Prabhupāda: Mahatāṁ tatra jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. This is natural, that one jīva is the food for another jīva. So how ahiṁsā is possible?
Dr. Patel: But that has been said in Rāmāyaṇa by that Mātanga Muni, you know, Mātanga Muni who was harboring Saubhari, and then he was killing one elephant and living on the elephant for one year, and all other ṛṣis were against him. He was, I mean, not practicing ahiṁsā. Then he gave the feast to all those ṛṣis, and the lāḍu starting moving about. Everywhere there is life, I mean, every grain of the wheat or these things.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So therefore how it is possible? Because, after all, apart from Mātanga Muni, if this is the rule, that one living entity is the food for another living entity . . . this is the law of nature. Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. You cannot starve and live.
Dr. Patel: But sir . . .
Prabhupāda: And practically . . . eh?
Dr. Patel: We are killing the body and not . . . the soul is inkillable.
Prabhupāda: No, no, no. Don't go to the philosophy. First of all come to the practical. (Dr. Patel laughs) Come to the practical point of view, that after all, you have to eat; otherwise you cannot live. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunam (Hitopadeśa 25). So if you have to live another living entity, then how you can practice this ahiṁsā? Mean on the basic principle, the ahiṁsā paramo dharma, where is ahiṁsā? You have to kill. Either you kill vegetable or animal, you have to kill. Then where is the standing of ahiṁsā? That is my point.
Dr. Patel: When you kill purposelessly, without any useful . . .
Prabhupāda: No, no. No interpretation. They say that, "No killing." So no killing is not possible. That is my point. Then where is the thesis stands that, "We are for not . . . no killing"?
Dr. Patel: Every action, sir, is, I mean, entangled in this.
Prabhupāda: So then our Vaiṣṇava's philosophy is perfect, because we take Kṛṣṇa prasādam. We don't say vegetables. We are not advocating vegetarianism. We are advocating that, "You take Kṛṣṇa prasādam." How perfect it is. We are not so nonsense that, "Because we have become vegetarian, we are perfect." The goats are vegetarian.