Once a week, I will be sharing a meditation on a verse from the ripened fruit of the tree of Vedic knowledge: the
Srimad-Bhagavatam, translated and with commentary by His Divine Grace Swami Srila Prabhupada.
I humble request you to first read today's verse, from
Canto 1, Chapter 10, Verse 4..."Departure of Lord Krsna for Dvaraka."
kamam vavarsa parjanyah
sarva-kama-dugha mahi
sisicuh sma vrajan gavah
payasodhasvatir muda
During the reign of Maharaja Yudhisthira, the clouds showered all the water that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man in profusion. Due to its fatty milk bag and cheerful attitude, the cow used to moisten the grazing ground with milk.
In Prabhupada's commentary, he says that "the basic principle of economic development is centered on
land and
milk." This is the very foundation of our Krsna conscious motto of "Simple Living and High Thinking." All of our farm communities strive to live wholly by this ideal. The earth provides all we need naturally, especially when we are aligned spiritually with the dictates of the Absolute Truth. But, as individual spirit souls who have a tendency to want to believe that we are the Absolute Truth, we misuse our God-given free will and are always attempting to live in a world that is bigger, better, and faster.
No matter how much you and I love our MP3 players, they are not essential to our survival. This can be extended to any technological or extraneous mechanical device, even this very computer. The Internet can be a wonderful communication tool, but if some crafty Korean hackers yanked the whole show down this afternoon, your physical survival would most likely not be threatened.
It is this drive to create artificial comforts and standards of sense gratification that distracts us from true realization of the nature of our self, and of how we can relate in the best possible way to all the souls who surround us as well. I'm certainly no
luddite, but the future of humanity depends of finding a balance between the land and the mechanical invention. Right now, the see-saw is leaning heavy in the direction of the machine, and the machine might just want to eat us whole.
Getting to that correct balance means first and foremost respecting those cheerfully fatty cows. Prabhupada pulls no punches when he says "Why should men kill cows for their selfish purposes? Why should man not be satisfied with grains, fruits and milk....Why are there slaughterhouses all over the world to kill innocent animals?...Is this humanity? Are not the animals of a country citizens also? Then why are they allowed to be butchered in organized slaughterhouses? Are these the signs of equality, fraternity, and non-violence?"
Have you ever seriously asked yourself these questions before? The answers that are provided with some good old-fashioned thinking will hopefully enlighten you well beyond what you choose to put onto your dinner plate. There are deep
environmental and
spiritual benefits that come with a conscious change to a vegetarian or vegan diet.
No less an authority than Albert Einstein says that "nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."
Becoming a vegetarian is, from my own personal experience, one of the most rewarding choices you can make in your personal practice of existence.
We have to listen to more than just our guts. I pray than anyone who reads this can at least try to understand your own individual responsibility to your own health, and the health of all living entities that surround you, including animals big and small. The happiness you will feel is guaranteed to help you see reality much clearer than you ever have before.
Check out the Veggie Hub (
www.veggiehub.com). They'll explain it much better.
