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Killing means

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 3

SB 3.18.4, Purport:

The demon used the word abhaväya, which means "for killing." Çrédhara Svämé comments that this "killing" means liberating, or, in other words, killing the process of continued birth and death. The Lord kills the process of birth and death and keeps Himself invisible. The activities of the Lord's internal potency are inconceivable, but by a slight exhibition of this potency, the Lord, by His grace, can deliver one from nescience. Çucaù means "miseries"; the miseries of material existence can be extinguished by the Lord by His potential energy of internal yogamäyä. In the Upaniñads (Çvetäçvatara Upaniñad 6.8) it is stated, paräsya çaktir vividhaiva çrüyate (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport). The Lord is invisible to the eyes of the common man, but His energies act in various ways. When demons are in adversity, they think that God is hiding Himself and is working by His mystic potency. They think that if they can find God they can kill Him just by seeing Him. Hiraëyäkña thought that way, and he challenged the Lord: "You have done tremendous harm to our community, taking the part of the demigods, and You have killed our kinsmen in so many ways, always keeping Yourself hidden. Now I see You face to face, and I am not going to let You go. I shall kill You and save my kinsmen from Your mystic misdeeds."

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 7.2 -- London, March 10, 1975:

So in this age, Kali-yuga, to kill the demons means to stop their demonic activities by the astra, kīrtana, hari-saṅkīrtana, which is spread by His associates. Nityānanda Prabhu, Advaita Prabhu, Śrīvāsādi Gaura-bhakta-vṛnda, they are going door to door, country to country, city to city, and saving the demons from being implicated more and more in material existence. Therefore this is the astra. Astra means the killing. Real purpose... The living entity is eternal. How he can be killed? Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). So to kill means to kill his demonic nature. Otherwise how he can be killed? Ya imam... There is a verse that anyone who knows that the living entity is never killed and... A living entity does not kill anyone; neither a living entity is ever killed. One who knows this, he knows. So that is the position. So killing does not mean that killing the living entity. That is not possible. Na jāyate na mriyate vā. Killing means to kill his demonic activities. Stop. Killing means stop acting.

Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Hyderabad, December 14, 1976:

The nature's law is there. And as soon as one sees a snake, immediately everyone becomes alert to kill the snake. And by nature's law... It is said, "Even a great saintly person, he does not lament when a snake is killed." Modeta sādhur api sarpa, vṛścika-sarpa-hatyā. Prahlāda Mahārāja said. When his father was killed and Nṛsiṁhadeva was still angry, so he pacified Lord Nṛsiṁha, "Sir, now you can give up your anger because nobody is unhappy on account of my father being killed," means "I am also not unhappy. I am also happy because my father was just like a snake and a scorpion. So even a great saintly person is happy when a scorpion or a snake is killed." They are not happy if somebody is killed. Even an ant is killed, a saintly person is unhappy. But a saintly person, when he sees that a snake is killed, he is happy. He is happy.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.7.27 -- Vrndavana, September 24, 1976:

Does it mean that if I do not eat meat I shall die? I have seen in the Western countries—I observe everything—they eat meat very little. But because everyone is eating little meat, big, big slaughterhouses are being maintained. They can give up. A little piece of meat very easily he can give up. He can take this panir. But the rascal will not do that, because he's a rascal. He'll eat meat, and for this eating meat you have to maintain thousands and thousands of, what is called, organized slaughterhouse. And you have to kill. Killing means he's being implicated in sinful activities. Anartha, unnecessary. So we restrict this. Sex life is all right, required. Be a gentleman, get yourself married, live husband and wife peacefully. Have two and three children. Now they're making forcefully that you cannot have more than two children-sterilize.

Lecture on SB 1.8.46 -- Los Angeles, May 8, 1973:

Your country says equality given. Why not equality to the animals? That is defect. It is due to, I mean to say, absence of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. A Kṛṣṇa conscious person will not distinguish like that. For eating animal, they will philosophize that animal has no soul; therefore it can be killed. No. This is nonsense. Everyone has got soul. Even a small ant has got soul. But they have to kill. They have to eat. They are philosophizing different way. Lord Jesus Christ said, "Thou shalt not kill," and now they are interpreting, "Killing means murdering human being." But that is not in the Bible.

