If you want to eat flesh, then you can get a goat and sacrifice before Goddess Kali and you can eat that. The idea is not to encourage, but to restrict

Expressions researched:
"Just like one who wants to eat flesh, oh, he's advised to worship goddess Kali" |"The idea is to restrict him, not to encourage him" |"if you want to eat flesh, then you can get a goat and sacrifice before Goddess Kali and you can eat that" |"the idea is not to encourage, but to restrict"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

There are tāmasika-purāṇas where it is recommended that if you want to eat flesh, then you can get a goat and sacrifice before Goddess Kālī and you can eat that. The idea is not to encourage, but to restrict.

Lecture on BG 7.16 -- Bombay, April 7, 1971:

Āmiṣa means nonvegetarian foods. Eating flesh, fish, eggs, these are called āmiṣa. And madya means wine, liquor. So all the conditioned souls, they have got a natural inclination for sex life, intoxication, and eating fish, eat... They have got a natural inclination. Even ants, they have got all these inclinations. Expert psychologists and medical men, they have studied that even the ant, it has got also the same propensities. Loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā. So when there is legalized, or marriage under religious principle, it is to be understood a sort of concession.

In the Purāṇas... There are tāmasika-purāṇas where it is recommended that if you want to eat flesh, then you can get a goat and sacrifice before Goddess Kālī and you can eat that. The purpose is that if a conditioned soul has got the natural tendencies, then why they are mentioned in the śāstras? The idea is... Just like Lord Buddha. Lord Buddha, his mission was to stop animal killing. Ahiṁsā paramo dharmaḥ. Lord Buddha appeared, being compassionate with the poor animals. Sadaya-hṛdaya darśita-paśu-ghātam. There is a description of Lord Buddha's activities by a Vaiṣṇava poet, Jayadeva Gosvāmī. He says, praying to Lord Buddha,

nindasi yajña-vidher ahaha śruti-jātaṁ

sadaya-hṛdaya darśita-paśu-ghātam

keśava dhṛta-buddha-śarīra jaya jagadīśa hare

Lord Buddha appeared to stop this animal killing. But because in the Purāṇas there are sometimes regulative principle of killing animal, therefore he had to deny the authority of Vedas, because those who are after killing animals, they will find some clue that "Here in the Vedas the animal-killing is sometimes recommended." But that animal-killing is not a, I mean to say, instigation that "You go on killing animals." You can understand by a nice example. Just like the government opens liquor shop. It does not mean the government is encouraging to drink liquor. It is not like that. The idea is that if government does not allow some drunkards to drink, they will create havoc. They will distill illicit distillation of liquor. To check them, the government opens liquor shop with very, very great, high price. The cost... If the cost is one rupee, government excise department charges sixty rupees.

So the idea is not to encourage, but to restrict. The idea is prohibition, at least in our country.

Hose who want the facility of eating flesh, they are advised that, "All right, you worship goddess Kālī, and sacrifice a goat before the goddess, and eat it." But there is a great list of formulas to make that, I mean to say, sacrifice of goat, not that I take a goat or cow to the slaughterhouse and cut it. No, that is not allowed. The idea is to restrict him, not to encourage him.

Lecture on BG 9.23-24 -- New York, December 10, 1966:

Actually, there is no need of worshiping any demigod beside the Supreme. But in the lower stage... Just like the other day we have discussed. Because we cannot immediately give up our concept of material existence and material happiness and material distress—we take into consideration very seriously, without any spiritual life, or without any idea of spiritual existence—therefore sometimes recommended in the Vedic literature that "For this purpose you can worship this demigod." Just the, just like the other day I gave you the example that those who are diseased, they are recommended to worship the sun-god.

There are different kinds of desires. One who wants beautiful wife, he has been recommended to worship Umā, the wife of Lord Śiva. In this way, there are hundreds of demigods and we have got hundreds of desires. Just like one who wants to eat flesh, oh, he's advised to worship goddess Kālī because the Vedic literature will not allow to have a regular slaughterhouse. No. That cannot be. But still, those who want the facility of eating flesh, they are advised that, "All right, you worship goddess Kālī, and sacrifice a goat before the goddess, and eat it." But there is a great list of formulas to make that, I mean to say, sacrifice of goat, not that I take a goat or cow to the slaughterhouse and cut it. No, that is not allowed. The idea is to restrict him, not to encourage him.

Just like, not your country, in our country, there is prohibition. In some cities there is strictly prohibition. No wine can be available. But still, there are wine shops, under government license. So this wine shop does not mean to encourage citizens to come and drink wine. No. The idea is to restrict, to restrict. Those who cannot live without liquor, for them, there is some concession. Because one must live after all. Similarly, one who cannot avoid meat-eating, for him, that demigod, goddess Kālī...