(No subject)

[Guest guest]

Dear fellow sadhakas

 

Meat Eating

-----------

I am joining this subject very late (I have not read mails regularly in the

past few days) but I think I want to say one thing about the discussion on

meat eating, although on the specific issue of animal sacrifices and their

origin/purpose, I am not very knowledgeable on the history of ancient Indian

religious rites. A medical friend of mine told me a very interesting thing

about why he believes that nature and evolution intended man to be a

vegetarian rather than a meat eater. Man's digestive system, right from the

teeth to the intestines, is almost identical to that of herbivores animals

like deer and cows. Note the absence of the sharp canine teeth, the presence

of flat molar teeth, the long and higly coiled small intestine and even the

presence of the appendix, which is very important for the herbivores

animals.

 

Personally, I also take the authority of the saint Pathanjali, who in his

Yoga Sutras, advises spiritual asirants to avoid meat eating as it gives

more strength to passions. It has been commented upon in this list that

Swami Vivekananda was also a meat eater right from his childhood. However,

we must be very careful and avoid such comparisons.

 

If one can just close his eyes and observe a light between the eyebrows, If

one can just glance at a page and absorb its entire contents, If one can

memorize one volume of encyclopaedia a day, If one can get 5000 people to

give you a standing ovation for 3 minutes by just addressing them as sisters

and brothers, If one can stand still on a stool when some cowboys fire

bullets in your direction, If one can pick up a gun for the first time in

your life and fire twelve shells in rapid successions, If one can do all

these or even one of these, then by all means such restirctions do not apply

to you. Swamiji's body was just working out its sanchita karma in

meat-eating and smoking and he himself was the entirely detached spirit.

 

Maya and Illusion

-----------------

Are we not commiting a mistake by saying that the older understanding of

Maya is as illusion? Sri Ramana Maharshi once had this to say about Maya: "

Sri Shankara has been wrongly criticised for his philosophy of maya.

Shankara made made 3 statements - Brahman is the truth, the Universe is

false, Brahman is the universe. He did not stop with the first two. The

third statement explains the first two. If the world is seen as having an

independent existence apart from Brahman then it is an illusion "

 

This is the meaning of the Nataraja, Shive as the cosmic dancer in the

Chidambaram temple in India. The dancer is the lord and the dance is the

creation, the universe. The dance is a part of the lord but has no

independent existence apart from the lord.

 

pranams

 

Swami