Lecture on SB 6.1.32 -- Honolulu, May 31, 1976:

How you can violate the nature's law? It is not possible. Nature's law is so strict, a little deviation will put you into suffering. This is going on. That is Yamarāja. And if you violate more and more and more, then you suffer more and more and more. This is the law. You cannot escape. So that is fixed up. But as there is some exceptional cases... Just like one has committed murder, so by law he must be hanged. By law. That is the general law everywhere, all over the world: life for life. So similarly, in the God's law there is no such thing that if you kill a human being you'll be killed, and if you kill an animal you won't be killed. That is imperfect law, man-made law. Therefore Jesus Christ said, "Thou shall not kill." No question of... They have modified, "This killing means murdering." Christ does not say. What is your proof that if you committed mistake, a mistake, instead of writing "Thou shall not commit murder," here is written, "Thou shall not kill," general. Otherwise Christ has no intelligence. He cannot use the proper word. But you are misusing the order of Lord Christ.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation -- February 17, 1971, Gorakhpur:

Prabhupāda: Just like here the law is life for life. If you take one life, then you have to give your life. State law. Is it not? If you kill somebody, then you'll be killed also. So why not God's law like that? But they are ignorant; they are killing animals. That is ignorance. Killing means sin. Why they are committing this sin? Ignorance. He does not know the law that he will also be killed. Karma-bandhana. Yajñārthāt karmaṇo 'nyatra karma-bandhanaḥ. He'll be bound up by his actions. And he does not know. That is ignorance. So this whole world is, this material world is full of ignorance. Therefore it is called tamasi. Tamasi mā jyotir gama. That ignorance is, I mean to say, dissipated simply by Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no other method.

Television Interview -- July 29, 1971, Gainesville:

Interviewer: You know the ten commandments for example, there is a heavy emphasis in the ten commandments on the relationships between one human being and another. "Thou shall not kill. Thou shall not steal." That sort of thing.

Prabhupāda: But I say that Jesus Christ never said, he never meant, "Thou shall not kill," means only human being. Where is that evidence? Jesus Christ never said "Thou shall not kill means it means only human being." Thou shall not kill any animal.

Interviewer: Any life.

Prabhupāda: Any life. That is religion.

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1971, Delhi:

Viṣala: So, Śrīla Prabhupāda, in the Bible it says, "Thou shalt not kill", and the Christians say, "Yes, thou shalt not kill but you can kill animals." (indistinct)

Prabhupāda: That is rascaldom. Where it is written that thou shalt not kill animals? "Thou shalt not kill." "Thou shalt not kill," means you shall not kill anything. (break)

Devotee: ...because Jesus ate fish. (laughter)

Room Conversation -- December 12, 1971, Delhi:

Devotee (7): Would it be better if we gave up eating vegetables?

Prabhupāda: You cannot eat anything accept Kṛṣṇa prasādam. Even if we eat vegetables, that is also sin. Bhagavad-gītā clearly says, bhuñjate te tv agham pāpā, ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇāt (BG 3.13). If you prepare very nice pure foodstuff for eating yourself, then still you are eating sins. You have to prepare anything very nicely, offer it to Kṛṣṇa, then you take, then you will be free from all sin. Yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo. Even there is sin... Sin there must be. Just like you are cooking, you are taking water from the jug, there are so many germs you are killing. The killing responsibility is there. In the higher sense, "Thou shalt not kill", means you have to take the prasādam of Kṛṣṇa.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 9, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. Just like in the last war, they ate stool, their own stool, out of hunger. So when there will be no foodstuff, they will kill their own children. Already they are killing, abortion. Not only abortion, children grows... By surgical instrument, they kill and they take out the child... They are already killing.

Kṛṣṇa-Kāntī: When they take the pill, the birth control pill, are they killing their children too?

