View source for Unless you kill the animal, you cannot eat. So where is freshness? You have to kill him. You have to make it dead, so why not make it natural dead?

<div id="compilation">
<div id="facts">
{{terms|"dead"|"eat"|"fresh"|"meat"}}
{{notes|VedaBase research query: fresh dead}}
{{compiler|Labangalatika}}
{{complete|ALL}}
{{first|04Apr12}}
{{last|04Apr12}}
{{totals_by_section|BG=0|SB=0|CC=0|OB=0|Lec=1|Con=3|Let=0}}
{{total|4}}
{{toc right}}
[[Category:Unless|2]]
[[Category:Killing Animals|2]]
[[Category:You Cannot|2]]
[[Category:Animal-eating|2]]
[[Category:Where Is|2]]
[[Category:Fresh|2]]
[[Category:You Have To|2]]
[[Category:Make|2]]
[[Category:Dead|2]]
[[Category:Why Not|2]]
[[Category:Natural|2]]
[[Category:Questions Posed by Srila Prabhupada|2]]
</div>
<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
</div>
<div id="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="0" parent="Lectures" text="Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures"><h3>Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures</h3>
</div>
<div id="LectureonBG167HyderabadDecember151976_0" class="quote" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" book="Lec" index="393" link="Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Hyderabad, December 15, 1976" link_text="Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Hyderabad, December 15, 1976">
<div class="heading">They want the fresh. What is that "fresh"? Unless you kill the animal, you cannot eat. So where is freshness? You have to kill him. You have to make it dead, so why not make it natural dead?
</div>
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Hyderabad, December 15, 1976|Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Hyderabad, December 15, 1976]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">So this cobbler... Just like we are protecting cows. We cannot kill for the skin, but these asuras, they are killing thousands and thousands of cows for getting the skin, only for the skin. So if you are interested in the skin, if you are interested in the flesh, so at least wait for the time the animal will die. There is no doubt about it. So at least let him, let her die natural death. Why you should kill? You can take at that time the skin, the bone, the hoof. Whatever you like, you can take, the flesh. So in India there is a class. They are called cāmāra. They are called opposite, muci. Śuci and muci. The first class is śuci, brāhmaṇa, and the last class is the muci. The last class men, muci, they... As soon as your animal is dead you give them information. They will come. They'll take the animal. They will get the skin for nothing. So they'll tan it and make shoes for selling. So they will get the raw materials free of charges, so they can make shoes. Tanning with oil and keeping it in the sunshine, the skin becomes soft and durable, and then you can prepare shoes. A class of men, muci. So there was no problem. And the bones you gather together and keep in a place. In due course of time it will become very good fertilization. And they can eat the flesh also. Only the cobbler class, the muci class, they eat this cow's flesh after taking the dead animal. So after killing, everyone eats, so why not wait for the natural death and eat it?</p>
<p>But because they are asuras, rākṣasas, they do not wait for that. They want the fresh. What is that "fresh"? Unless you kill the animal, you cannot eat. So where is freshness? You have to kill him. You have to make it dead, so why not make it natural dead? And they have imagined something, this, that, vitamins, and so on, so on. This is asuras. So these asuras, they do not know that killing of an animal is sinful. You cannot... Just like we are sitting here, and if somebody comes and disturbs us and makes us obliged to leave this place, that is criminal. That is criminal. Similarly, a living entity has been ordained by the nature's law that he has to live in such and such body for a certain period. Living entity never dies. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre ([[Vanisource:BG 2.20 (1972)|BG 2.20]]). So killing the body, he does not die, but because you disturb him, his duration of period to live in that body, you become sinful. You cannot disturb him.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="section" sec_index="5" parent="compilation" text="Conversations and Morning Walks"><h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
</div>
<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>
</div>
<div id="MorningWalksJanuary22231976Mayapura_0" class="quote" parent="1976_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="22" link="Morning Walks -- January 22-23, 1976, Mayapura" link_text="Morning Walks -- January 22-23, 1976, Mayapura">
<div class="heading">Just see. "Fresh dead." Just see. The rascals are so fools that unless you make him dead, you cannot eat. So why do you theorize that a dead animal is not good?
