29 Sep 2015
Dr. Nikhil asked: My mother asked that how Rama being God treated Sita in such a way? My student asked that the non-vegetarian food is natural system and how can it be a sin?
Shri Swami Replied: 1) God came to earth in human form called as Rama to establish the ideals of a human being in various roles like king, husband, brother, son, father etc. He left Sita since a washer-man commented on her character. Here, He established Himself as an ideal ruler caring for the criticism of public always as the guideline. The rulers of the public should care for every criticism from public and act immediately according to the criticism so that the ruler should never be criticised by the ruled public in any corner. Of course, your point is that - “the king should also analyze the subject impartially treating Sita also as a citizen, who must be equally treated with the other citizen, washer-man. The washer-man is wrong and ignorant in the criticism whereas Sita is perfectly right in her character. Without enquiring this truth, Rama left Sita and this is a partial judgement. Sita is not only the wife of Rama but also a citizen of the Ayodhya kingdom for which the ruler is Rama. At least, she should be treated as a citizen if not as the queen for the impartial enquiry.” These points blame Rama and even though a king errs but the God in human form should not err. All these points are only external and if Rama was not God and merely a king, this result should have been expected. If the king is egoistic, he would have hanged the washer-man even without any enquiry. Rama is neither egoistic nor ordinary human being to react in these ways. All the background of every human being in this world is very clear to the mind of Rama. He behaved like an ideal human being to set an example for the humanity. This does not mean that He is really a human being. The ruler should be above the family bonds in case a citizen criticizes. This is clearly indicated to the rulers. However, this is not the background of Sita for such drastic action. The background is quite different. Certain mistakes were committed by Sita in her life: 1) She did not listen to Lakshmana, who pleaded that a golden deer does not exist and the golden deer appearing there is only demon. As a result, all this happened till the incident of washer-man. 2) She scolded Lakshmana for not going to save Rama in such a drastic way and her words are so pungent that they cannot be even uttered here. This is very serious offence called Bhaagavata apachara (damaging the devotee). 3) She blamed Rama also while going to forest that Rama is a woman in the dress of a Man and also blamed Rama while staying in Lanka that Rama will go back to Ayodhya and marry several ladies for enjoyment. After living with Rama for so many years, should she comment like this? This is blaming God or Bhagavat apachara. Of all these three sins, second is very serious since God gives more importance to the devotee than to Himself. Sita is the incarnation of Mahalakshmi, who cannot go to hell for punishment of sins. She should go straight to the abode of God. That is possible only if she is punished in this world itself by the king (Rajabhirdhrutadandaastu... Ramayana). That was done by Rama in order to protect the dignity of His wife. If Rama is an ordinary human being, he could have protected his wife through impartial enquiry. But, Rama punished her for some other sins and appeared as if He punished her for the criticism from the public so that He left the message that public is God for a king. When the ideal is established in such extreme condition (which is the absence of enquiry), the latter rulers will follow the ideals at least in normal conditions. If the percentage of pass is 100/100, the student will get at least 60/100. The target should be always set at the highest level. We criticise God without analyzing deeply. When you criticize God, you must be patient for a while because it is the case of God and something exists in the background, which is not known to you at present.
2) To kill an innocent animal like deer for food, you are not a tiger or a lion staying in the natural forest following the natural set-up. At least, the tiger or lion is excused because it will never eat vegetarian food. You are a human being granted with sharp intelligence that does sharp analysis and you have the option of vegetarian food. You also eat the vegetarian food. If you kill an innocent animal like goat for your food, even though you have the option of the alternative vegetarian food, your attitude is proceeding in such a direction so that you will harm any innocent human being also for your enjoyment even though you have the alternative option for such enjoyment. This is more than sadism because a sadist enjoys by harming another person and he has no alternative person there for such enjoyment. If you analyze this subject through your sharp intelligence, you will find that the vegetarian food is far better than non-vegetarian food as per the medical science. The proteins extracted by you from the plants in your vegetarian food are primary and are very good for health. The proteins taken by the animals from plants are re-synthesized in the body of the animal and such proteins are secondary only. The secondary proteins are not good for health. Therefore, as a student of science, you should act in every step after doing scientific analysis only. Apart from this, consider the path of sympathy, kindness and human compassion on seeing the agony of the bird or animal just after cutting it. If you do not give any consideration to these values and be cruel only, neither you are fit to study the science nor fit to study the arts having human values. God came in human forms like Buddha and Mahaveera on this single programme only and preached the non-violence. Even though you do not participate in the killing of animal or bird, you become the due partner of the sin since the butcher is killing animals and birds to supply the mutton based on the demand of purchasers like you only. The scripture says that the non-violence is the highest justice (Ahimsaa paramo dharmah...). Even the plants have life but their mind is very primitive and hence the pain is very negligible compared to the birds, animals and human beings. Even in the case of plants, they are cut only after death, which ripens on losing the chlorophyll. Parvati was called as Aparna because she did not even pluck the green leaves for her food during her penance. The sin is not in the non-vegetarian food, which is as good as vegetarian food, if you analyze the constituents like the common carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals etc. The sin lies only in the pain experienced by the animal or the bird in its death. Think a while that you are in its position and then discuss the subject. There is no sin in eating a naturally dead animal and a sect of Hindus called as Kapalikas do this and are not found fault for this. The word ‘Maamsa’ or mutton is derived like this “As this fellow (sa) kills me (Maam) now, I will kill him in the next birth”. Based on this, you become the innocent goat and the innocent goat becomes the butcher in the next birth so that the pain is practically experienced by you.
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