Prabhupāda: Killing means killing, what is that? What he is asking? I do not...

Svarūpa Dāmodara: He is asking that they take the pill, birth control pill.

Morning Walk -- December 6, 1973, Los Angeles:

Prof. Wolfe: I think it should also include that. Because "Thou shalt not kill" is just not kill creatures, not only men. But apart from that, they do not even follow it where men come in. They kill. They do.

Prabhupāda: I do not follow.

Sudāmā: He's saying...

Hṛdayānanda: He's agreeing.

Sudāmā: He's agreeing that "Thou shalt not kill" should also include all animals.

Prof. Wolfe: It should.

Prabhupāda: Yes, "Thou shalt not kill" means everything.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk Excerpts -- May 2, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Very good. This kind of meeting should be arranged. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (break) It is also our business, to kill all undesirable men so-called swamis, yogis, avatāras. What is that? Kṛṣṇa...

Girirāja: (reading) "Kṛṣṇa, who advented Himself just to kill all undesirable elements in the world..."

Prabhupāda: Yes. Similarly, this movement is advented to kill all the so-called yogis, swamis, avatāras, rascals, philosophers, commentators. We have to kill. Kill means...

Room Conversation with Pater Emmanuel (A Benedictine Monk) -- June 22, 1974, Germany:

Pater Emmanuel: (German) It is in the relation of man. "Don't kill," it says, the Christianity understands...

Prabhupāda: Why they understand like that? That means that Lord Christ was not sufficiently educated to use the right word, "murder"? Does it mean so? There are two words, killing and murder. Murder is especially meant for the human being. So do you think that Christ was not learned enough to use the word murder instead of "killing"? "Killing" means any kind of killing, especially animal killing. Otherwise you should have frankly openly used the word, "Thou shall not murder." Even if it is meant like that, so does it mean that he was preaching amongst the murderers? They are very first-class men? They are all murderers? Therefore the injunction. This kind of interpretation does not appeal to us.

Morning Walk -- July 9, 1974, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Now if they say that the killing means murdering, that means the people amongst whom Christ was preaching, they were accustomed to kill men. So what class of men they were? What was the society? A society of murderers. So what they will understand about religion, a murderer? (pause) So go further or return?

Jayatīrtha: We should probably turn around now, Śrīla Prabhupāda. (pause) If you're preaching honesty to a thief, you have to be careful that he's not stealing your watch in the meantime.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- May 11, 1975, Perth:

Prabhupāda: The other day I was there in Kurukṣetra. They have got their own plan-mānava-dharma, this dharma, that dharma. Kṛṣṇa says, sarva-dharmān parityajya: (BG 18.66) "You give up all these. Kick out all this so-called rascaldom. You just surrender unto Me." That they will not do. Except this, everything which is going on in the name of religion, that is cheating. Everyone is misinterpret... Just like Christians, they have misinterpreted: "Kill means murder. It is meant for man." That means they are making their own lusty desires fulfilled in the name of Bible, that's all. Everyone is doing like that. They are changing. Mass opinion is now homosex. They are passing abortion. They are passing... What is this? This is their business. For fulfillment of their lusty desires and greediness, they are bringing the authority of Bible, Bhagavad-gītā. This is going on in the name of religion.

Morning Walk -- May 23, 1975, Melbourne:

Australian devotee 5: Śrīla Prabhupāda, you were telling this government man the other day not to kill the cows but to wait till they die. But they have a law that if the cow dies naturally, then it cannot be eaten.

Prabhupāda: That means we must commit sin. The government...

Amogha: I think their idea is that if...

Prabhupāda: But their argument is fallacious. Kill means it dies. So how we can eat? Just see the... See their intelligence. Kill means it dies.

Śrutakīrti: They say that if it dies naturally it is due to some disease, so there may be some harm in eating such meat.

Prabhupāda: So that means nobody will die. Is there... The law is it to die. Why disease? Disease or no disease, everyone should die.

