Guest guest Posted October 7, 2001 Report Share Posted October 7, 2001 The following commentary is contextually taken out of various BG & SB sources as translated by Prabhupad: If one goes DEEP into the Heart of the Vedic (SB & BG) & Buddhism teachings we find the scriptural definitions & purports for satwic vegetarianism as a way to enhance the "spiritual vibration" of the living entitiy to purify the spiritual body- not just the material body. The Buddha came to help restore "non-violence" & respect for all living creatures & thus vegetarianism after some of those within the Vedic culture were misusing the Vedic teachings about animal sacrifice. But spiritutal satwic vegetarianism can & does go much deeper than killing animals for sacrifice & food. Pepsi, onions, garlic, most cheeses, mushrooms & dairy are often described as vegetarean! I have even seen some Buddhist altars offering "the ancestors" pepsi & chocolate covered donuts. But that does not make that vegetarian food satwic. In a certain way too, a person is capable of being in an unconscious rajas addictive mode even while consuming prasad (blessed food). But consuming the prasad is in hopes of gradually helping the person raise their consciousness - spiritual satwic vibration, to help them become purified from the inside out eventually, thus leading to higher levels of satwa, spiritual purification & then eventually Prema or Real Devotion! So, I find this & any discussion of vegetarianism an incredible opportunity for one to look at the "power of the tongue attachments." It just depends on how deep the person is on their spiritual journey of exploring these things, esp the compulsive-obsessive-addictive nature of our socialization process, our cultures & the earthly human experience & how much one chooses their tongue's desire nature over their potential satwic or deeper true spiritual devotional nature within, which is a process of course unfolds & is defined by the Divine Wheel-Clock of Karma as seen in jyotish. The deeper we each go spiritually & devotionally, the deeper we are willing to explore the nature of rajas & satwa within ourselves & how often we listen to the little voices of rajas within, how often ego runs the show & yet chooses its rajas pleasure over pleasing God or satwa. And even if we are vegan we can & do still "unknowingly" kill thousands of microorganisms per day in our daily lives, which is supposedly karmic too as per BG teachings. But Kali Yuga really leaves most of us with powerful "attachments of the tongue" whereby we want to "take & get" stimulating & pleasurable sensations for ourselves while eating instead of "giving & receiving" satwic offered food; BG describes the tongue as the most difficult of the senses to tame, as it is required that we eat "some" to maintain the material body, but most socialized in rajas countries usually are taught ways of being esp by the media that endorse capitalistic profit & so we are taught to "live to eat" instead of just "eating simply to live"! But as one takes the time to explore the inner deeper sub-personalities & addictive motives that we have been taught culturally for eating & living, we can find the truth about our egos "desire of enjoying & our "weakness-undisciplined natures." Esp in Kali yuga we notice that rajas is usually more important than satwa or devotion- our offering enjoyment to God. BG describes the satwic food as grains, dairy, fruit, vegetables & describes the various other "vegetable" foods as rajas or tamas based on the vibrational nature of the food & the amount of rajas & tamas consciousness it stimulates. For example, onions & garlic hold a very intense rajas vibration even if current medical finding find them good for lowering cholesteral. But what rajas habits & addictions from this life & past lives got the cholesterol out of balance in the first place? Onions & garlic are the kinds of foods that many of us who are studying the issues of addiction & desires of the tongue find challenging, especially if we were ignorantly raised using those foods. With today's US food industry it is almost imposs ible to be truly satwic even if one really tries! Even as a regulated vegan, if one wants to make vegetarian pizza for an offering, yet buys the ingrediants from typical grocery store, inc rennetless cheese available in some places, unless one makes their pizza sauce from scratch, it is almost impossible to find it without garlic & onion (rajas) already added. The sauces are even organic, but of course are not satwic in the stores! The rennetless cheese is also VERY hard to find in most stores unless you order it from a specialty store! But what I think most people of west don't understand is this cruelty to the animals & the enslavement of the animals for the rajasic & tamasic addictions of the human tongue. Most Westerners have not heard the Vedic teaching about the killing of the sacred satwic cow, how the cow killing is so tamasic even if the know commandment "Thou shall not kill," I know I was not raised with this understanding, nor are most Christians. Prabhupad came to the west to help us go deeper about vegetarianism & addiction & killing, including a deeper understanding of that commandment "Thou shalt not kill", how it includes ideally all livng beings including veal-fish-chicken-shrimp, thus the higher way of offering all satwic food first in devotion as a tool for returning to Spirit, regardless of weither the return to Spirit is now while we are still here on earth or in the Spiritual World without a material body. Personal comment added: and what I also find interesting in group karma is that the ego developmental process of HUGE intellect & HUGE personal will in west (at expense of caring-compassion-civility (part of child rearing & eductional system group karmas) is so intensely imbalanced in the USA that it helps to create the energetic blocks in power chakra, thus blocking that chakra & thus eventually impairs proper digestion (fire element) potential even in those with a vegan diet. Rate of diabetes has escalated in the USA in the past two decades too, even in vegetarians. And even vegans are having some malabsorption problems & protein deficiencies: all karma from this life & other lives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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