As we have already explained, dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam (SB 6.3.19). Any systematic religious process is to be understood: "It is given by God." Man cannot make any religious system. So this Āryan system, progressive system, is cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). Kṛṣṇa says, "It is introduced by Me for very good management of the social order." Brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. So Arjuna belonged to the kṣatriya family. Therefore his hesitation to fight in the battlefield is not befitting the Āryans. For the royal order to become nonviolent, this is not good. The kṣatriyas, when they are fighting in the battlefield, the killing is not a sin for them. Similarly, a brāhmaṇa, when he's offering sacrifice, sometimes animals are sacrificed; so that does not mean that he is committing sin. This animal sacrifice was made not for eating the animals. It was for testing the Vedic mantra. Whether the brāhmaṇas who were engaged in offering sacrifice, whether they were chanting the Vedic mantra in right way, that was tested by offering one animal and again giving the animal a new youth life. That was animal sacrifice. Sometimes horses, sometimes cows were offered. But in this age, Kali-yuga, they are forbidden because there is no such yājñika-brāhmaṇa. All kinds of sacrifices are forbidden in this age.
Brahmanas and animal killing
Expressions researched:
"animal"
|"animals"
|"brahmana"
|"brahmanas"
Bhagavad-gita As It Is
BG Chapters 1 - 6
The kṣatriyas are specially trained for challenging and killing because religious violence is sometimes a necessary factor. Therefore, kṣatriyas are never meant for accepting directly the order of sannyāsa, or renunciation. Nonviolence in politics may be a diplomacy, but it is never a factor or principle. In the religious law books it is stated:
- āhaveṣu mitho 'nyonyaṁ
- jighāṁsanto mahī-kṣitaḥ
- yuddhamānāḥ paraṁ śaktyā
- svargaṁ yānty aparāṅ-mukhāḥ
- yajñeṣu paśavo brahman
- hanyante satataṁ dvijaiḥ
- saṁskṛtāḥ kila mantraiś ca
- te 'pi svargam avāpnuvan
"In the battlefield, a king or kṣatriya, while fighting another king envious of him, is eligible for achieving heavenly planets after death, as the brāhmaṇas also attain the heavenly planets by sacrificing animals in the sacrificial fire." Therefore, killing on the battlefield on religious principles and killing animals in the sacrificial fire are not at all considered to be acts of violence, because everyone is benefited by the religious principles involved. The animal sacrificed gets a human life immediately without undergoing the gradual evolutionary process from one form to another, and the kṣatriyas killed on the battlefield also attain the heavenly planets as do the brāhmaṇas who attain them by offering sacrifice.
BG Chapters 13 - 18
One should act to satisfy the Supreme Lord. For example, Arjuna was a kṣatriya. He was hesitating to fight the other party. But if such fighting is performed for the sake of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there need be no fear of degradation. In the business field also, sometimes a merchant has to tell so many lies to make a profit. If he does not do so, there can be no profit. Sometimes a merchant says, "Oh, my dear customer, for you I am making no profit," but one should know that without profit the merchant cannot exist. Therefore it should be taken as a simple lie if a merchant says that he is not making a profit. But the merchant should not think that because he is engaged in an occupation in which the telling of lies is compulsory, he should give up his profession and pursue the profession of a brāhmaṇa. That is not recommended. Whether one is a kṣatriya, a vaiśya, or a śūdra doesn't matter, if he serves, by his work, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Even brāhmaṇas, who perform different types of sacrifice, sometimes must kill animals because sometimes animals are sacrificed in such ceremonies. Similarly, if a kṣatriya engaged in his own occupation kills an enemy, there is no sin incurred. In the Third Chapter these matters have been clearly and elaborately explained; every man should work for the purpose of Yajña, or for Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Anything done for personal sense gratification is a cause of bondage. The conclusion is that everyone should be engaged according to the particular mode of nature he has acquired, and he should decide to work only to serve the supreme cause of the Supreme Lord.
Every endeavor is covered by some fault, just as fire is covered by smoke. Therefore one should not give up the work born of his nature, O son of Kuntī, even if such work is full of fault.
In conditioned life, all work is contaminated by the material modes of nature. Even if one is a brāhmaṇa, he has to perform sacrifices in which animal killing is necessary. Similarly, a kṣatriya, however pious he may be, has to fight enemies. He cannot avoid it. Similarly, a merchant, however pious he may be, must sometimes hide his profit to stay in business, or he may sometimes have to do business on the black market. These things are necessary; one cannot avoid them. Similarly, even though a man is a śūdra serving a bad master, he has to carry out the order of the master, even though it should not be done. Despite these flaws, one should continue to carry out his prescribed duties, for they are born out of his own nature.
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Anyone who knows that the living entity, soul, is avināśi, indestructible, then where is the question of killing? But that does not mean the Bhagavad-gītā is encouraging killing. No. That is not the purport. Killing is prohibited. But when we see that a brāhmaṇa is killing one animal in the sacrifice, it is not killing. Therefore we have to see with the eyes of Vedic knowledge. Not with these eyes. What is the value of these eyes? It has no value. We are very much proud: "Can you show me?" What is value of your seeing? Even if I show you, the value of your seeing power is nil. It sees only under certain conditions. That's all. If there is a light, you can see. What is the value of your eyes? Therefore the real seeing is through Vedic knowledge. That is seeing. Śāstra-cakṣus. Real knowledge, real seeing power, should be through the śāstras. And śāstra means infallible, not theory. Not theory. Just like a conditioned soul writes some book on some thesis. What is the value of it? It has no value. Because the man who is putting forward the thesis, he is blind. He's imperfect. So how you can get perfect knowledge from him?
