Animal Food

[Guest guest]

This links gives the list of animal food ingredients that we get in our vegetarian food from the superstores

 

http://www.peta.org/mc/facts/fsm16.html

[Rati]

PETA does some good work, no doubt.

 

When devotees told Srila Prabhupada that they did not like using refined white sugar because sometimes charred beef bones are used in the processing, his reply (supposedly) was, "Everything in kali yuga is contaminated, so we just make do and offer to kRSNa."

[srikant]

I looked at the PETA website, and it seems that they indeed do a lot, for instance, the anti-fur campaign. They've recently implored, quote, "Tell Companies Not to Support Appalling Abuse of Indian Animals" at http://www.peta.org/alert/automation/AlertItem.asp?id=379 (I don't know if alert links stay valid forever). The gist is that animals in India are being tortured a lot before slaughtering, and hence the move to stop buying leather etc from Indian companies! Disturbing...

 

On another note, I've always wondered whether Christians eat meat because their religion permits it. Recently, I spoke to a Christian lady, and she claimed that somewhere in the new testament it is advised to eat meat, and her reason was they stay healthy because of meat-eating. I also had the oppurtunity to ask a Muslim, and he said that the Koran recommends which animals to eat and even describes how to bleed them to death slowly. I don't know if these can be true. Does anyone have authentic information?

 

[Gauracandra]

I have discussed vegetarianism with orthodox Jews, Seventh Day Adventists (who are vegetarian, mostly), and Jehova's Witnesses. My orthodox Jewish friend is absolutely frank when he says the Bible says that man was vegetarian in the Garden of Eden. No ifs ands or buts. And he eats meat. But he says that after the flood God gave man the right to eat meat. So from there the restrictions were lowered. Seventh Day Adventists more or less follow a vegetarian diet (though some eat eggs). Jehova's Witnesses aren't vegetarian, but I once asked them about a picture they had. They showed lambs and lions sitting peacefully next to each other. I asked "So are they vegetarian" and they replied yes, no animal would kill another animal when Jesus returns. I then asked if this was how it was in the Garden of Eden and they said yes.

 

So my view to Christians is why not atleast try to live up to the original standards. That would be best.

[srikant]

Interesting. However, thinking about it, the Christians and other religions that don't seem to have (or at least they claim so) strong principles on avoiding meat may actually be doing it in ignorance. For instance, while chatting to a Russian on the IskconDC site, I realized that in Russia, the only community that derides meat-eating is ISKCON!! Which may cause someone to surmise that maybe being associated with Vaishnavism is a step on the way to spiritual realization; since no other religion has such clear concepts on the whys and hows of spiritual life...

 

As far as the arguments for all the meat-eaters are concerned and the occasional stupid question that inevitably comes up "so why do u kill plants?", I'm now equipped with facts from admin J.N.Das' detailed post titled "Isn't the killing of plants also violence?" at: http://www.indiadivine.com/ubb/Forum11/HTML/000044.html

 

 

[Guest guest]

I recently saw a post which says that even Islam prohibits meat eating!!! What to speak of Christianity ? ISKCON's success in preventing meat eating is due to prasadam.

[radharani]

"So my view to Christians is why not atleast try to live up to the original standards. That would be best."

 

YES!!! (It's the only way)

 

 

[JRdd]

Ditto that. You know, around here, there is a large Buddhist temple, where many "respectable" members of the community congregate. These Buddhists eat meat! I can't remembering their reasoning for changing their principles, but this particular type of Budhhism is very common now.

 

In Ukiah, at the Temple of Ten Thousand Budddhas, is a very large congregation of traditional Buddhists, who eat no meat. Their vibe is totally different from the ones around here.

 

JR

[srikant]

Was spking to a Greek who works at the same place where I do, he does to some extent believe in vegetarianism. However, he thinks that it's OK to eat eggs that are unfertilized! Hence he says research is being carried out to determine externally which eggs are unfertilized. How far will people go to justify their misplaced eating habits!

 

[theist]

srikant,

 

Eggs are definetly animal food.But what do we say when someone who eats unfertilized eggs asks us about why we drink milk, which is also animal food?Apparently neither involves the slaughter of an animal to get the product.

 

Of course devotees will say that milk products are offerable to Krsna.That's the best answer, I agree, but it won't be accepted by many, and the slaughter will continue.

 

One point goes to how the chickens that lay those eggs are treated.They are debeaked and forced to live in conditions where they can not even move etc.Horribly cruel.

