| Discourses On Gita By Acharya Vinoba Bhave |
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| Discourses On Gita |
| A SUPPLEMENT - THE CONFLICT BETWEEN DIVINE AND DEMONIC TENDENCIES |
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later on, yajna became common and whoever felt like it
performed a sacrifice and ate the meat. Then Lord Buddha went a step
further. He said, "If you want to eat meat, eat it. But don't
bring the name of God into it." The aim of both these
statements is the same, that violence should be controlled, that
somehow people should be drawn into the path of self-control. Both
from the performance of yajnas and from non-performance of
them, we learnt to give up meat. Thus, little by little, we gave up
eating meat.
14. In the history of the world it is only in India that this great experiment has been attempted. Millions of people here have given up meat-eating. If today we do not eat meat, it is no mark of our greatness. Because of the merit of our ancestors, we have got used to this. Why, we are surprised when we hear or read that the rishis of old ate meat. We say, "What nonsense! How could rishis eat meat? It's impossible." On the other hand, their greatness is that, though used to taking meat, they had self-control enough to give it up. We do not have to go through all that trouble now. We have, without effort on our part, inherited their virtues. The fact that they ate meat in ancient times, and that we don't do so now, does not mean that we are better than they. The fruit of their experience has come to us easily. We should now progress further. We should make an effort to give up even milk altogether. It is degrading of man to drink the milk of other animals. Ten thousand years hence the men of the future will say of us, "Why did our ancestors have to take a solemn vow not to drink milk? Ram! Ram! How could they bring themselves to drink milk? Were they such savages?" We should fearlessly and humbly make experiments and progress steadily. The true of truth should throw out new branches. There is plenty of room for development. No quality has yet evolved to its fullness. |
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