</div>
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Morning Walks -- January 22-23, 1976, Mayapura|Morning Walks -- January 22-23, 1976, Mayapura]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Prabhupāda: Animal is animal. And we say protect cow from economic point of view, kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyam ([[Vanisource:BG 18.44 (1972)|BG 18.44]]). Without saving cows you cannot get good food, not from the animal point of view. You require milk and milk preparation.</p>
<p>Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And the cow dies anyway.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Huh?</p>
<p>Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Cow is going to die naturally, anyway.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. Then, if you want flesh, take that dead body and eat.</p>
<p>Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Why don't they see this, that just by killing a cow you don't get more cows. They're going to die anyway.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. Everyone is going to die, but they are so voracious, they do not wait up to the death, and they have theorized that "Dead animal is dangerous to health. Now kill while it is in life."</p>
<p>Harikeśa: Yes, they think like that.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes, but... They have got so many nonsense philosophy. But if that philosophy is supported, when you kill the animal, he becomes dead. (laughter)</p>
<p>Sudāmā: Yes, they call it "fresh meat."</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Just see. "Fresh dead." Just see. The rascals are so fools that unless you make him dead, you cannot eat. So why do you theorize that a dead animal is not good?</p>
<p>Harikeśa: Well, 'cause he had to die from some cause, and that cause is...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Cause, all right. It is also cause. You are killing, that's all.</p>
<p>Harikeśa: The knife is clean, whereas the germs are...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: That's all right. Formerly the Hindus, they used to purchase meat and cook it in Ganges water. (laughter)</p>
<p>Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Oh, boy.</p>
<p>Harikeśa: Purify it.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: They thought, "Now it is..." And you will still find in Calcutta, "Hindu butcher." That Hindu butcher is pure. You have been in Calcutta? So they are going on.</p>
<p>Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: The Jews have that, "Kosher butcher."</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: "Mother's prasādam." The rascals say, "It is mother's prasādam."</p>
<p>Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Durgā, Kālī-prasādam.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. The Ramakrishna Mission, they take mother's prasādam. And they call...</p>
<p>Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: And you will also be mother's prasādam.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes.</p>
<p>Sudāmā: Even they kill fresh, Śrīla Prabhupāda, sometimes they will kill a cow who has some disease in liver, and then they will eat and they will all die...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Well, they manufacture so many ways. That does not mean we have to support it. We accept that these are animals, that's all.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="GardenConversationJune141976Detroit_1" class="quote" parent="1976_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="134" link="Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit" link_text="Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit">
<div class="heading">No, no, just like lobsters, they are very fond of lobster. Lobster is never bought living. It is dead and rotten, decomposed, and they eat. They cannot say that by killing we get fresh.
</div>
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit|Garden Conversation -- June 14, 1976, Detroit]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Prabhupāda: If you kill the cow you get the meat only one time. But if you allow the cow to live and take milk, and from milk you can make hundreds and thousands of preparations. That is enjoyment, real enjoyment. In Delhi, there are shops, very respectable shops. One side salt, and one side sweet. But the salt side or sweet side, they're all based on ghee. This preparation, dahibarā, so nice. Combination of grain and yogurt. So introduce this. They do not know. It is a new type of civilization we are trying to introduce for the benefit of the human society. They do not know it. Crude civilization. Primitive. Kill an animal and eat. And when you are civilized, you are supposed to know so many things; why should you kill the animal? You utilize the animal. This milk is taking the blood without killing. That is humanity. You are eating beef because of the blood. So if you take the blood in a different way, you get the same benefit. And if you are still ambitious to eat the meat, flesh, just wait, it will die, you take at that time. Why so hurry? Everyone will die, there is no doubt about it. So you take the dead body and eat. Why do they not?</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: They said there's something wrong with it. When it dies, it has so many diseases and things.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: This is rascaldom. They are eating so many dead animals.</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: But they say if they kill it in a healthy condition then the meat they eat is good.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No, no, just like lobsters, they are very fond of lobster. Lobster is never bought living. It is dead and rotten, decomposed, and they eat. They cannot say that by killing we get fresh. You are eating so many rotten things, decomposed. Actually, I have seen. It has become like puss, and still they are eating.