Jain Journal 1975 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 36

OCTOBER, 1975
Siddhartha :
Vardhaman :
Siddhartha :
Vardhaman :
63
in the Yajnas, that streams of blood have turned the waters of river red. So many skins of dead animals were thrown in a river that its name was changed to 'Charmavati'. The entire atmosphere is polluted by incense rising from the burning of animal flesh.
My son, every word of what you say is true.
Then confine me not to the four walls of this palace. Let me go out to practise the Religion of Mankind. I do not find anywhere that non-violence which our Lord Parshvanath preached. Vedic religion has transformed itself into a cult of violence. What are these Ashvamedha and Gomedha sacrifices. They are mere media for utter violence and meat-eating. The Vedic hymns have become the play-balls of the high-priests who preside over the Yajnas. They loudly waft the Mantras in the air, as a player would swing his ball, The Vedic Mantras are veritable balls inflated with the air of conceit. The high-priests who perform animal sacrifices loudly proclaim that this is not killing-this is not violence! But I can see with naked eyes how many innocent and unsuspecting animals are being mercilessly butchered every day. The plaintive wail of the animals on the sacrificial altar is heart-rending. Those animals are calling me for their protection.
Such is the state of affairs. Sometimes I feel that even the gods who are invoked at these sacrifices have turned carnivorous and quench their thirst by blood alone. The priests address their god as the Creator. What sort of Creator is this, who revels in feeding on the blood of his own children.
Father, I am glad that you appreciate the truth. Mankind has cut asunder one of its limbs and calls it the 'Untouchable'. I fail to understand how the untouchables are in anyway different from us. Their limbs are like ours; they experience sorrow and joy, love and hatred, fear and courage, like any one of us. And yet they have been deprived of elementary civic rights. They cannot mix with us, sit with us, talk to us or laugh with us. If an untouchable cites the Vedic Mantra, his tongue