 

May I suggest going to the meet your meat thread in this section, get the free 11 minute cd offered there, and give your Greek friend a copy.

 

Someone may then ask how devotees can support the dairy industry that is just another arm of the cow slaughter industry.Especially when we talk so much about cow protection.

 

Hard to answer.Do they have a valid point?

 

 

[pete1]

A close friend said that she read in the Bhagavad Gita that fish is lower then vegetables and that was why she still eats fish. Does the BG say that and will she get less karma for eating fish then eating vegetables?

[Yashoda_dd]

Srila Prabhupada's purport for Bhagavad-gita, 9.26:

 

One who loves Krsna will give Him whatever He wants, and he avoids offering anything which is undesirable or unasked. Thus meat, fish and eggs should not be offered to Krsna. If He desired such things as offerings, He would have said so. Instead He clearly requests that a leaf, fruit, flowers and water be given to Him, and He says of this offering, "I will accept it." Therefore, we should understand that He will not accept meat, fish and eggs. Vegetables, grains, fruits, milk and water are the proper foods for human beings and are prescribed by Lord Krsna Himself. Whatever else we eat cannot be offered to Him, since He will not accept it. Thus we cannot be acting on the level of loving devotion if we offer such foods.

 

© 1991 by Bhaktivedanta Book Trust

 

So, to offer fish to Krishna is of course of lower nature: highest point is to make Krishna happy - he is not happy if we kill fish.

 

About the milk: there is milk and milk. There is milk from cow that we know, and we know person who is taking care of that cow. Today's milk is actually a poison: a cow that knows her child is killed from the same person who is giving her food - of course she is not stupid. Human lady who is in stress have poison, not milk: lady in stress should not feet baby with her milk.

 

So all those cows that are treated with axe above their heads and their family is taken from them - have no healthy milk.

 

We drink the milk from the cow because she is our mother - giving us milk with love. I see no cows in West that are treated in violent way, giving their milk with love, but with pain, specially with artificially machines instead of using men's hands.

[Yashoda_dd]

Also, about eating or not eating blood: originally, God said humans should not eat blood, which means "EAT NOTHING WITH BLOOD IN IT", which means fish, eggs and meat - animal or human meat. The other way to say it is "Don't kill".

 

People, full of lust and greet, wanted to eat animals, so they came to speculation that "we can eat meat and kill animals, but with no blood in them - so we don't eat blood".

 

They do know understand that the real meaning of "not eating anything with blood in it" means - do not kill leaving beings like fish and beasts.

 

The Bible has been changed so many times and new texts were added, so noone really knows the original Bible.

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

Regarding unfertilized eggs, it is partially a matter of ignorant foods effect on our consciousness. One can just as well eat the dead body of an animal (one that was not killed, but died naturally). One will not incure sin in most respects, but the negative effects of lower modes will contaminate one's consciousness and bring one to eventually harm oneself and others.

 

Milk, according to our beliefs, is not an ignorant food, and is not the dead lump of flesh (which an unfertilized egg is more or less). To understand this point requires some amount of purification to experience the results. The same is the case with onion and garlic. Those who eat them cannot experience how they have negative effects on one's mind and body. But generally those who have avoided eating them for a long time can immediately notice the effects after even accidentally eating them.

 

[radharani]

Originally posted by Yashoda_dd:

Srila Prabhupada's purport for Bhagavad-gita, 9.26:

 

He clearly requests that a leaf, fruit, flowers and water be given to Him, and He says of this offering, "I will accept it."

 

Vegetables, grains, fruits, milk and water are the proper foods for human beings and are prescribed by Lord Krsna Himself.

 

© 1991 by Bhaktivedanta Book Trust

 

 

what does milk have to do with a leaf, a fruit, a flower or water

 

 

[Yashoda_dd]

It is learned from the revealed scriptures that the moon was born from the milk ocean. There is a milk ocean in the upper planets, and there Lord Visnu, who controls the heart of every living being as Paramatma (the Supersoul), resides as the Ksirodakasayi Visnu. Those who do not believe in the existence of the ocean of milk because they have experience only of the salty water in the ocean should know that the world is also called the go, which means the cow.

 

Srila Sukadeva Gosvami would go to a householder while he was milking a cow, and he would simply take a little quantity of it for subsistence. Even fifty years ago, no one would deprive a sadhu of a quart or two of milk, and every householder would give milk like water.

 

This verse thus describes the activities of those who claim to be Aryans.

 

© 1991 by Bhaktivedanta Book Trust