hare krishna prabhujis and matajis. please accept my humble obesiance.
i am a student. a beginner in krishna consciousness. by associating with devotees i got to understand the importance of go seva and to be compassionate towards every living being as paramatma resides within everyone.. i have few muslim friends.. they are also quiet religious as per their islamic culture. it gives me immense pain when i see them allow cow slaughter.. considering sacred cow as their food. i hv seen how ruthlessly thet slaughter cows.. my heart cries.. why islamic religion people fail to understand the importance of go seva !! and why it is so freely allowed in their rituals ''animal sacrifices". they say Allah will be pleased by animal sacrifices !! does krishna teaches anything like that !!!! s per my lil understnading they follow all their priniciples. reading namaaz 5 times daily so that is like our japa i can say.. but they allow animal sacrifices. why such a gross difference in between religions. what about the bad karma they are acquiring in the name of god. bt in the same time their teachings dont make them accountable for any bad karma despite this..
plz pardon me if i am wrong in my words. plz help me to understand. haribol
Replies
Im not much familiar with islam or their holy book Quran . But i went through the "Book of Genesis" which is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. And there it is mentioned that after the Noah's Ark incident , God said to Noah and his wife and to Noah's three sons and to their wives that ,
"Every Moving Thing that lives , Yours shall be for food , as with the green grasses i have given all to you.
But Flesh with its lifeblood still in it , you shall not eat."
Here God is trying to say , we can eat the flesh of any animals that moves . But we must not eat the flesh of animals with its lifeblood (blood) still in it . That means he is forbidding us to eat animals with blood still in them.
Also in christianity , animals that are strangled to death are forbidden to eat.
On the other hand , in the Puranas , there are various punishments for those who consume flesh of animals.
like dipping the sinner into hot oil number of times , to the number of fur or feathers the animal or bird had , who was eaten by the sinner.
So each religion has its own views . One can never say which religious views are 100% correct . And therefore its better not to eat flesh .
Besides, in the old days , many corrupt christian preists and hindu brahmins changed and edited our holy scriptures in order to satisfy their own needs and agendas and to keep the masses (normal public) under their control.
For example in hinduism , offering animal sacrifices like goats , which i think was a ritual made by the greedy brahmin class of that time. And even now, in some parts of India , mainly in Bengal there are Goat Sacrifices near temples of Goddess Kali, which is an inhuman and barbaric act and should be banned.
On the other hand its not necessary, because to please Goddess Kali , one should show their love & devotion towards her and not kill animals.
My humble obeisances to Vasudeva,
There are many devotees who take a comparative approach to world religions. Although this in the outset seems to be the most practical approach to gain understanding of this world and its many religions, this invariably leads to misunderstanding. Religions should be viewed as an evolution. Vedic scriptures pre-dates most scriptures including the Hindu Religion. Sri-Mad Baghavatam is a holistic summary of this through the various acaryas in history.
The Sri-Mad Baghavatam has presented to us this evolution elaborately and concluded that all religions make its appearance according to place and time through the expert arrangements of Vasudeva. Since we do not have a birds eye view of religions which pre-dates most of our lifetimes, through our personal effort and research we can easily conclude this. Whats also important is the intentions of our pursuit in reading religion. If we go in with a comparative mindset we will always find the differences which exist. Instead our endeavour should always be to first pursue our relationship with Vasudeva and clean all self-interest from our heart. When this is done, through providence we will have a clear impartial vision which allows you to have the desire to view everything in oneness .
One can easily know from the Sri-Mad Bhagavatham that animal sacrifice prior to Kali-Yuga was done to test the Vedic Hymns. A correctly executed mantra was to result in the animal coming back to life again. Sri-Mad Bhagavatham also clearly states that this sacrifice was strictly disallowed in the current Kali Yuga. To further enforce this in Sri-Mad Bhagavatham it is stated that Vasudeva through the one of his many incarnations descended as Lord Bhudda to further prevent a decaying civilization from killing animals. It is during this time where there were corrupt practices of rituals. Eternal divine principles in the Vedas have always existed, it is due to our ignorance that religion was forced to evolve to cater to a gradually ignorant human civilization. We also have to remember always that Religion and the Vedas are separate. The Vedas are eternal principles, "that which is not from this world". Religion including Hinduism is what man has created in time.
Just as it says in the Srimad Bhagavatham that true equality will only be achieved if we can appreciate the negative and positive of an individual, we should also have this mindset in understanding other religions. The muslim religion is admirable in their way they pursue devotion to the Supreme Personality Of Godhead. We should first try and appreciate this fact first before identifying what we see as negative in their practice.
With all due respect to the one above all of us - Vasudeva
It might be allowed to do sacrifice with goat but not with MOTHER - COW!
