Padmanabhan Janakiraman
Member
Sin and Ahimsa
What is Ahimsa :
“A fundamental principle of environmental protection is widely recognized today to be a variation of the theme of ahimsa (non-violence)
one must define right or justifiable himsa, and unjustifiable himsa.
HINDU SCRIPTURES CONSIDER UNAVOIDABLE VIOLENCE (HIMSA) RELUCTANTLY
UNDERTAKEN FOR THE PURPOSE OF ESTABLISHING A RULE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
(DHARMA SANSTHAAPANA) FOR THE BETTERMENT OF SOCIETY AND FOR SUSTENANCE
OF ONE'S BODY AS JUSTIFIABLE AND CALL IT AS AHIMSA ALSO.
When a great demon, or snake or scorpion, is destroyed, everyone becomes happy. Prabhupada explained in Srimad-bhagavatam (7.9.14, purport):
Like any animal, humans kill in order to eat. This is true for vegetarians as well, since the sowing, harvesting and transport of vegetables involves killing myriads of small creatures.
Every time we eat, build, make cloth etc, we favor the ‘higher’ being over many ‘lower’ beings.
Even boiling water involves killing many thousands of bacteria.
Buddhism acknowledges our interdependence on all creatures and our collective karma in creating this planet as it is.
We human beings had to take personal responsibility for the future; we are responsible to protect our environment, to eliminate harmful insects from spreading diseases and killing animals and humans. And if we fail on this aspect, we will be reaping more bad Karma, than by killing those harmful insects. God gave us dominion and rule over everything in the earth that includes saving other humans.
Why does a cow swat flies with its tail? Evolution programmed it to do so. Why do we swat a mosquito when it lands on us? Evolution programmed us to do so.
Fortunately we were blessed with a nervous system that tells us what is best for our survival and we intuitively react in a way that is best for us; the spread of disease has also been hardwired into us.
We kill lot of harmful bacteria’s while boiling water. If we think it is a sin to kill those bacteria, are we not going against protecting our own life and also against law of nature?
Killing bugs is not a sin. (In the Old Testament.)
In Islam killing harmful insects is not a sin.
http://msapubli.com/islam-qa/Volume_22/Chapter_13.htm
In simple terms it is prakruthi dharma
Mooshika as the vaahana of Sri Ganesha
Naaga as the Sayana of Sri Vishnu
and Garuda is the Vaahana of Sri Vishnu
naaga can not survive without eating rats.
similarly garuda cannot survive without consuming snakes.,
A cow cannot digest flesh and a lion cannot digest grass
This is called prakruthi Dharma
http://sjmayank.blogspot.com/.../vegetarian-or-non...
What is a Sin?
Hinduism does not view sin as a crime against God, but as an act against dharma - moral order -
Sin is an adharmic course of action which automatically brings negative consequences.
The term sin carries a double meaning, as do its Sanskrit equivalents:
1) A wrongful act,
2) The negative consequences resulting from a wrongful act.
http://www.masalawoods.ru/a/Sin/id/62060
Is culling disease carrying birds and animals are a Sin?
We humans have greater responsibility in protecting our race as well as to safe guard other animals, than to view our act as “a wrongful act”
If you agree culling such animals and birds are not sin, then you must also agree killing disease spreading mosquitoes and other insects are also not SIN.
Malaria and Dengue fever are prominent in mosquito born disease.
Birds, just like people, get the flu. Bird flu viruses infect birds, including chickens, other poultry and wild birds such as ducks. Most bird flu viruses can only infect other birds. However, bird flu can pose health risks to people.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/birdflu.html
CLASSICAL SWINE fever (CSF), otherwise known as hog cholera (also sometimes called pig plague based on the German word Schweinepest), is a highly contagious disease that comes from pigs and wild boar. It is caused by Pestivirus, which belongs to the family Flaviviridae.
Swine fever causes fever, skin lesions, and convulsions particularly in young animals and
Fatality within 15 days. The disease is endemic in much of Asia, Central and South America and parts of Europe and Africa.
http://www.merinews.com/.../swine-flu.../15768096.shtml
Approximately 300 million people worldwide are affected by malaria and between 1 and 1.5 million people die from it every year. Previously extremely widespread, the malaria is now mainly confined to Africa, Asia and Latin America. Malaria parasites are transmitted from one person to another by the female anopheline mosquito.
http://www.microbiologybytes.com/introduction/Malaria.html
Puranic Period:
Were there any great Epidemics and people died when scriptures were written?
Was there any scientific knowledge to access the cause of those epidemics in those days?
Was Malaria/ Chicken pox were eradicated in those days? In Kaliyuga it is said, more harmful insects will take birth than previous yugas.
Humans have responsibility
Unlike olden days, we have responsibility towards our Kith and kin, society, village, country and world. We just can not keep quite saying killing those harmful insects are sin, and let the disease spread across the world.
When we read “the Buddhist Idea of Karma it says:
For instance, if you crush a bug, you will in turn someday be crushed. If that were true, wouldn't a great many of us die from boulder related incidents?
One of the arguments I often hear against Karma is, in fact, this very scenario with an insect. There are even certain monks who sweep the ground in front of them because they do not want to smash an insect as they walk. People hear about this and think, "Oh, Buddhists don't like to crush bugs. That's stupid." It is a misunderstanding of our philosophy. If you swat a fly while thinking, "A fly! How disgusting! I hate flies!" then you've created bad karma. If, however, one swats a fly while thinking, "Flies spread disease. If I don't kill this fly, it will make me and other people ill," then he has created good karma. While the concepts of "good and bad" karma are actually incorrect concepts, I use them to make the illustration easier to understand.
Here we read: if we think that flies spread disease and need to be killed, it is not bad!!!
This is my opinion; everyone may or may not agree with me!!!
