2

years old. It loves Krishna like anything. While sleeping, it tightly

hugs Krishna idol; does not drink milk without offering to Krishna;

always want to listen to Krishna's story; always wants to witness

Krishna Pooja. It is really surprising. It is all due to previous

" samskara " . Like that animals also will have previous samskara and

" sadhana " .

 

 

Q. 3). Is it true that in olden days, sages used to eat meat? There is

an incident of 'Agasthya' eating meat in " Vathapi - Ilvala " story.

 

SWAMIJI: Yes, we can see some mention about such things in very old

stories. We need to understand clearly why and under what circumstances

they used to consume meat. Firstly they used to take meat, not as their

regular food. The animal would be offered to 'yajna', the sacred fire

and then the sages, having high yogic power would consume the meat as

prasad of the yajna. Due to this auspicious activity, the animal would

go to heaven. In the story of 'Augusthya', when he said ' Vathapi

jirno bhava', he got digested immediately. Such was the power in those

days.

 

But now meat is not approved to Brahmins. First we need to

understand why we consume food. It is to have good health. Health means

not only the physical health. The mental health plays a very important

role. That's why in Sanskrit it is known as " swasthya " means mental

peace, purity and health. Meat or non-vegetarian food improves body and

but not the mind. So for those people, who need to have physical

strength, like solders, meat is not prohibited. Solders need not have

any thinking power. They have to fight like machines. But for Brahmins,

mental power is more important. We need to have peace and purity of

mind, stability and concentration of mind. So for us meat is

prohibited. Since ages our ancestors were having vegetarian food and so

Brahmins are generally considered as soft, kind hearted, stable and

intelligent people. If we start consuming meat, slowly we will loose

all these good qualities. We will not see the changes overnight. It

takes time and we will see the changes in the later generations.

 

 

Q. 4) There are many noble laureates who are meat eaters. What we can

say for that?

 

SWAMIJI:Getting a noble prize is not at all a yardstick to measure the

peace and purity, stability and concentration of mind. It is known

that suicide rate is high in scientists too. Actually scientists are

more disturbed in their mind. Due to this, they get activated and get

involved deeply in something and come out with some new things. For

their success, the basic reason is not the peaceful mind, but disturbed

mind. Generally Brahmins who is suppose to have the mental capacity to

understand ' Brahma', need to have very good concentration power for

'japa' and 'tapa'. and they are supposed to be mentally not disturbed

people. In olden days even if they consume meat, they used to keep up

their mental stability and peace of mind, due to their yogic power or

'thapas'. But now in 'Kaliyuga', as such our mental powers and

concentration powers are getting reduced. We are loosing our purity and

peace of mind due to various reasons. As such the 'satvic' atmosphere

and 'satvic' qualities are reducing because we are not doing enough

'japa', 'tapa' etc. So if we start consuming meat we will loose all our

good mental qualities soon. So in 'kaliyuga', meat is strictly

prohibited for Brahmins. It is also sinful as said in previous answers.

 

 

Q. 5) Is it not sin to kill silkworms for silk and deer's for

'krishnaa-jina'?

 

SWAMIJI : Short answer is it is sin if we do for trading purpose. For

detailed answer, first we need to understand what sin is. It is not a

substance associated with a particular activity. The same activity can

be resulted in sin or not depending upon the purpose, intention and

circumstance. For e.g. killing in general is sin, but killing a demon

or man hunter is not sin. Similarly in olden days kings used to go for

hunting. It was not sin because they used to kill only those wild

animals, which are troublesome to the sages and the nearby villagers.

Similarly if we kill animal to avoid being killed, it is not sin. As

said earlier, every creature in this world is for doing " sadhana " .

Here the priority is for those doing greater " sadhana " . To accomplish

that, if others have to sacrifice their " sadhana " , there is no harm in

that. For e.g.: Assume that there are two students in a house, One if

preparing for second grade and other one preparing for Medical exam.

Though both are preparing for their exams, we consider that medical

exam is more important and give preference to him. If needed, we may

ask the other to sacrifice his preparation, because he doesn't lose

much. Similarly in this world, " jivi " doing higher order of " sadhana " ,

gets preference. So for the benefit of that, others with little

" sadhana " may be sacrificed without any sin. So if we are preparing

silk for God's pooja, then it is not sin. But if we are preparing silk

for decorating ourselves, it is sin. So we need to understand what is

the purpose of the act and what we are going achieve finally.

 

 

(To bo continued ...)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

" GOPALAKRISHNA.B VARNA " wrote:

 

>

>

> Q. 4) There are many noble laureates who are meat eaters. What we can

> say for that?

>

> SWAMIJI:Getting a noble prize is not at all a yardstick to measure the

> peace and purity, stability and concentration of mind. It is known

> that suicide rate is high in scientists too. Actually scientists are

> more disturbed in their mind. Due to this, they get activated and get

> involved deeply in something and come out with some new things. For

> their success, the basic reason is not the peaceful mind, but disturbed

> mind. Generally Brahmins who is suppose to have the mental capacity to

> understand ' Brahma', need to have very good concentration power for

> 'japa' and 'tapa'. and they are supposed to be mentally not disturbed

> people. In olden days even if they consume meat, they used to keep up

> their mental stability and peace of mind, due to their yogic power or

> 'thapas'. But now in 'Kaliyuga', as such our mental powers and

> concentration powers are getting reduced. We are loosing our purity and

> peace of mind due to various reasons. As such the 'satvic' atmosphere

> and 'satvic' qualities are reducing because we are not doing enough

> 'japa', 'tapa' etc. So if we start consuming meat we will loose all our

> good mental qualities soon. So in 'kaliyuga', meat is strictly

> prohibited for Brahmins. It is also sinful as said in previous answers.

>

>

 

krishNa bhaktas,

I want to congratulate Gopalakrishna Varna for excellent transcription of

the beautiful answers given by swamiji. I am eagerly awaiting the following

parts. I want to elaborate briefly on what swamiji has said on meat eating and

'satvic'

qualities and mental concentration.

 

We should not equate the mental qualities required for spiritual progress

with mental qualities required for study of the scientific phenomenon. As

swamiji has said, mental qualities required for spiritual progress are purity,

peace and

concentration of the mind. As Bhagavad Gita has said these are very important

qualities but difficult to achieve. (Chanchalam hi manaH krishNa..)

 

Not eating meat helps to cultivate these qualities. These things can be

verified. I have heard from couple of my meat eating friends that when they

stopped eating meat for 2-3 months, they could feel that there minds were more

peaceful and clearer.

There are also changes in Pranic energy in the subtle bodies that happen by

giving up eating meat. It is well established in Yoga and all other spiritual

paths that giving up meat is very important step in spiritual progress. They

also say that as

one progresses in the spiritual path, one's desire to eat meat automatically

gets reduced. We should be thankful that most of us are already doing that.

Health benefits of vegetarian diet are also well established by now. (On an

unrelated

topic, many new age diet and health Guru's on PBS and other places also

advocate, near vegetarian or totally vegetarian diets)

 

 

Another point that I want to make that, we should not take some stories of

Agastya eating VatApi and deduce that meat eating was common in the old days.

These may be some special conditions as opposed to every day happennings.

 

Hare srinivasa,

Vasu Murthy

 

 

 

 

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Vasu Murthy

 

vmurthy

 

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