Should Hindus Be Vegan?
Case Study: The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)
- Part 1 - Why Study ISKCON
- Part 2 - The Doctrine of Ahimsa or Nonviolence is Central to Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism
- Part 3 - The Hindu Teachings on Nonviolence, Karma, Reincarnation and the Sacred Status of the Cow, All Indicate Veganism is a Realistic Response to Cow-Killing
- Part 4 - Interfaith Dialogue and Discussion
- Part 5 - Here Are Quotes on Ahimsa or Nonviolence, from the Hindu Scriptures
- Part 6 - Does Krishna Require Dairy Products?
- Part 7 - Spiritual People Moving Toward Veganism?
- Part 8 - Easier Journey: A Vegan Economy is Easier to Implement Than Space Colonization
- Part 9 - There Must Be a Moral or an Ethical Basis for One’s Vegetarianism, Otherwise One is Likely to Backslide, and Return to Flesh-Eating
Part 1
Why study ISKCON?
1. Dr. A.L. Basham, Author of The Wonder That was India, Explains His
Partiality Towards ISKCON Over the Numerous Yoga Societies in the West.
"The numerous organizations in the past which have brought Indian ideas to
the western world -- organizations like the Ramakrishna Mission, the
Theosophical Society and so on -- while having certain religious
characteristics, have essentially been societies of people interested in
mysticism, gnosticism, and so on, mostly middle-aged people who met together
once a week and listened to the local swami lecturing to them, and then went
back and carried on with their conventional, secular lives.
"But the Hare Krishna movement demands a significant change in one's way of
life... I don't think anything like it has occurred in the European context
since the days of the Roman Empire when Christianity, Judaism, Mithraism,
and other religions made numerous converts in the West...
"One can trace the steadily increasing influence of mystical gnosis in the
western world almost from the end of the eighteenth-century onwards when the
Bhagavad-gita was first translated into a European language by Charles
Wilkins. Indian ideas circulated rapidly among the intelligentsia not only
in the English-speaking world, but also in other parts of Europe.
"They certainly had an effect on people throughout the western world --
Germans like Schlegel, Deussen, and Schopenhauer, Americans like Thoreau and
Emerson, Englishmen like Max Mueller (an Englishman by adoption) and Aldous
Huxley, Frenchmen such as Romain Rolland, and Russians like Tolstoy.
"But these people were in no sense thoroughgoing Hindus and they were
impressed primarily by the mysticism of the Upanishads and of the
Bhagavad-gita. This movement was strengthened through various developments
such as the Theosophical Society, and the publication of Sir Edwin Arnold's
The Light of Asia in the 1870's, a book which had a significant effect on
quite a number of people in developing a sympathetic attitude towards
Buddhism.
"It is the simple Indian bhakti (devotion) which you have brought into the
western world and not the mystical, other-worldly Upanishadic doctrines
which you may accept in theory, at least, but which do not mean as much to
you as these simple, straightforward practices.
"'Streamlined swamis' is a facetious phrase which I invented myself... I
intend it as a reference to the doctrines and teaching which various Indian
swamis put forth, a streamlined kind of Hindu mysticism designed to appeal
to modern, jet-age disciples: levitation in a few months or even weeks,
moksha (liberation) in a few easy lessons -- a Hinduism without class,
without worship, without rigid taboos, and so forth. At the opposite
extreme from your form of Indian religion and mysticism, we have for
example, Transcendental Meditation.
"Now, I don't want to disparage Transcendental Meditation because I know
it's done people some good. It relaxes them. So I'm not unduly critical of
Transcendental Meditation, but it is a typically 'streamlined' form of
Hinduism. It's scarcely Hinduism at all.
"In fact, we're told by the Transcendental Meditationists that you can be a
member of their organization -- you can follow their various practices,
their yogic meditations and so on -- and yet you don't have to give up
anything you already believe in.
"You can belong to a church and participate in the Eucharist, have your
children baptized, or you can remain an unbeliever and an atheist.
Transcendental Meditation seems to have dropped all its theological and even
philosophical trappings. It's just a method of mental and psychic training.
"That is one extreme. Yours is the other. You appropriate an Indian
religious sect -- its beliefs, its practices, all its taboos, and so on --
root and branch and import it into the West. In between these extremes we
have all sorts of variations...
"You've done more than the swamis of the Ramakrishna Mission and others,
because they propagate a form of Hinduism in which the devotional, theistic
aspect is almost entirely ignored.
"Yours, you see, is the straightforward Hinduism of the common man, and the
best for of it... if nothing else, you have a great educational function in
explaining and exemplifying these things, by living example, to the people
of the western world."
2. The Founder of the Hare Krishna Movement, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada is India's Greatest Scholar, Philosopher, Cultural Ambassador,
Author, and Spiritual Leader.
From 1966 to 1977, Srila Prabhupada established more than 100 spiritual
centers, temples, rural communities, schools, publishing firms and
institutes. He circled the globe 14 times on lecture tours on six
continents, and still found time to write prolifically. Srila Prabhupada
wrote more than 72 books, constituting a comprehensive library of Vedic
philosophy, religion, literature, and culture.
"Srila Prabhupada’s works reveal profound scholarship...His translations of
the verses are exceptionally lucid and reveal the real spirit of the
original..." wrote Dr. Ranjan Borra of the United States Library of
Congress. "His books are a veritable encyclopedia of Indian philosophy,
religion, and culture."
The Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year, 1976, reported: "In the period
from October 1968 to November 1975, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta
Swami astonished academic and literary communities worldwide by writing and
publishing 52 books on the ancient Vedic culture."
Complete sets of Srila Prabhupada’s books have been purchased by the
libraries and professors of most major universities around the world,
including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge, and the Sorbonne.
Srila Prabhupada has some ten thousand disciples worldwide and a
congregational following in the millions.
3. ISKCON's Success in Promoting Vegetarianism and Distributing
Vegetarian Food ito the Masses is Unparalleled.
"The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) has
contributed tremendously to the growth of vegetarianism in the U.S. and
elsewhere, and for that... it deserves the gratitude and respect of the
civilized world."
--Dr. Alex Hershaft, Farm Animal Reform Movement (FARM)
"The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is doing a
superb job of letting people know that vegetarian food is healthful,
delicious, and pleasing to the eye."
--Scott Smith, Associate Editor, Vegetarian Times
In his 2004 book, Holy Cow: the Hare Krishna Contribution to Vegetarianism
and Animal Rights, when describing the Hare Krishna Food For Life program,
Steven Rosen (Satyaraja dasa) quotes Srila Prabhupada as having said: "To
distribute prasadam (sanctified vegetarian food offered to the Lord) to
millions of hungry people hankering for spiritual emancipation. This is the
mission of the Krishna consciousness movement." (Srimad Bhagavatam 1.13.9
purport)
According to Steven Rosen, A Nigerian radio station compared the Hare
Krishna Food For Life program with "the second coming of Jesus, because just
as he fed the masses, so the Hare Krishnas were feeding thousands of
people."
Go on to: The Doctrine of Ahimsa
or Nonviolence is Central to Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, Part 2
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