The Battle of Kurukṣetra, it was finished within eighteen days. There is no use of prolonging the war unnecessarily. If the chief man is killed, then war is finished. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is advising Arjuna that "Suppose your grandfather on the other side dies, so where is the cause of lamentation? He's old man. He will get another, new body. So you should be rather happy that your old grandfather is going to have a new body." Jātasya hi dhruvo mṛtyuḥ. "And everyone will die. You die today or tomorrow, or, say, fifty years after. You have to die. It is as sure as death. So why should you deviate from your duty? You are a kṣatriya. Your duty is to fight. Why you are afraid of being dead, or killing others? This is your duty."
- avyaktādīni bhūtāni
- vyakta-madhyāni bhārata
- avyakta-nidhanāny eva
- tatra kā paridevanā
So the body was not existing before. And it will not exist after death. So in the via media, if the manifestation of body is there, so why it should be the object of lamentation? In this way, Kṛṣṇa is trying to convince Arjuna that he should act as kṣatriya and perform his duty. A kṣatriya is profited, either dead or alive. That will be explained. Because in a, in a fighting, I mean to say, real religious fighting, on principle, it is, a kṣatriya is not responsible for killing. Just like in sacrificial ceremony, if the animal is killed, the brāhmaṇa is not responsible for killing an animal. So because it is duty, it is ordained by the śāstras, therefore they are not ordinary killing.
For a kṣatriya who are engaged in fighting, in religious fight... Fight must be religious fight. The cause must be right. Then the fighting is all right. So kṣatriya killing in the religious fight, he's not responsible, he's not sinful. That is stated. Just like brāhmaṇa. He sacri... He puts in sacrifice some animal. That does not mean he's killing. Similarly, kṣatriya, when he's engaged in killing, he's not sinful. This will be explained in the next verse. "So it your duty. Don't be worried that you are killing your kinsmen or your grandfather. Take it from Me, assurance, that the dehī, avadhya, you cannot kill, he's eternal."q
Again this varṇāśrama. Svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya. Svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya. Now, mark this word, dharma. A brāhmaṇa's action as a brāhmaṇa, that is dharma. And brāhmaṇa is not fighting; that is his dharma. So dharma may be different according to position. But here it is said, ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ. When there is sacrifice in the yajña, the brāhmaṇa offers the sacrifice. It does not mean that he is killing some animal.
Similarly, a kṣatriya is fighting and killing in the battle, but he is still not killing. This has to be... Not general, generalization, "Oh, killing is bad." Killing is bad for one who is not destined, who is not meant for killing. And places. Everything should be in terms of śāstra, not whimsically manufacture something.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Bhīṣma was lying on the bed of arrows, preparing for his death. So Kṛṣṇa wanted that these Pāṇḍavas should go to Bhīṣma and hear his instruction. Therefore, despite His advice to Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira, that "There was no wrong on your part. You are thinking that you have killed, or for your sake so many men have been killed. That is not... You are not responsible for that. You are not sinful..." For a kṣatriya, killing is not sinful. For a brāhmaṇa, sacrificing an animal in the arena, that is not sinful. So it is all explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, sa doṣam api na tyajet (BG 18.48). Killing is bad, but a kṣatriya's business is to kill. Without killing, one cannot become perfect kṣatriya. Because he has to give protection, and there are so many demons, rascals. So if the king becomes nonviolent, how other citizens will be given protection? No.
Actually the brāhmaṇas had so much power in those days that simply by mantra, they would ignite fire. The fire was not ignited by matches—by mantra. And the animal... Just like in medical science, in physiology sometimes experiment is made by plying the knife on some animal, similarly, how the yajña was being performed, that was tested by animal sacrifice. Animal sacrifice was not meant for killing one animal and eating. No. That the animal, an old animal, should be put into the yajña fire and he'll come out a young, with a young body, that was the test how Vedic mantras were being chanted powerfully. That was the... Not that animal was to be killed there. No. Superficially it appears that animal is put and he is killed, but when the animal comes out of the yajña, that is the test of yajñic brāhmaṇa chanting the Vedic hymns correctly. That was the system. And because there is no such powerful yajñic brāhmaṇa at the present moment, therefore all kinds of yajñas are forbidden at the present moment.
Conversations and Morning Walks
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Jayādvaita: So to be recognized as brāhmaṇas...
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Jayādvaita: To be recognized, our men will have to be, as you were saying yesterday, perfect gentlemen.
Prabhupāda: Yes, brāhmaṇa means perfect gentleman. Brāhmaṇa means perfect gentleman. A rogue, thief, cannot become brāhmaṇa. (laughs) Brāhmaṇa is perfect gentleman. Who feels for others, that is gentleman. Who does not feel for others, for his sense gratification, he is a rogue. A brāhmaṇa, a gentleman, must feel that "Why there should be animal killing?" That is gentleman. If you are killed, you cry and you are.... Hundreds and thousands of animals you are killing on the plea that they have no soul? Lowest class, narādhama. They have been described as narādhama. So narādhama civilization, how he can be happy? There must be frustration.
| Page Title: | Brahmanas and animal killing |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika |
| Created: | 31 of Dec, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=3, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=7, Con=1, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 11 |