</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: In England they had a system, the gentry, when it was pheasant shooting season, they used to kill the pheasants and they would hang them up in the outhouses. And then, after a few days, it would begin to rot. And when they were able to pull the skin off just in one piece, when it was just hanging off, they could just pull it off, then it was good for eating. That's when they would eat the flesh.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Just see. And another, they are digging the pig? You said?</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: Oh, Śukadeva was saying in Hawaii. They bury the pig, and when it becomes completely rotten they dig it up and eat it.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: So similarly, when the cow is dead, you dig, or put it within the.... Or take it. No, nobody will object. In India, that is the system. When the cow is dead, there is a class, they are called cobblers, camar(?). They are informed and they'll come. They'll take it. And they'll eat the flesh and take the skin, and tan it in their own method, and then prepare shoes. They sell it in the market. So without any price, they get the skin, they eat the flesh. So nobody is harmed. But there is a class.... (break) ...they are not going to starve. From economic point of view, it is very good. So why you are killing and maintaining so big, big slaughterhouse? Let everyone maintain the cows for taking milk. And when it dies, you take it, you meat-eaters. Make that arrangement.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="RoomConversationJune291976NewVrindaban_2" class="quote" parent="1976_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="173" link="Room Conversation -- June 29, 1976, New Vrindaban" link_text="Room Conversation -- June 29, 1976, New Vrindaban">
<div class="heading">Fresh or dead, you're eating flesh, that's all. You wait till the death.
</div>
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Room Conversation -- June 29, 1976, New Vrindaban|Room Conversation -- June 29, 1976, New Vrindaban]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: What we've been doing with the dead cows is burying them, there's no..., everything's wasted. Śrīla Prabhupāda is proposing that why not the butcher take, we give free, he simply returns us the skin of the cow, and with the cow hide we properly tan it, we can make mṛdaṅga heads for the khol, and shoes, straps, whatever may be needed. The idea being that in the Western countries especially, people are accustomed to eating animals, animal flesh. So we have no objection.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Beef, especially beef.</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Especially cows and beef. So we have no objection, but they should at least wait until it dies naturally. What is the harm? They still get the same thing, and one devotee, Kīrtanānanda, I think, was saying that when they slaughter an animal even in the slaughterhouse, it has to sit some time, some number of days before they distribute it. So I proposed that the Westerners, they consider that this is superstitious, this protection of the cow. Prabhupāda says Why superstitious? The cow is providing milk. Every child knows that he's getting milk from the cow, the cow is mother. So why in the old age we should slaughter mother? Is this a good argument that like, for example, they say, in India, how so many people are starving, why don't they eat the cows? So Prabhupāda proposed that "If you're starving, does it mean that you eat your mother and father?"</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: If you want to eat, let the father and mother die, then eat. (laughter) Who has objection?</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It's so reasonable. At least, Prabhupāda says, for the saner section, they will accept.</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: The thing is, people are mad after meat.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Madman...</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But they still get it.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: But he'll get meat.</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: But then their argument is that if we don't have big, big slaughterhouses, then there won't be enough supply.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No why should...? After all, the animal is going to die. It is not for..., he's permanently. Why should you kill?</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: But they kill the animal first in the slaughterhouse and then do whatever they have to do.</p>
<p>Dhṛṣṭadyumna: But we are killing when they are young, when their meat is fresh. When the body is old, the meat is...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: That you have to change. Fresh or dead, you're eating flesh, that's all. You wait till the death.</p>
<p>Dhṛṣṭadyumna: But the old flesh is not...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Anyway, you do not..., you do whatever you like. So at least you can take free of charges a dead cow from us, and you can give us only the skin, and you eat.</p>
<p>Dhṛṣṭadyumna: This should be the system.</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: It's so reasonable.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. We don't want anything from you; you take it, the whole flesh. You take free. You simply give us the skin, we can utilize it.</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Even if people would do this, it would be such an advancement.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Because a class of men will demand to eat the flesh. You cannot stop it. So we are giving free: you eat. And from economic point of view, we require the skin for our mṛdaṅga making. So give us the skin. That's all.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>