Madhuvidya

Author(s): S D Laddu, T N Dharmadhikari, Madhvi Kolhatkar, Pratibha Pingle
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 562

AHIMSA AND VEGETARIANISM
423
heaven and heaven cannot be reached without a sacrifice. In fact, everything in this world is created for the sacrifice. The important point to be noticed in this episode is that the justification for a sacrifice is given through the cow herself, and not by a human being, thus adding an edge to the argument.
However, complete victory for ahimsū and total vegetarianism is what we find in many other passages of the Mahābhārata. Thus in the Anusāsanaparva (13: 116) Bhishma advises Yudhishthira not to eat any meat at all. He asserts that meat cannot be had from grass, wood, or stones; to obtain meat, an animal has to be killed. But since ahimsă is the highest truth and the very foundation of dharma, the only conclusion is that eating meat is a sin. In fact, in the Santiparva (12: 257) it has been declared that the pious (dharmātmā) Manu had prescribed only ahimsā in all activities. It was only the rogues who introduced himsā in sacrifices which is not what the Vedas really prescribed. The established fact, therefore, was that "ahinsă was superior to all other acts of piety” (ahimsaiva hi sarvebhyo dharmebhyo jyāyasi mata).
How agonizing the conflict between ahimsū and the Vedic religion must have been can be seen from a very ingenious, but hardly convincing, attempt to give a vegetarian interpretation to the Vedic injuction. It was proposed that "ajena yashtavayam" does not mean "one should offer a sacrifice with a goat", but "one should offer a sacrifice with corn which cannot sprout (a-ja), i.e. a three-year old corn” (Mbh. 14: 94.16).
We have offered so far a very concise description of a long drawn struggle in which ahimsă came out victorious. The question may be raised: how did this come about? How is it that an important section of the people, the leaders and thinkers of the time, came to adopt ahimsā and total vegetarianism when this meant the giving up of the ancient and well-established institution of sacrifice? Are there any traces of thought in early times which could later develop in this direction, or did this all come about due to some outside influence?
It is customary to trace the spread of ahimsă in Hinduism to the influence of Budhism and Jainism. It is well-known that ahimsā occupies an important place in the teachings of the Budha and Mahāvira. It would also not be far from correct if one assumed that the propagation of his dharma by Asoka contributed in no
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