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HISTORY OF VEGETARIANISM IN INDIA
of Brahman = ātman) who has no doubt (anymore): He is one whose world is Brahman.292
Yājñavalkya does not mention ahimsā as one of the virtues of the ascetic, but the knowledge of the Self is inseparably connected with renunciation. Renunciation is for him the result of the knowledge that every deed done in this world bears its fruits in the next world and in future births. This fate can be overcome only by realizing the unity of all beings in the universal Self. It would be easily conceivable that the idea of ahimsā sprang from the conception that the same Self which dwells in oneself also dwells in all the other beings and that by injuring other beings one would injure oneself. Nevertheless this conclusion would be a fallacy since it does not explain the significance of ahimsa in the animistic and pluralistic religion of the Jainas. The Jainas however know a karman-doctrine which is similar to that of Yājñavalkya, and so do the Buddhists who do not recognize a universal Self either.
The Manu-Smrti adduces besides the ātman-theory another motivation for the ahimsā-doctrine - the popular belief that the eater of the meat of an animal will be eaten by this animal in the next world (5,33.55). This conception could easily be connected with the karmandoctrine. But it is older than this theory, and we must consider the attitude taken to it by the theoreticians of the Vedic ritual.
IV
In the sāňkhāyana-Brāhmaṇa the triştubh meter used in the morninglitany of the Soma-sacrifice is identified with force (bala) and strength (vīrya), the bịhatī and uşņih with large and small cattle, respectively. By using the triştubh before and after, the bịhatī and usnih cattle is encircled by strength and force:
In the middle are cattle connected with the bịhatī and the uşņih; having encircled cattle from both sides with force and
292 BAU 4, 4, 22-23 ... tam etam vedanuvacanena brāhmaṇā vividişanti yajñena
danena tapasānāśakenaitam eva viditvā munir bhavati, etam eva pravrajino lokam icchantah pravrājanti ... etam u haivaite na tarata ity ataḥ pāpam akaravam ity ataḥ kalyanam akaravam ity ubhe u haivaişa ete tarati nainam krtākļte tapataḥ ... tasmād evamvic chānto dānta uparatas titikṣuḥ samāhito bhūtvātmany evātmānam paśyati sarvam ātmānam paśyati ... avicikitso brāhmaṇo bhavaty esa brahmalokah. Cf. also BĀU 3, 4 and 5.
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