View source for The stricture on the eating of meat, does that derive from the fact that animals have their lives which are accorded... What I'm asking is that because animals have a higher priority in life than vegetables?

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[[Category:Questions asked to Srila Prabhupada]]
[[Category:Questions asked to SP... 1976]]
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<div id="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="section" sec_index="5" parent="compilation" text="Conversations and Morning Walks"><h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
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<div id="1976_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="9" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1976 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1976 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="RoomConversationApril231976Melbourne_1" class="quote" parent="1976_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="85" link="Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne" link_text="Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne">
<div class="heading">No, vegetable, vegetable has got life...  No question of priority. Our philosophy is that we are servant of God. So God will eat, and whatever remnants of foodstuff He'll left, that we shall take. So in the Bhagavad-gītā... You find out this verse. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26). Just like you have come here. So if I want to offer you something for eatable, it is my duty to ask you, "Mr. Nixon, which foodstuff you'll like to eat?" So you dictate, "I like this very much." Then, if I offer you that foodstuff, then you become pleased. So we have called Kṛṣṇa in this temple, so we are waiting, what foodstuff He wants to eat? So He said that...
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne|Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Mr. Dixon: If we produced all of the foods that we could produce and we literally gave them away to other countries that need them, we'd produce a tremendous disincentive in those countries for their own production. I don't think it's as easy, the world...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Production.... You take the total land as God's property, and all the population, they are sons of God. Then whole problem solved. Everything solved. If economic problem is solved, then social, political, religious, philosophical, everything is solved.</p>
<p>Mr. Dixon: If there was exchange for that money, I think you'd be right.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No money required. No money required. Simply one is required to work to produce food grain. That's all. No money required. And God has given us so much land that we can produce food grain and we can keep cows' milk, and from milk we derive so many rich, nutritious, full of vitamins foodstuff that the whole economic question solved immediately. But we are producing.... Instead of food grain, we are producing tobacco for smoking cigarette. We are producing coffee for going to hell. So how you can expect social reformation? In Africa I have seen. Instead of producing grain, they are producing coffee, tea, and keeping the cows for killing, making business to sell meat to other countries.</p>
<p>Mr. Dixon: Is incense a form of intoxication?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Incense? No. Why intoxication?</p>
<p>Mr. Dixon: I don't know.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Incense keeps the atmosphere very nice, fresh.</p>
<p>Mr. Dixon: Very sweet-smelling.</p>
<p>Guru-kṛpā: This flower is not intoxicating.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: It is just like in your country, what is that fragrance? Scent. Scent.</p>
<p>Guru-kṛpā: Perfume?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Perfume is very popular.</p>
<p>Mr. Dixon: But I would have thought that in some ways it might have perform the same sort of function for some people as, say, smoking some cigarettes performs for others.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No.</p>
<p>Mr. Dixon: In other words, it...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: That depends on the particular man, what kind of flavor he wants. That is another thing. But there are different varieties of incense. Generally we use rose flavor, sandalwood flavor. We offer to the Deity room to keep the atmosphere very favorable. Originally in India it was dhūpa. They used to put in the fire some flavored hulls, and it was very nice. That has been transferred into now stick incense.</p>
<p>Mr. Dixon: The stricture on the eating of meat, does that derive from the fact that animals have their lives which are accorded...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No, vegetable, vegetable has got life.</p>
<p>Mr. Dixon: Yes. What I'm asking is that because animals have a higher priority in life than vegetables?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No question of priority. Our philosophy is that we are servant of God. So God will eat, and whatever remnants of foodstuff He'll left, that we shall take. So in the Bhagavad-gītā... You find out this verse. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati ([[Vanisource:BG 9.26|BG 9.26]]). Just like you have come here. So if I want to offer you something for eatable, it is my duty to ask you, "Mr. Nixon, which foodstuff you'll like to eat?" So you dictate, "I like this very much." Then, if I offer you that foodstuff, then you become pleased. So we have called Kṛṣṇa in this temple, so we are waiting, what foodstuff He wants to eat? So He said that...</p>
<p>Guru-kṛpā: "If one offer me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it."</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalam. He is asking very simple thing which everyone can offer. Just like a little leaf, patram, a little flower, puṣpam, a little fruit, and little liquid, either water or ghee, er, milk. So we offer that. We make different varieties with these ingredients, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam ([[Vanisource:BG 9.26|BG 9.26]]), and after Kṛṣṇa's eating, we take it. We are servant; we take the remnants of foodstuff left by Kṛṣṇa. We are neither vegetarian nor nonvegetarian. We are prasād-ian. We don't care for vegetable or not vegetable, because either you kill a cow or kill a vegetable, the sinful action is there. And according to nature's law, it is said that "The animals which has no hand, that is the food for the animals with hands." We are also animals with hands. We human being, we are also animal with hands, and they are animals—no hand but four legs. And there are animals which has no leg, that is vegetable. Apadāni catuṣ-padām. These animals which has no leg, they are food for the animals with four leg. Just like cow eats grass, the goat eats grass. So eating vegetable, there is no credit. Then the goats and the cows are more credit, have more credit, because they don't touch anything except vegetable. So we are not preaching to become goats and cows. No. We are preaching that you become servant of Kṛṣṇa. So whatever Kṛṣṇa eats, we eat. If Kṛṣṇa says that "Give me meat, give me eggs," so we shall offer Kṛṣṇa meat and eggs and we shall take it. So don't think that we are after vegetarian, nonvegetarian. No. That is not our philosophy. Because either you take vegetable or you take meat, you are killing. And you have to kill because otherwise you cannot live. That is nature's way.</p>
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