Side with PETA
You're familiar with Srila Prabhupada's statements about wars merely
being the karma for killing animals.
Then you must realize Srila Prabhupada would have scoffed if any devotees
had joined the antiwar protestors, even though nonviolence is commendable.
Wouldn't Srila Prabhupada similarly scoff at any devotees today siding with
pro-lifers?! Hridayananda dasa Goswami (Dr. Howard Resnick), a direct
disciple of Srila Prabhupada and a spiritual master in disciplic succession,
wrote a March 1982 Back to Godhead article along these lines entitled "Is
Something Wrong in the Right to Life Movement?" pointing out the hypocrisy
of claiming to be "pro-life" while killing animals.
Devotees should side with PETA over pro-lifers! Animal activists are
educating the public not to kill animals. A music critic once commented that
songs like "Blue Jay Way" are the kind of stuff George Harrison writes when
deprived of Indian influence. Similarly, when not on the transcendental
platform of pure devotional service, fallen devotees tend to gravitate
towards vegetarian and animal rights causes -- NOT the pro-life movement!
In the early '90s, I saw a man who looked a lot like former Berkeley temple
president Janakinath dasa at an animal rights event, tabling for the Left
Coast Vegetarian Society. Several years ago, I met a female devotee who was
working for Veg-News, a slick, trendy vegan periodical out of San Francisco.
Saradiya dasi (Loetitia Lilot), a fallen Prabhupada disciple, has similarly
done artwork for the animal rights movement and says she would like to be
vegan.
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