[Advaita-l] Vegetarianism

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Dear friends,

Brahmins did not eat meat. They did not also go for hunting to kill animals nor they went to fight in a battle where man are killed (barring the exceptions of the likes of Parshuram and Dronacharya). No killing was required for the brhamnas. However did anybody claim that the fifth veda does not mention the partaking of meat by the rishis (after severe tapas) for recuperation of health, even when offered by a king? Killing may be bad but hating the meat is also not proper. If ofefred one should not refuse meat as the animal's soul would not like it. It will like that the offered meat is taken and the animal is blessed to have a higher life-form. That, of course, does not mean that one can take mother's meat, I mean Gomata's.


As regards fish did Agni not curse fish that man will not allow them to escape?So should we equate fish-eating with meat-eating.  Further the Sarswats believe that their ancestors survived on fish during a famine and that is how the Vedic knowledge did not get lost. So fish is not considered as a luxury food obtained by harming a living being and one may not feel guilty as much as one  feels guilty when an animal like goat is killed.


Regards,

Sunil KB



________________________________
 From: "rajaramvenk at gmail.com" <rajaramvenk at gmail.com>
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 10:45 AM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Vegetarianism
 
If I say that raso vai sah is the mantra to chant when you eat rasam :), you can argue that I am making flippant remarks. I am asking you to protect dharma whose purpose is to nurture not destroy lives indiscriminately for selfish gains in the name of custom and without sastric basis. If you don't understand the dharma point being made by me, you should spare the list of your posts giving up any sense of attachment that this is my list and I am the moderator.  

To your point, there are pujas done even today when you plant vegetables, harvest etc. So, we don't need to chant specific mantras for eating vegetables etc. For animal sacrifices, as you must know, there are specific rules on what mantras to chant when you kill, who should eat what part etc. So, it is fair to ask you to tell me the yajna to kill fish. Kanchi Mahaperiyava specifically says that brahmins did not eat meat but only pea nut size from yajnas. 
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

-----Original Message-----
From: Vidyasankar Sundaresan <svidyasankar at hotmail.com>
Sender: advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:42:11 
To: Advaita List<advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Reply-To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
    <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Vegetarianism




> To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> From: rajaramvenk at gmail.com
> Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:46:38 +0000
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Vegetarianism
> 
> I am happy to get my head to the right place. Can you please tell me the mantra to be chanted when you kill fish, offer it in fire, the deity and rishi? 
> 

What is the mantra you chant when you eat sambhar, rasam, curds and vegetables 
with rice in your daily meals? If you have a specific one, you may chant the same for
all other kinds of food too. If you don't have to chant a mantra for your regular food,
except at the beginning and end of a meal, you don't have to chant a mantra for any
other kind of food too, except at the beginning and end of the meal. Remember that
we are not talking of any yajna other than prANAgnihotra here, which is specifically
meant for your daily regular eating. Nothing special about it.

If you want to get serious about these sorts of discussion and resist the urge to make
such flippant remarks trying to score brownie points, let the list know. It is not as if
anybody who has responded to you from a SAstra perspective on this thread is an
advocate of himsA in general or meat eating in particular. If you deliberately want to
turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the dharma and jnAna points being made, that is
your call, but if so, spare this list from these kinds of discussions.

Vidyasankar
                                            
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