Anega Namaskarams of Adiyen Srinivasan Pranesh.
Not sure if I understand the post properly. Little things as I understand.
Body or mind does not suffer pain. Those are just transmitters. Jiva is the one who experiences pain/pleasure. As Krishna says in Bagavad Gita, atma can never be cut with weapons, burnt with fire, dried in air etc. However, Atma can experience.
If we punch a person, we see some reaction due to pain. If we do the same to dead body, there is no pain. So, it is evident that body is only transmitter and not experiencing anything itself.
We are composed of 5 bodies as per Taittreya Upanishad.
1. Annamaya kosha – body made of food
2. Pranamaya kosha – vital energy. Five type of important pranas are pranan, apanan, vyanan, udanan and samanan.
3. Manomaya kosha – mind
4. Vignyanamaya kosha – buddhi
5. Anandhamaya kosha – blissful body
First one is called sthoola sharira or physical body, 2 to 4 are sukshma sharira or astral bodies and 5 is called karana sharira or linga sharira.
All these 5 are called various bodies themselves and are not capable of experiencing anything themselves.
Jivatma is residing inside all these bodies and experiences everything.
Paramatma is Antaryami or indweller of Jivatma. Jivatma is not capable of functioning without this Paramatma. Paramatma and Jivatma are inseparable yet different and not same. Paramatma remains unaffected by any acts of Jivatma but keeps directing Jivatma.
Mundaka Upanishad explains, “two birds sit on branch of a tree. One enjoys fruits while other remains witness”. First bird is Jivatma and witness bird is Paramatma.
Bagavad Ramanujar explains the relations beautifully. Body is pure Shariram. Brahmam is pure Shariri as He is Antaryami or soul of Jivatma and body as well. Jivatma is Shariram for Brahmam and Shariri for these 5 bodies.
This explanation is to state that, Jivatman experiences everything though physically not affected and body is only a tool to experience.
Coming to eating veg food, Brahma Sutras say that the departed souls eligible again for samsara, descend down to earth, take the form of grains from plants, when eaten by man, they are formed as sperm. Though science says Garbha Vaasam is 9 months, it is actually 11 months as per saastras. 2 months in male and 9 months in female.
So, the departed souls reside in plants. Those get into males as food have opportunity to take birth.
Further logical reasons in favour of discussion that eating plants is acceptable.
1. Any living being who is born is dependent on other living beings for their own life. But, human digestive system is designed only for eating vegetarian. People feel very heavy to digest non-veg. Isn’t it? Ok, this is science. Let us come to other reasons.
2. We are not killing plants all the times for eating. We take their fruits, vegetables etc. which doesn’t mean killing the plants themselves. Those will ripe and fall down automatically in few days even if we don’t use them.
3. Even if we kill a plant, we can plant another one to maintain balance in society. But, it is not possible in the case of birds and animals, though we have techniques like Cloning. But, fact is that we don’t kill plants or trees for eating.
4. One may ask, herbs are killed for food. What do you say about this?
There is an important concept in Hinduism called karma. All living beings take birth because of karma and happenings in life are because of karma. A person may be bad in first half of his life and may do good things in second half. But, let us assume he is killed when he commences to do good things, then only bad karma will be held by him, which further pushes him into lower births. This karma is not only applicable to humans but all forms of life.
Herbs have a limited shelf life. Even if we don’t kill them, they themselves will die very shortly in few days. Law of Universe is that, an Atma takes body in the earth utilizing all components in world like air, water, fire, food etc and all those should be returned back in some form while departing. Anything that is born should benefit the society in some form on death. Living beings that die get buried and change into fossil fuels. Animals that die naturally serve as food for Vultures etc. Likewise, the herbs that are anyway going to die shortly are serving as food to humans.
In case of birds and animals, we don’t know when their lives will exactly end. So, killing them in half way may cause an imbalance in their karma which is a sin to the killer and this karma will stick to us and lead to further births.
Still one may argue that it may be the fate of birds and animals to be killed? But, we cannot judge their fate. We have to be kind to other living beings as far as possible.
Killer will be the sinner and eater will not be affected cannot be accepted. The killer kills them as the eater consumes them. So, both killer and eater takes part in the sin.
Some argue that to maintain a balance in society only they kill living beings. But, who gave right to us and asked us to balance them. If a perfect balance in society is to be accepted happily, then why do we cry when natural calamities like earthquake, tsunami etc. kills our relatives, children and create a balance in human population. So, they also have feeling like us and they see their own children, parents, relatives beings separated from each other and getting killed. We shall not do this in the name of balancing the population, as we don’t accept this concept happily when it comes to us. The curse of those animals when killed will definitely push us into sin.
5. Universe and living beings are three natured. They are Satva, Rajo and Tamas. Satvic nature is kind nature which helps progress towards salvation. Rajo is normal human nature which makes us fall under anger, material joy, sorrow etc. Tamas is laziness, cruelness etc. All humans possess all three characters and the one which dominates other two becomes the character of a particular human. Our eating habits also decides our character. Plants have more satvic but less rajo and tamo frequencies in them. But, eating animals and birds will increase the rajo and tamo components, lessening our satvic component and will be a big obstruction to salvation.
6. In case of milk, one may say milk comes from blood. Let it be mother’s milk or cow’s milk, we are not killing the mother or cow to consume them. If we make the calf to starve to consume cow’s milk, then it is definitely a sin because cow’s milk is primarily meant for its calf.
Sorry for any misunderstanding and mistakes if any.
Sarvam Shri Krishnaarpanamastu!
