Dear Sri esarkey Ji,
If you do not mind me saying so, the above article you have posted is the most confused one I have read. Sir, this world is not a 'dark' one. I disagree with the author with his description of this world at the outset. Darkness is in one's mind, nowhere else, as this loka is also His creation.
There are two sides to a coin; it depends on how one looks at it. As you say, it is in the mind. The article by srk shows the other view i.e., from the eyes of those creatures that are eaten albeit a way of nature.
Sir, in the food chain, getting killed is natural. From your logic, if we extend it, then every time you eat any food, including vegetarian, we accrue karma. Vegetables and plants have been scientifically known to have 'lefe' and 'feelings' too. Just because we do not see their 'hurt' does not mean they do not feel it. I propose such an extending of karma to everything that happens in the world is a man made artificial thinking, based on the human's capacity for empathy. It is a noble feeling, but unfortunately has nothing to do with accruing karma.
Now to seperate the nature's design - where killing other animals for food, where the predator's are equipped to kill, eat and digest, which is also His creation - as something 'unnatural' is not at all valid. In fact, this is totally nonsense.
Our religion does not forbid eating meat. In fact, in some of our Yajnas, offering animals to the Gods and then partaking in consuming the animals' meat are quite well illustrated.
Sacrificial offerring cannot be equated to mean mass cultivation and killing of animals to satisfy the tongue. Have we not heard of the adage - Better to sacrifice a city for a country, a village for a city, a family for a village, a person for a family? The sacrificial offerings are to be understood in this sense.
Sir, first of all, eating meat is not to just to 'satisfy the tongue'. Only a vegetarian who sees food just for bare subsistence would talk like this. Since God has designed us to eat both vegetarian and meat, killing animals to eat is as natural as they come. There is no basis for this 'morality' in any of our scriptures. Isn't eating is like offering foods to the gods everyday? Why do we say prayers, when we start eating? Every culture has this practice. This is where 'the sin of killing is washed away when we eat' comes in. 'sacrifice' is not confined to one specific day - it occurs all the time in our lives.
So, what is 'natural' in nature can not be sinful. Killing an animal for food is never a sin, in fact it is akin to performing a Yajna. I do not think that any 'karma' is attached to eating food that is legal.
Definitely there is. If it does not, then pray, what is karma and its effects, of use here? Are the other beings so insignificant that the scope of karma is restricted to only amongst humans? What is 'natural' changes with the refineness of the mind. And when it changes, the benchmark is the highest form of 'naturalness'; and that certainly does not involve killing other beings for food. With due respect, equating the killing of animals for carnal pleasure to that of a yagyna is one preposterous comparison.
When a judge sends a person to death row, does he accumulate any karma? When a butcher kills an animal does he accumulate any karma? Any killing does not accrue karma and this is the central focus of Maha Bharatha. What is natural never changes with the refineness of mind. This wrong thinking springs out of the belief, any killing, even for food is a sin. 'Carnal pleasure' is also the part of a human being's existence. Why should it not be compared to yagyna? Your problem is you are connecting a natural act that you do not believe in and projecting a moral code to it, without any sanctions from scriptures. Cite me a passage from any of our scriptures where it says that it is bad karma to kill an animal for food?
Yagyna means yaja deva pooyayam i.e, Deva pooja is yagyna.
Wherever there are settlements, there exists five types of sins arising from places ( like the kitchen, the place where the sweeps are kept, grinding area, the area where lamps are lit, and the area where water flows) due to the germs & other living beings being destroyed. to nullify this we do the pancha maha yagams. So you see, everything counts.
This is as ridiculous as they come - please cite the source, especially where it says that the prayachitham is to do pancha maha yagam. This may come from Jainism, but not from Hinduism.
As I said before, there are many reasons for not eating meat on a personal level, but we do not need to make it a sinful activity for the majority of people living on earth. This type of argument will only act as an inducement for many people not to give up meat.
For vegetarians like us, meat consumption is abhorrent and even the smell of cooking meat make us nauseous. But that does not give us the right to say that the practice is immoral or not sanctioned by God. We should never forget that food is a very important part of all cultures. Like we have our traditions around vegetarian food, most other cultures have theirs around non vegetarian food.
This is why we need to look at it as a personal choice based on one's own taste/convictions/habits/family etc.
It is for the individual to act as he desires, for he alone bears the fruit of his actions. Yes, there is no compulsion, but vegetarianism is definitely a better way of life.
I agree in terms of health, vegetarianism is generally better if consumed with care. I do not agree that it is a sin to kill and eat meat. This has nothing to do with human refinement and civilization. Consuming meat is in our heritage as human beings as God made us. Saying that it is a sin to eat meat is spurious nonsense.
By saying this or accepting this, it does not infer that some other culture is degraded. After all it is but a matter of karma!
Yes, but implicit is your assumption is that meat eaters are accruing bad karma - this definitely leads to a person like yourself's sub conscious feeling that they are not 'refined' and hence inferior. Same way we have treated the untouchables in our religion, based on this untenable, non sanctioned, weird karmic theory, that is against nature.
Regards,
KRS