Cow is a mother. To kill her is equal of killing a mother.
One who kills a cow, or eats her meat, or sells in the market, or allows her to be killed...will suffer in the hell as many years as many hairs are there on her body.
None of true religious scriptures tell us to kill a cow.
;(
It is sinful;
Your servant,
my humble obeisances Prabhu, all glories to Vasudeva !
In the Srimad Bhagavatham, it is said that all religions exist in its place and time according to the arrangement of Vasudeva. Our understanding of history is limited to the extent of written evidence, however if we trust our Sastras which transcends our known existence we will begin to look at things from a different angle.
While i was in the middle east, through various discussion of pious common men, it was said that a true mark of a muslim devotee was that he had a mark on his forehead. This is only possible to have if you practice prostrating to the floor daily based on their prescribed practices. This is no different from meditating at the lotus feet of our lord as both practices have the same intentions i.e. to be mind full of Vasudeva and surrendering at his feet.
We also have to understand that in the 15th - 16th century during the time of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, peoples view of devotion was different. Instead of identifying the differences of religions, there were those who traveled with the trade winds to discover new culture and religion and there was a good exchange in religious debate to further enhance their knowledge in devotion to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
If we understood the past times of the Supreme Personality of Godhead through the detailed narations of Srimad Bhagavatham we will understand why religions exist for a purpose in a particular place and time. Through the various births and manvantaras, the eternal soul evolves according to his consciousness and by the expert arrangement of Vasudeva he takes birth in Bharathavarta the land of peity and the the gateway of self realization. In our current age, our births in a particular place and time i.e. family , society and culture through higher arrangement shows us the mercy of the lord.
We are not in a place to judge others however we trust Vasudeva the source of remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness through his causeless mercy will guide all souls from the ocean of nescience.
Haribol
haribol.very nice answer prabhuji.. i undestand your sayings. but people are so adament regarding the animal sacrifices. in no true sense is it right or wrong? coz our sastra says it is wrong but their scriptures allow it.. what is universal accepted then ?? they ll say we will not follow yours. and we will say we ll not follow yours either. so what is wrong or right !!!
hare krishna
my humble obeisances Prabhu
your answers are in this link..The answer by subham pr and maral mataji, i liked most..
http://www.iskcondesiretree.net/forum/topics/y-does-every-one-think...
ys
hare krishna prabhuji. pranam.. thanx for the link. and beautiful description by marak mataji. so conclusion is not to discriminating between anyone but to see krishna in everyone irrespective of cast, religion, complexion and activities.." panditah samadarshinah". sorry i dont remember the full verse..
but prabhuji what if someone does harm you or harm others, still shall we love him or what to do in such situations?
haribol,
Hare Krsna pr
those who harm us , we have the right to defend ourselves. We will help that person from grievous karma by defending ourselves and not allowing hm to harm us. If someone is harming other living beings, then to the best of our ability we should try to stop him from doing that using intelligence and guidance. If someone harms a devotee, we should not hesitate to risk our own lives to save the other devotee. For all children of Krsna, we must use the Krsna given intelligence to help that soul in the best possible way. We must take guidance in such regards. We should not sit like mute spectators. We must stop cow killing and same for other living beings also..
ys
my humble obeisances Prabhu, all glories to Vasudeva !
To understand the reasons and intentions of particular religions, we need to understand the lord and his pass times. The Srimad Baghavatam says that due to the killing of animals, Lord Buddha was born to preach against the Sacrifice of animals which existed in vedic culture. The world view is that Religion changed according to man's evolution, however this is contrary to the Sastras. The Srimad Baghavatam says that in every milennia Vasudeva incarnates through his literary and various other incarnations to correct the course of mankind. Therefore it is not that man changed it. Religion changed itself because man was not capable of understanding it in its more original forms. Through higher expert arrangements, changes are made for man to easily understand his beliefs.
In the subject of Human Geography, during the 16th century cartography (the subject of mapping the world) was advanced in the Hindu Civilization as well as the Islamic Civilization. Both these civilizations prospered in knowledge far more than their western counterparts due to one common belief. They believed that humans were part of a larger manifestation of the cosmos. Purely through this belief they were advanced in the subject of astronomy and other pure science. At this very time, the people in the west still believed we lived in the world which was flat and due to this their knowledge of Geography and Astronomy was very limited and therefore their evolution in consciousness of Vasudeva was limited.
Having said the above, our duty as devotees is as Vasudeva prescribes in Bhagavad Gita, i.e. Abandon all religion and transcend this material world by placing yourself at his lotus feet. Having done so just merely observe the diversity of humanity and try and understand the lord and his pass times. Just be an observer without judgement.
Haribol