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This is another authoritative statement made by the great sage Narada. Those who kill animals and give them unnecessary pain-as people do in slaughterhouses-will be killed in a similar way in the next life and in many lives to come. One can never be excused from such an offense. If one kills many thousands of animals in a professional way so that other people can purchase the meat to eat, one must be ready to be killed in a similar way in his next life and in life after life. There are many rascals who violate their own religious principles. According to Judeo-Christian scriptures, it is clearly said, "Thou shalt not kill."
Nonetheless, giving all kinds of excuses, even the heads of religions indulge in killing animals while trying to pass as saintly persons. This mockery and hypocrisy in human society bring about unlimited calamities; therefore occasionally there are great wars. Masses of such people go out onto battlefields and kill themselves. Presently they have discovered the atomic bomb, which is simply waiting to be used for wholesale destruction. If people want to be saved from the killing business life after life, they must take to Krishna consciousness and cease sinful activity.
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness recommends that everyone abandon meat-eating, illicit sex, intoxication and gambling. When one gives up these sinful activities, he can understand Krishna and take to this Krishna consciousness movement. We therefore request everyone to abandon sinful activity and chant the Hare Krishna mantra. In this way people can save themselves from repeated birth and death and from being killed like the animals in slaughterhouses.
(Sri Caitanya Caritamrita, Madhya-Lila 24:251, Purport by Srila Prabhupada) |
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Everyone wants peace in
the world. The peace marchers do not know how to obtain
peace, but they want peace. I read a speech of the
Archbishop of Canterbury in which he said, "You want the
kingdom of God without God." This is our defect. If you
want peace at all, then accept that peace means to
understand God. That is stated in the Bhagavad-Gita.
Unless you are in touch with the Supreme Lord, Krishna,
you cannot have peace.
Therefore, we have a different peace formula. The real
peace formula is that one must know that God is the
proprietor of all this universe, including the United
States of America. He is the proprietor of Russia, He is
the proprietor of China, He is the proprietor of India, of
everything. But because we claim that we are the
proprietors, there is fighting, there is discord, there is
disagreement, and how can there be peace?
First of all, one has to accept that God is the proprietor
of everything. We are simply guests for fifty or a hundred
years. We come and go, and while one is here, he is
absorbed in this thought: "This is my land. This is my
family. This is my body. This is my property." And when
there is an order from the Supreme for one to leave his
home, his property, his body, his family, his money and
his bank balance and it is all gone, one has to take
another place. We are under the grip of material nature,
and she is offering different kinds of bodies: "Now, my
dear sir, you accept this body." We accept an American
body, an Indian body, a Chinese body, a cat's body or a
dog's body. I am not the Proprietor even of this body, yet
I say that I am this body. Actually, this is ignorance.
And how can one have peace? Peace can be had when one
understands that God is the proprietor of everything. |
