Perfect Your Krishna Consciousness

If you want to achieve the supreme perfection of going back to home, back to Godhead at the time of death, you need to perfect your Krishna consciousness. As long as our devotional service is mixed with mental speculation and fruitive activities we will be obliged to take birth again in this material world in order to try to satisfy our unfulfilled desires. What a foolish waste of time and energy! Such desires are not worth it because they will never satisfy us. Therefore those who are actually intelligent take the cultivation of pure devotional service as their only business. They quickly become free from all anxieties and at the time of death immediately enter into the transcendental pastimes of Lord Sri Krishna with his pure loving devotees.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: Can Eating Vegetables Also Be Sinful?

While discussing with one of my friends I got confused. According to the four regulative principles of Krishna consciousness, I gave up meat eating a long time ago as I wanted to refrain from killing. When I told my friend I left meat because I don't want to kill, he said that even the plants have life and therefore eating them would also be killing. So I told him that since we are offering food to Krishna it's not sinful. He then asked, "If you offer meat to Krishna wouldn't that also be free from sin, just as when you offer vegetables to Krishna?"

Somewhere I got angry inside and did not talk to him any more. But after thinking about it, this question comes to my mind: Am I sinning by eating vegetarian food?

Also it is said in scriptures that God is present in everything. Prahlada Maharaja insisted upon this, and God came out of the pillar to prove His devotee's words. Is it sinful then to eat anything since God is present everywhere?

One point that is given in Bhagavad-gita is that meat is tamasic, in the mode of ignorance. So to advance spiritually one must be sattvic, that is, in the mode of goodness. Could this be the answer of my question? Kindly clear my doubts.

Sushant

Answer: Yes, If You Don't Offer Them to Krishna

Your understanding from Bhagavad-gita that meat eating is in the mode of ignorance is a fact. The more one eats meat, the more he becomes ignorant.

It is a fact that eating vegetables is also killing. Therefore our vegetables must be offered to Krishna before eating. Meat cannot be offered because when Krishna specifies which types of foods are offerable, He does not include meat in the list. He only includes foodstuffs from the category of fruits, vegetables. dairy products, and grains.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Little Sparrow Who Conquered the Ocean

Image
In his purport to Bhagavad-gita, Chapter 6, Text 24 Srila Prabhupada wonderfully teaches us the power of determinations by telling us the story of the little sparrow who conquered the ocean: "As for determination, one should follow the example of the sparrow who lost her eggs in the waves of the ocean. A sparrow laid her eggs on the shore of the ocean, but the big ocean carried away the eggs on its waves. The sparrow became very upset and asked the ocean to return her eggs. The ocean did not even consider her appeal. So the sparrow decided to dry up the ocean. She began to pick out the water in her small beak, and everyone laughed at her for her impossible determination. The news of her activity spread, and at last Garuda, the gigantic bird carrier of Lord Visnu, heard it. He became compassionate toward his small sister bird, and so he came to see the sparrow. Garuda was very pleased by the determination of the small sparrow, and he promised to help. Thus Garuda at once asked t...
Read more

Heart Melting Reunion with Amarendra and Gayatri

Image
On Friday 26 June 2015 I was blessed with the greatest good fortune of meeting with two of the dearest devotees of my entire life, His Grace Amarendra Prabhu and his good wife, Srimati Gayatri devi dasi. I am eternally indebted to these great souls for how much they helped me in my spiritual life when I was a young devotee. When I was young brahmacari monk in 1973 I joined with the two of them in Gainesville, Florida. We were a three person preaching center, and they were just like a mother and father to me. I had so many wonderful Krishna conscious experiences in their association that I can hardly begin to describe them here. But at least may it suffice for me to say for now that Gayatri taught me what it means to be a soft-hearted devotee of the Lord and she gave me my first cooking lesson, teaching me how to make cauliflower pakoras, and Amarendra taught me the art of how to preach strongly, intelligently, and coolly to defeat opposing arguments. Recently Gayatri almost died. But ...
Read more

Misguided Fools Say that Masturbation is Healthy

Image
Foolish modern day materialists recommend masturbation as follows: "Masturbation is a common activity. It’s a natural and safe way to explore your body, feel pleasure, and release built-up sexual tension. It occurs among people of all backgrounds, genders, and races. Despite the myths, there are actually no physically harmful side effects of masturbation." They are wrong. To get a proper understanding on this this topic read the question and answer section below. Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom Question: What are the Ill Effects of Masturbation? Since you answered questions related to understanding the real need of sex in a human being's life, so I also request you to please enlighten us with the knowledge about semen conservation, it's importance, and the consequences of frequently releasing it thorough sex or masturbation. Since today most of the youth are indulged in mansturbation and they think it to be good in comparison to doing sex with some female for ...
Read more