Actions

It was really overwhelming to see soo many email responses and questions from you regarding vegetarianism. It indeed strengthened my belief that everyone is seriously searching for answers. God willing, we will definitely see the light. I would like to dedicate this mail to all those people who are keen to bring in a change in both their lives as well as that of those around us - innocent animals including:-)

I will try to answer all your questions in different areas in this mail. If you need more clarification on any of these, please feel free to mail me.

Now thats said, lets talk some serious stuff:) What is the difference between a human and an animal? Well, Srila Prabhupada says that there are four activities which are common to both humans and animals.

1) Eating
2) Sleeping
3) Mating
4) Defending

Each and every work that a human or animal does, is always related to the above four activities either directly or indirectly. In addition to these four activities, there is one more work which only humans can do. And that is 'thinking'. Yes. Intelligence is a power which only humans know how to use. Animals on the other hand always work based on their instinct. Owing to this defect(blessing in disguise!), animals never incur any sin. In other words, whatever that an animal does, is considered to be an act of ignorance and hence they are always forgiven. When they die, they don't take with them any kind of sin.

Humans have intelligence. They know how to discern the right from the wrong. Hence whatever action they do, it is truly based on the choice(as against 'instinct' in the case of animals) they make in life. Due to the presence of the element of intelligence, man is always bound by the actions he does in life. In other words, every action he does brings to him the fruits of the action as well as sin(if any mistake done!). As they say, nothing comes without a price:) The resultant of all the actions(and sins) one has performed in ones life, decides how he is going to be in his next. Now that answers the most intriguing question, "Why is not everyone born rich and same?:)".

Lord Krishna says, "Just do your duty and give everything to me". Here 'everything' means both "the fruits or the results of action" and the "sins". Since Krishna takes everything(both the results and sins) from us, we can always remain unaffected by the sins. Thus whatever action or work one does, he should always "mentally" offer everything to Krishna. In that way, one can get rid of all the reactions of the sins he commits in life.

Lord Krishna makes His ultimate promise to the entire humanity in the final chapter of The Bhagavad Gita. The following verse(18:66) is considered as the most important teaching and the essence of the entire Bhagvad Gita.
"sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
moksayisyami ma sucah"

Meaning: Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.

He says "varieties of religion". Those include all the different religious processes and also the sinful activities(including animal slaughtering) one does in the name of religion. Hence if one sincerely wants to get rid of all his sinful reactions of all his past actions, he just has to worship Krishna and act according to what He says. In that way, one can not only become immune to his past sins but can also enjoy transcendental bliss in his life.

How can one mentally offer everything to Krishna? Well, do stay tuned for my future mails. We will learn that art of working for Krishna soon.

Jai Sri RadhaKrishna!

Natural Instinct

“You are what you eat” – A famous advertising campaign in western countries that encourages people to join in weight loss programmes. Years and years of eating non-vegetarian foods have really started to take its toll. Hey hang on! Did we ever ask ourselves, since when in our lives, did we start to eat meat and other non-vegetarian foods? By the way, do we really love eating meat items? That’s a question which most of us don’t dare answer to. A casual look around would reveal many an astonishing truth and open our eyes to reality.

Here we go. Why did we start meat eating? Short answer-“We don’t know”:) We have been fed fish and eggs right from our childhood and like everything we just started to accept and follow it till date. Agreed. If we ask the same question to our parents, I bet we will get the same answer from them as well. The truth is no one really knows when and why we actually started eating meat.

Let us keep this question aside and move our attention to an interesting analysis. Imagine taking a good walk in a park on a wonderful evening. If we are to look at a tree full of ripened reddish apples, how would we feel? Needless to say that we would at once feel like plucking one of them and having a mouthful bite. Yummy! Won’t it be? At the same time, if we happen to look at a beautiful parrot or a peacock sitting on the same tree, how would we naturally respond? We would at once have felt enchanted by the beauty of the parrot and started to scale its pristine beauty meticulously.

Same is the case if we are to look at a cute rabbit, a calf, a cow, a colourful fish or a newly hatched chicken or any other bird or animal for that matter. We take great pleasure in observing the innocent activities of those cute little ones. Don’t we? There we go. Our natural instinct is always towards eating vegetarian foods and showing friendliness to other living creatures like birds and animals. We love only to watch and take good care of birds and animals. Eating them is not in our blood. On the other hand, animals that are genuine predators do not enjoy the beauty of birds or other animals. Their instinct is to always pounce on them and devour them. We are all knowledgeable humans. Aren’t we? Why then are we trying to imitate what animals do?

Why on earth did we start to eat meat? Well, just because in our childhood we were told to. Why did our parents say that to us? Well, because they were told to eat meat by their parents:) What a disciplic succession! We are in an era where we call ourselves as trendsetters of the future. We are no longer of the trait to accept anything without reason. We claim that India is the intellectual capital of the world. My dear friend, now is the time to do justice to that claim and prove our intelligence. Are we going to continue eating meat just because long long ago some Tom, Dick and Harry asked us to? Or are we intelligent enough to open our eyes and look at the truth that’s staring at us. Give it a thought dear:)

There are some popular myths and misinterpretation about eating meat and smoking intoxicants. Some people put the blame on their religion stating that it allows them to eat meat. Well, no God asked anyone to kill any animal. Lord Krishna never did and neither did Jesus Christ.

One of Lord Krishna’s name is Govinda. Govinda means the master of all ‘cows’ and ‘senses’. In Bhagavad Gita, He clearly states the type and nature of food that can be offered to God and that which can be consumed by humans. Most vegetarian foods(baring a few varieties) and dairy products only can be offered to Gods and can be eaten by humans.

Jesus Christ said, “Thou shalt not kill”. Some people argue that by the word 'kill', He only meant not to kill any fellow humans and hence animals can be killed. Come on dear. I agree that was how it was meant in The Old Testament. Jesus Christ extended that commandment further and preached people not to hurt even other man’s feelings. Initially humans were of barbaric nature. Their intelligence was very limited. That was why the Commandments were made to be very simple for them to follow. But later on as man became more civilized, those instructions were refined and made to be more detailed. Would we prefer to work in Windows 95 now? We won’t because we always prefer to work with the latest version. Good. No questions asked. But why do we still stick to the instructions given to men of lesser intelligence? We should be following the instructions given to men of our civilized nature. Shouldn’t we? Also ‘don’t kill human’ does not mean that we can kill animals. ‘Don’t kill humans’ only means ‘don’t kill humans’:) Everything ends there.

The Holy Bible also states the following famous description about the kingdom of God:

“The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain.” --Isaiah 11:6-9

Thus we can understand that meat eating is not at all encouraged in Christianity as well.

And now the moment of truth:) Ancient holy scriptures (sastras) say that before being born as humans in our current lives, we in our previous births would have been born either as a monkey or a cow. So if you cannot give up eating meat altogether, at least consider not eating beef.

Now that the reality is unveiled, it is up to you to make a decision. Do you want to be smart and give up eating meat or are you going to just blindfoldedly follow something that is alien to human nature? It’s your call dear.

Jai Sri RadhaKrishna!