[Advaita-l] vedic yajna

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Dear Kalyanji,

You might have missed my mail sent quite early in the discussions as to what Bhishma told in the Mahabharata. Cow-sacrifice is not endorsed in the Veda. The mention of the meat of calf / bull in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is also to be interpreted as a very special case applicable for a very special purpose and there too there is a paroksha interpretation and the Vedas say that. One should not lose sight of the fact no cow (male of female of the species was offered in a sacrifice, even Vedas prefer paroksha interpretation. One should not lose sight of this fact, even if if one discusses about the practice  of eating beef by the ancient rishis.

Further, the cow is our second mother, Gomata. We take the milk of Cow after leaving our m other's milk. Mother's status is very special in the Sanatana dharma. Manu says that mother is the most respectable person. Even the Old Testament (commonly venerated by all the Semitic religions) say “You shall not seethe a kid [young goat] in his mother’s milk.” and that is why the Jews do not 
take milk when they take meat.

Adi Sankara had to take mother's permission before taking to Sanyasha. He cremated her though he was a sanyash, even if that meant flouting of all norms. Had he not cremated her the other Nambudiris would have certainly cremated her. Kaushalya did not want Lord Ram to go to vanavasa and only after persuading her to agree that Lord Ram could go to vanavasa. Mother's decision is the final decision, above everything in the world. Such is the status of mother and there can be no question of killing the mother. But that may not be the case with the he-cows though all of them belong to the Cow family. Let us not forget that. It could be that the ancient rishis took bull's meat at times.

Regards,

Sunil KB



________________________________
 From: Kalyan K <kalyankc.81 at gmail.com>
To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org 
Sent: Saturday, December 10, 2011 4:41 AM
Subject: [Advaita-l] vedic yajna
 
Namaste,

I really wanted not to post on this topic, but looking at other posts, I am
being forced to respond.

People in this forum are talking frequently of cow-sacrifice. I genuinely
tried to search where such a sacrifice is described in the vedas. I could
not find any references to any cow-sacrifice in the vedas. I have already
posted references from Rig Veda which say that cows should not be killed. I
do not want to post the details but even in the very special case where
Yagnavalkya says he eats beef, that very same verse in Sathapatha brahmana
explicitly prohibits eating of cow and ox. Yagnavalkya was an exception
rather than a rule as anyone can verify by reading verse # 21 in the
following link -

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe26/sbe2604.htm

So please answer my simple question - Where do vedas ask that cows be
sacrificed? Please provide the references from the vedas only.

Thanks
Kalyan
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