== OUR FESTIVITIES ANIMAL'S DOOM ==
Namaskar,
Our humanity is no longer that slow, dull, lumbering mass, but rather a
sleek, new people full of sentient thoughts and refined ideas. By Baba's
grace this sweet transformation is going on. And our holidays and
festivals should reflect this.
Unfortunately, our global human family is still littered by occasions &
festivals that feature harsh and cruel treatment to animals. We have
inherited these social functions from days-by-gone and the time has come
to rethink such events.
GOTTEN FROM THE AGES: 'PUT TO DEATH'
Nearly all the religious and cultural traditions on this earth engage in
the gross mutilation and rampant killing of animals during times of
festivals.
During the Hindu Durga Puja, animals sacrifices are common. It is the
people's way of "pleasing the gods".
Plus the Aryans culture has a long history of such type of rampant
animal killing in their various yajinas, religious rituals, and
ceremonies of worship. Note 1 details how the Chambal river was but a
river of blood created by thousands of animals sacrifices.
Then the Islamic festival Eid must include the slaughtering of a goat.
And Christianity and the west are also involved in this same destructive
pattern. In particular, during the American holiday, 'Thanksgiving'
which is to be celebrated next week, millions upon millions of turkeys
and massacred. Each and every household or family gathering celebrates
this day by eating a murdered turkey.
If we look further, we can find countless examples wherein our human
family indulges in the cruel treatment of animals as a means to honor
the gods and show our festive spirit during the holidays.
There is a long history of this, often stemming from times when the
people did not have the knowledge or capability to observe festivals in
other ways. Over the generations, these cruel and senseless traditions
have been kept alive. Still today, they are common.
'CREATION IS FOR OUR ENJOYMENT'
In this modern era, wherein popular western values are spinning around
the globe at record pace, the archaic psychology, 'this creation is for
our enjoyment', needs to be put to rest.
The Christian doctrine preaches that God has put all these beings and
creatures on this earth for human enjoyment. This is the anthropocentric
vision that is grabbing hold of so many people. In the past, religious
Christians would preach this gospel and now pseudo-culture popularizes
this same approach via its 'me-first', self-indulgent manners. It has
become the fashion to 'treat yourself right', irregardless of the cost
to others.
All of the above contravenes our teachings of neo-humanism. And it is
time we lead the way more and more in putting these dogmas to rest.
Animal cruelty and torture is a remnant from humanity's barbaric past.
However the picture is not all bleak. In pockets of human culture around
the globe, there are many raising the slogan of animal welfare and
animal rights.
OUR CHANGING HUMANITY
Today, then our humanity is going through so much growth and development
in so many respects, now is the time to deviate from past traditions and
rethink the way we celebrate during times of festivals.
After all, so many new outlooks are being born each and every day:
Multi-culturalism, women's rights, minority rights, native rights,
rights of the accused etc. In each and every sphere of life we are
rethinking our relationships with other human groups. And this has
brought must respect and dignity to our human family.
Sadly, this trend has failed to come full circle with regards to animals
rights.
No doubt, there is some progress like the heralded case where one famous
American football player was stripped of his multi-million dollar
contract, corporate sponsorships, star status, and sent to jail for
beating and torturing dogs. So some progress has been made.
But there is much work to be done.
In the past, humans were offered to the gods via sacrificial fires; that
has now stopped. Similarly, we have to put a stop to such things being
done to animals.
All around the globe during times of festivals, people heartily look
forward to "sumptuous meals" born from the ruthless killing and torture
of animals. 'Thanksgiving' is but one of many such occasions where
people blindly overlook the senseless destruction of animals for their
own silly pleasure.
We have to ask ourselves, 'Is this the civiliisation we want to
perpetuate and pass down to our children?'.
Now then is the time to raise consciousness on this critical and dire
issue. Often times animals look to us for shelter and support and in
response we outrightly breach that trust and dupe them into walking into
their own death.
JUST HYPOCRITE'S PSYCHOLOGY
Here Baba points out how the the human psyche wrongly justifies the
slaughtering of animals. Deep inside people know it is not right, but
they cover it up will all kinds of false logic.
Baba says, "When people sacrifice a goat or buffalo in a religious
festival while chanting “Divine goddess, divine goddess!” before a
deity, they know that the animal is an irreplaceable part of creation,
but still they slaughter it. This is hypocrites’ dogma." (PNS-16,
'Religious Dogma- B')
BABA'S BLESSING
By Baba's grace we will rethink our role on this earth and treat all
animals with dignity and respect, and not work towards their wanton
destruction.
Baba says, "Human beings are more cruel than vultures. Their hearts
don’t melt even at the sight of tears of innocent birds and animals.
Just to gratify their sense of greed, they mercilessly slit the throats
of animals with sharp knives and swords and thus deprive them of the
right to live, even while preaching the hollow dictates of religion."
(NHNS-2)
Namaskar,
Vinay
Note 1: ANIMAL SACRIFICES & THE CHAMBAL RIVER
Baba says, "When the Aryans were living in the Rajasthan area in the
western part of India, they found many animals there, because there were
forests and sufficient rainfall. They used to perform sacrificial rites
by killing these animals. There is a story that once they performed a
sacrificial ritual killing hundreds of thousands of animals; the heaps
of those animals’ skins was as high as a mountain, and blood streamed
down unceasingly from that pile of skins. It looked as if a river was
flowing. After a long distance, this stream of blood flowed into the
Ganges River. As the stream of blood flowing from the pile of animal
skins took the form of a river, it was named Carman'vatii in Sanskrit.
The present name of the river is Chambal." (NSS, Disc 7)
Note 2: DOGMA: PUTTING ANIMALS TO SLEEP
One other misconception these days is that people, especially in the
west, brag about how kind they are to their own pets, yet in the end put
their pets "to sleep", when they think the animal is too old and frail.
People sympathetically boast of their compassion in doing such things.
But really is this a practice that can be supported. Under normal
circumstances, would we put elderly human beings to sleep as well at a
time we deem fit. Or do we honor them up to the last breath. Our way is
to respect their dignity and let them live out their days according to
nature's design. We do not prematurely put them to death. But this same
respect we do not extend to animals. Rather we deceive ourselves into
thinking that we are doing proper by intentionally putting an animal to
sleep, when in fact we are rudely ending their life.
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Colourful Future
Baba says, "As life becomes increasingly easy, there will be greater
opportunities for intellectual pursuits. A day will come when there will
be hardly any need for human beings to work. This may sound strange
today and perhaps we might not like to hear such a thing, but that day
will surely come. Physicality will be transformed into more and more
intellectuality, and intellectuality will be transformed into the
culminating point of spirituality." (PNS-17, p.36)
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