005, Replies to Comments of Anonymous, at Post No. 004

Birthday of Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, on February 18, 1883. After noon meal and master's nap a devotee by name "Adhar", a Deputy Magistrate, aged about 30, asked Shri Ramakrishna whether it is good to sacrifice animals before the diety.

Shri Ramakrishna replied that S`aastra (scripture) prescribed sacrifice on special occasions. He added that such sacrifice was not harmful. Further, he said:

"Take, for instance, the sacrifice of a goat on the eighth day of the full or new moon.".

(proof: Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna).:"

Reply to Comment of Anonymous at Post No. 004.

Anonymous Anonymous said...

be careful now, do you know that while you breath you are killing millions of micro-organisms, you eat vegetables well they too have consciousness, infact ones whole life is dependent on others. one man's life means other's slavery... ponder upon it and you'll understand the irony of life.
i myself love non-violence, but to what extent can you take it..?

Theodore Roosvelt -"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

May 12, 2009 at 10:26 AM

REPLY ybrao a donkey's humble view वैबीराव एक गधे के विनम्र राय వైబీరావు గాడిద వినమ్ర నివేదన

Human beings not eating living plants, fruits, and seeds (etc.) to maintain non-violence, is an ideal situation, which science may make it a reality. 20th Century brought out many scientific inventions and discoveries , which were fantasies and considered as impractical mad ideas in the 19th Century. I hope, if I live another 30 years ahead in the 21st Century, I am optimistic, that scientists will unveil some food which is neither veg. or non veg., and which does not hurt living organisms.

For this reason of self-restraint only, Hindus follow a vow called "ChandrAyaNa vratam" (The number of morsels a person eats in his meal, will be decided by the lunar day number in that particular lunar fortnight. That is, on the 1st day, a person eats one morsel. The number goes up till the Full Moon day when a person eats 15 morsels. Then the number of morsels start falling. On the New Moon Day, it becomes zero i.e. a person has to fast.
Moderation is the key. Quantum and quality of food stuffs will be determined by the physical labor a person puts, his occupation, consumption of calories, etc. etc.

In today's India, as well as the outside world, Rich people go on reckless eating sprees. Poor persons starve or survive on the barest minimum.

Till such a time the science gives us the ideal solution, one method we can follow is, whether veg or non-veg, we have to "eat for living (survival)" and not "live for eating". Besides, binges of veg. or non-veg. without any discipline will be harmful for health. In my humble opinion, craze for shad fish, turtles, chicken, sweets, ice-creams contributed to the aggravation of diabetes, astma, and several other ailments in Swami Vivekananda, and contributed to his premature death at an early age of 39, though he himself went on selling yoga, saying that people would live 150 years, with Raja Yoga.

About Theodore Roosevelt quote given by you

In my personal view, this quote is not really relevant for the criticism of Great Swans (parama hamsas) sacrificing goats on 8th Lunar Day, to propitiate Goddess Durga. The crucial question is, BY offering an innocent animal which has fallen into the clutches of human shackles, to the Mother Goddess, can humans expect compassion and divine benevolence from the Goddess? Humans who pray for benevolence from God, should show similar benevolence to animals and plants.

We can write thousands of pages on the style of functioning of Theodore Roosevelt. But this is not the proper place for that. I can only say: Greatness, when we attribute to people, such attributions should not be exaggerated. Some proportionality is to be maintained.

Real problem is, it is very difficult to measure performances and contributions of individuals. For example, Government of India tries to classify contributions and performances of people into awards like PadmaShri, Padma Bhushan, Padma vibhushan, Bharat Ratna (in ascending order). Suppose Nethaji Subas Chandra Bose is given Bharat Ratna, Sachin Tendulkar is given Bharat Ratna, should we say that both have contributed and performed equally?

Another important thing

For ordinary people, ordinary yardsticks and ordinary expectations. For Special people, standards of expectations will have to be kept high. Great Swans (Parama Hamsas) have to maintain higher standards of ethics, intellectuality, and conduct, when compared to ordinary folk on the Street. An ordinary person can believe that he can secure compassion from God, by bribing him/her lamb/goat's meat. But a Parama Hamsa cannot believe in that manner. In expectations of moral standard, we can't keep a Pope and an ordinary Vicar on the same scale and weigh. We may need another 1000 pages to write about what Vatican does. Again, it is outside the scope of our blog.

To rewrite with more details. सशेष. ఇంకా ఉంది.