| Discourses On Gita By Acharya Vinoba Bhave |
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| Discourses On Gita |
| A SUPPLEMENT - THE CONFLICT BETWEEN DIVINE AND DEMONIC TENDENCIES |
A great experiment in ahimsa : giving up meat-eating13. Till now we saw one aspect of ahimsa, how a non-violent man defends himself against the attacks of the violent, how ahimsa has evolved in the struggle between individuals. But there is also a conflict between man and animal. Man has not yet been able to put an end to conflict between human beings, and he lives by filling his stomach with the flesh of animals.Men cannot stop fighting with one another even now, nor can they live without eating helpless lower animals which also live. Man cannot yet live like a man. Though he has existed for thousands of years, he has not yet learnt how to live. But, now, even in this matter there is progress. Probably, the aboriginal man must have been Vegetarian, but later on due to perverse thinking, most of the mankind took to eating meat. But even then those who were more intelligent, the nobler ones, did not like this. They laid down a restriction that if they had to eat meat, they would eat only the flesh of animals offered in sacrifice. The intention behind this was to limit violence. Many people gave up meat altogether; but those who could not do so were permitted to offer it to the Lord in sacrifice, do a little penance, and then eat it. It was thought then that, as a result of the condition that one could only eat meat in a yajna, a sacrifice, violence would be controlled. |
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