Room Conversation with Mr. & Mrs. Wax, Writer and Editing Manager of Playboy Magazine -- July 5, 1975, Chicago:

Jayatīrtha: You mentioned several times that those persons who are guilty of abortion, then they also enter a womb, but they never leave it alive. They're also killed within the womb.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That means... That child is killed means it must take another birth. Again in the womb it will be killed. Again another womb. This is going on. Mūḍha janmani janmani (BG 16.20). It is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, "Birth after birth they will be put into the darkness of life."

Morning Walk -- December 17, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: The same principle, that "You are seeing. Now kill yourself: you don't see." That's all. The same philosophy. You are seeing and feeling disturbance—better kill yourself; you'll not see, then all problems solved. This is their advise. Kill yourself. So who will agree to that?

Dr. Patel: Yes, philosophically kill yourself, and get yourself transferred to a different life.

Prabhupāda: No, no...

Dr. Patel: I mean not physically, I mean as a philosophical point...

Prabhupāda: "Kill" means you finish yourself, no more seeing...

Dr. Patel: Finish your present ego...

Prabhupāda: That is your interpretation. Killing means finish everything. Killing does not mean that you will again see. There is not killing.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- March 19, 1976, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: Yes, as we feel pains and pleasures...

Devotee (1): Sa yaḥ paśyati: "Who can see like that..."

Prabhupāda: ...they should know the others also will feel. If my throat is cut, I feel, and "Why shall I cut the throat of another, poor animal?" This is learned man. And this rascal, maintaining slaughterhouse, and learned man? And they cannot understand. And big, big priests, they'll defend: "Oh, this 'Thou shalt not kill' means it is meant for the men, not for the ani..." They'll put arguments. Christ says clearly, "Thou shall not kill" and they will defend.

Room Conversation -- April 23, 1976, Melbourne:

Prabhupāda: Yes, that "You are not Christian. Don't call yourself as Christian. You are persistently disobeying, beginning..." Christ said, "Thou shall not kill," and the Christians began killing Christ, crucifying Christ. And that is going on still, in large scale, and they are still Christian. The Pope is eating meat and.... I do not wish to say so many things. These are going on, and still, they are Christians. What can I say?

Guest (3): Do you believe that...

Prabhupāda: It is not a question of believe or not believe. We are talking of fact.

Guest (3): Well, okay. Would, say, the cutting down of a plant, vegetable.... You are killing the growth there. Is that a living matter?

Prabhupāda: Killing means that you have to eat something. Our philosophy is that we cannot stop killing, but there is no unnecessary killing.

Room Conversation -- June 18, 1976, Toronto:

Prabhupāda: Paramour. And the boy, he was ten years or twelve years old, he could understand: "Who is this man?" So he protested and said, "I shall tell all these things to my father." And he was killed.

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The boy was killed?

Prabhupāda: By the mother.

Hari-śauri: She murdered him?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Killed means given poison. And the father, that is, my Godbrother, seeing this, he also took poison. This is the end of Gauḍīya Maṭha scandal. He was also one of the trustees. This Tīrtha Mahārāja was a trustee, and another Godbrother and this man. In the beginning, they were made trustees. In the beginning, Prabhupāda was to undergo surgical operation. So he was a little nervous, that "I may die." So he made a scrap paper, that "In case I die, these three disciples will be trustees of the Gauḍīya Maṭha Institute." That's all. So this Kuñja Bābu kept this. There are many long histories. So one of the so-called trustees was this Vāsudeva. So he died, his end was like this.

Room Conversation -- August 10, 1976, Tehran:

Prabhupāda: No, I hear this sound always somewhere. No, they keep the lambs for killing, eh? But before killing, do they not supply any food? They starve?

Ātreya Ṛṣi: They're very cruel. They don't have any human qualification.

Prabhupāda: Human qualification there is no, otherwise how they are killing? Killing means they have no human qualification, animal qualification. I want you to eat, huh? You know that Aesop's fable story?

Page Title:Killing means
Compiler:Sharmila, Serene
Created:14 of Dec, 2008
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=1, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=5, Con=17, Let=0
No. of Quotes:23