Many festivals are celebrated in Nepal by animal sacrifices. Do we have such practices mentioned in our sacred texts as well? How do we bring about a shift?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Education! You have to educate people. Nowhere in the scriptures does it say that you should kill an animal to please Gods and Goddesses. No!
‘Ahimsa paramo dharma’. You should not sacrifice any animal.
You know what has happened in the world amongst all the religions and cultures? It has become like a mixture of sand and sugar. There are good things, but there are other things which are not in the scriptures but have been interpolated, or have come as a practice. And people think this is the religion and this is the tradition. This is unfortunate. Such practices need to be shunned and stopped.
You should educate people not to kill animals!
The scriptures have said, let go of your animalistic tendencies. Let go of the inertia in you.
You know in Sanskrit many words have two different meanings. Like ‘mahisha’ means inertia. It is not just buffalo.
A buffalo is also called buffalo because it is inert. If you honk the car, it won’t move. You have to get down from the car and push it. If you show a stick, it doesn’t move.
Cows are very sensitive, but buffalos are not that sensitive. So a buffalo is also called mahisha.
So mahisha means the inertia should be killed inside you. Similarly, ’Aja’ does not just mean goat. It also means that which is neither born yesterday or tomorrow. ‘Ja’ means born. So, there are deeper meanings in all this.
Usually ’Gau’ means cow. The word cow comes from the Sanskrit root ‘Gau’. And ’Gau’ also means knowledge, movement, attainment.
There are four meaning for ‘Gau’:
- Gyan (knowledge)
- Gaman (assimilation)
- Prapthi (attainment)
- Moksh (liberation)
Unfortunately the meanings have been distorted.
‘Ahimsa paramo dharma’. You should not sacrifice any animal.
You know what has happened in the world amongst all the religions and cultures? It has become like a mixture of sand and sugar. There are good things, but there are other things which are not in the scriptures but have been interpolated, or have come as a practice. And people think this is the religion and this is the tradition. This is unfortunate. Such practices need to be shunned and stopped.
You should educate people not to kill animals!
The scriptures have said, let go of your animalistic tendencies. Let go of the inertia in you.
You know in Sanskrit many words have two different meanings. Like ‘mahisha’ means inertia. It is not just buffalo.
A buffalo is also called buffalo because it is inert. If you honk the car, it won’t move. You have to get down from the car and push it. If you show a stick, it doesn’t move.
Cows are very sensitive, but buffalos are not that sensitive. So a buffalo is also called mahisha.
So mahisha means the inertia should be killed inside you. Similarly, ’Aja’ does not just mean goat. It also means that which is neither born yesterday or tomorrow. ‘Ja’ means born. So, there are deeper meanings in all this.
Usually ’Gau’ means cow. The word cow comes from the Sanskrit root ‘Gau’. And ’Gau’ also means knowledge, movement, attainment.
There are four meaning for ‘Gau’:
- Gyan (knowledge)
- Gaman (assimilation)
- Prapthi (attainment)
- Moksh (liberation)
Unfortunately the meanings have been distorted.