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When you have got very nice foodstuff, and a very nutritious, palatable, sweet, why should you indulge in this unnecessary killing of animals? That is . . . will go against your purification. Therefore it is prohibited

Expressions researched:
"when you have got very nice foodstuff, and a very nutritious, palatable, sweet, why should you indulge in this unnecessary killing of animals? That is . . . will go against your purification. Therefore it is prohibited"

Lectures

General Lectures

If there is no alternative, that you cannot live . . . just like in the desert, Arabian Desert, there is no fruit, no grain; for them animal-eating may be permitted. Because after all, we have to live. That is a different thing. But when you have got very nice foodstuff, and a very nutritious, palatable, sweet, why should you indulge in this unnecessary killing of animals? That is . . . will go against your purification. Therefore it is prohibited.

Guest (6): Can you explain the reason why yogīs don't eat meat?

Prabhupāda: Hmm?

Guest (2): Why shouldn't they eat meat?

Prabhupāda: Meat-eating, and if you believe in Bhagavad-gītā, is not the . . . against the . . . our purificatory process. You cannot kindle fire, at the same time add water on it. If you want to kindle fire, then you have to keep that place very dry and fan it. Similarly, there are rules and regulation. Out of that rules and regulation is jīva-hiṁsā (CB Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.072). Jīva-hiṁsā means unnecessary killing of animals. Now, if you have got sufficient foodstuff—a state I see in America . . . oh, you have got sufficient grains, sufficient fruits, sufficient milk, milk products. Then if you can live on these things which are meant for human being, why should you kill animals unnecessarily?

If there is no alternative, that you cannot live . . . just like in the desert, Arabian Desert, there is no fruit, no grain; for them animal-eating may be permitted. Because after all, we have to live. That is a different thing. But when you have got very nice foodstuff, and a very nutritious, palatable, sweet, why should you indulge in this unnecessary killing of animals? That is . . . will go against your purification. Therefore it is prohibited.

Guest (6): Is the unnecessary killing of animals part of, say, in relation to the incarnation, evolution to . . . (indistinct) . . . forms. The objection to doing it is based on . . .?

Satsvarūpa: Is the objection to eating meat based on transmigration?

Prabhupāda: Transmigration from animals?

Satsvarūpa: From animal to man.

Prabhupāda: No, animal can eat . . . the tiger, he is . . . by nature, he does not eat fruit or grain. He simply eats animals. So he can do that.

Guest (2): No, he was saying is there a relationship . . . is the reason why we're not eating meat due to the fact that once we were animals and now we've progressed to human nature, to human form? Does that have any relationship?

Prabhupāda: Yes. The nature is that everyone should eat another living animal or another living creature for existence. That is the law of nature. Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam: "One living entity is the life of another living entity." That is a fact. Just like sahastānām ahastānam (SB 1.13.47). Those who have got hands—that means men—for them, ahastāni, means the animals who have got no hands. And apadānanaṁ catuṣ-padām: "And the four-legged animals, they eat the grass, who cannot move." So grass has got life, as the animal has got life, we have got life. So this is . . . nūnaṁ mahatāṁ tatra: "The strong is eating the weak."

So this is the law of nature. We are eating the grains and fruits. They have got also life. It is not that those who are vegetarians, or eating grains and fruit, they are not eating life. They are also eating life. But the bhakti-yoga process is that, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, that the devotees, they take prasādam.

We have got arrangement of distributing prasādam in every Sunday. Prasādam means the foodstuff which is offered to Kṛṣṇa, and then you take. So what Kṛṣṇa wants, that is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26).

Therefore we are not propagating the philosophy of ahiṁsā, or nonviolence, because in some way or other, there is violence, either you take fruit or grain or animal. But the principle is that you have to take prasādam, the foodstuff which is offered to Kṛṣṇa, and then you eat.

So these things, fruits, grains, are accepted by Kṛṣṇa. We offer to Kṛṣṇa and then we . . . (indistinct) . . . this is the philosophy. Not that because we are eating fruits, therefore we are getting pious, and because you are eating . . . (break)

When you become cent percent purified, then you go to the spiritual world. You haven't got to come back. That is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā: yad gatvā na nivartante yad dhāma paramaṁ mama (BG 15.6).

So purificatory means that we are changing our bodies, life after life, transmigrating. Now this is the opportunity. This human form of life is the opportunity to purify ourself so that next life we can get complete spiritual life, full of bliss, knowledge and eternity. This is the process.

Page Title:When you have got very nice foodstuff, and a very nutritious, palatable, sweet, why should you indulge in this unnecessary killing of animals? That is . . . will go against your purification. Therefore it is prohibited
Compiler:Nabakumar
Created:2022-09-09, 07:12:12
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1