Non Violence

Author(s): Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Dada Bhagwan Foundation

Page 34

Ahimsa
Ahimsa
meat-eaters and vegetarians in their worship of the Lord? What is your opinion?
Dadashri : Then how can you eat it? How will you be able to digest it if it is not in your blood? You may think that you are able to digest it, but ultimately it is detrimental. Today you may not realize this, so it is best if you do not eat it. If you cannot stop eating it, you should at least have the inner intent that it is wrong to eat it and that it would be best for you to stop.
Dadashri : There is no problem for the meat-eater as long as eating meat is in their blood'. For such people eating meat does not create an obstacle in their worship to The Lord.
The problem occurs when one who is born of a vegetarian mother, becomes non-vegetarian. But otherwise neither vegetarianism nor non-vegetarianism presents an obstacle in one's worship to The Lord.
Questioner: So is worship possible without a diet of pure vegetarian food?
Cows, horses and buffaloes will never eat meat. Even if they were starving and you were to feed them meat, they would not eat it. Such is the nature of some in the animal kingdom. Nowadays, even the children of Jain and Hindu parents who do not meat, have begun to do so. I tell these young people that I do not have a problem with them eating meat as long as they kill the animal themselves. If they wish to eat the chicken, they should kill it themselves. They shiver at the sight of blood and yet they want to eat meat. Eating meat is only for those who can tolerate the sight of blood; it is for the people of the warrior caste who have played with blood on the battlefields. Do they become uncomfortable at the sight of blood? What kind of effect does the sight of blood have on people?
Dadashri : No, it is not possible, but in this day and age, what can one do? Pure vegetarian food is difficult to get nowadays, and besides very few people have not succumbed to the influences of the current time cycle. People nowadays generally fall into the company of others who lead them astray in a non-spiritual direction.
Questioner : If one unknowingly eats non-vegetarian food, what effect does it have on him?
Questioner : They become uneasy.
Dadashri : So then, how can they even consider eating meat? Someone else kills the animal and you eat it. This is meaningless. If one were to hear the agony in the cry of a chicken while it is being slaughtered, one would be overcome with despondency towards the world for the rest of one's life. I myself have heard that cry and that is when I realized the excruciating pain the poor animal suffers.
The Importance of a Vegetarian Diet Questioner : Are there any obstacles encountered by
Dadashri : Everyone is doing so unknowingly anyway, but nevertheless there are repercussions. What if you unknowingly stuck your hand in a fire? Even a child would get burnt, will it not? Everyone is rewarded the same whether they do it knowingly or unknowingly. The only difference is in the way one suffers the consequences. The consequences of actions carried out unknowingly will be suffered without knowledge. The consequences of those actions done with knowledge will have to be endured in a state of awareness. That is the only difference.