"'Yudhishthira said, "Thou hast told it many times that abstention from
injury is the highest religion. In Sraddhas, however, that are performed
in honour of the Pitris, persons for their own good should make offerings
of diverse kinds of meat. Thou hast said so while discoursing formerly
upon the ordinances in respect of Sraddhas. How can meat, however, be
procured without slaying a living creature? Thy declarations, therefore,
seem to me to be contradictory. A doubt has, therefore, arisen in our
mind respecting the duty of abstaining from meat. What are the faults
that one incurs by eating meat, and what are the merits that one wins?
What are the demerits of him who eats meat by himself killing a living
creature? What are the merits of him who eats the meat of animals killed
by others? What the merits and demerits of him who kills a living
creature for another? Or of him who eats meat buying it of others? I
desire, O sinless one, that thou shouldst discourse to me on this topic
in detail. I desire to ascertain this eternal religion with certainty.
How does one attain to longevity? How does one acquire strength? How does
one attain to faultlessness of limbs? Indeed, how does one become endued
with excellent indications?"
"'Bhishma said, "Listen to me, O scion of Kuru's race, what the merit is
that attaches to abstention from meat. Listen to me as I declare to thee
what the excellent ordinances, in truth, are on this head. Those
high-souled persons who desire beauty, faultlessness of limbs, long life,
understanding, mental and physical strength, and memory, should abstain
from acts of injury. On this topic, O scion of Kuru's race, innumerable
discourses took place between the Rishis. Listen, O Yudhishthira, what
their opinion was. The merit acquired by that person, O Yudhishthira,
who, with the steadiness of a vow, adores the deities every month in
horse-sacrifices, is equal to his who discards honey and meat. The seven
celestial Rishis, the Valakhilyas, and those Rishis who drink the rays of
the sun, endued with great wisdom, applaud abstention from meat. The
Self-born Manu has said that that man who does not eat meat, or who does
not slay living creatures, or who does not cause them to be slain, is a
friend of all creatures. Such a man is incapable of being oppressed by
any creature. He enjoys the confidence of all living beings. He always
enjoys, besides, the approbation and commendation of the righteous. The
righteous-souled Narada has said that that man who wishes to increase his
own flesh by eating the flesh of other creatures, meets with calamity.
Vrihaspati has said that that man who abstains from honey and meat
acquires the merit of gifts and sacrifices and penances. In my
estimation, these two persons are equal, viz., he who adores the deities
every month in a horse-sacrifice for a space of hundred years and he who
abstains from honey and meat. In consequence of abstention from meat one
comes to be regarded as one who always adores the deities in sacrifices,
or as one who always makes gifts to others, or as one who always
undergoes the severest austerities. That man who having eaten meat gives
it up afterwards, acquires merit by such an act that is so great that a
study of all the Vedas or a performance, O Bharata, of all the
sacrifices, cannot bestow its like. It is exceedingly difficult to give
up meat after one has become acquainted with its taste. Indeed, it is
exceedingly difficult for such a person to observe the high vow of
abstention from meat, a vow that assures every creature by dispelling all
fear. That learned person who giveth to all living creatures the Dakshina
of complete assurance comes to be regarded, without doubt, as the giver
of life-breaths in this world.[524] Even this is the high religion which
men of wisdom applaud. The life-breaths of other creatures are as dear to
them as those of one's to one's own self. Men endued with intelligence
and cleansed souls should always behave towards other creatures after the
manner of that behaviour which they like others to observe towards
themselves. It is seen that even those men who are possessed of learning
and who seek to achieve the highest good in the form of Emancipation, are
not free from the fear of death. What need there be said of those
innocent and healthy creatures endued with love of life, when they are
sought to be slain by sinful wretches subsisting by slaughter? For this
reason, O monarch, know that the discarding of meat is the highest refuge
of religion, of heaven, and of happiness. Abstention from injury is the
highest religion. It is, again, the highest penance. It is also the
highest truths from which all duty proceeds. Flesh cannot be had from
grass or wood or stone. Unless a living creature is slain, it cannot be
had. Hence is the fault in eating flesh. The deities who subsist upon
Swaha, Swadha, and nectar, are devoted to truth and sincerity. Those
persons, however, who are for gratifying the sensation of taste, should
be known as Rakshasas wedded to the attribute of Passion. That man who
abstains from meat, is never put in fear, O king, by any creature,
wherever he may be, viz., in terrible wildernesses or inaccessible
fastnesses, by day or by night, or at the two twilights, in the open
squares of towns or in assemblies of men, from upraised weapons or in
places where there is great fright from wild animals or snakes. All
creatures seek his protection. He is an object of confidence with all
creatures. He never causes any anxiety in others, and himself has never
to become anxious. If there were nobody who ate flesh there would then be
nobody to kill living creatures. The man who kills living creatures kills
them for the sake of the person who eats flesh. If flesh were regarded as
inedible, there would then be no slaughter of living creatures. It is for
the sake of the eater that the slaughter of living creatures goes on in
the world. Since, O thou of great splendour, the period of life is
shortened of persons who slaughter living creatures or cause them to be
slaughtered, it is clear that the person who wishes his own good should
give up meat entirely. Those fierce persons who are engaged in slaughter
of living creatures, never find protectors when they are in need. Such
persons should always be molested and persecuted even as beasts of prey.
Through cupidity or stupefaction of the understanding, for the sake of
strength and energy, or through association with the sinful, the
disposition manifests itself in men for sinning. That man who seeks to
increase his own flesh by (eating) the flesh of others, has to live in
this world in great anxiety and after death has to take birth in
indifferent races and families. High Rishis devoted to the observance of
vows and self-restraint have said that abstention from meat is worthy of
every praise, productive of fame and Heaven, and a great propitiation by
itself. This I heard in days of old, O son of Kunti, from Markandeya when
that Rishi discoursed on the demerits of eating flesh. He who eats the
flesh of animals that are desirous of living but that have been killed by
either himself or others, incurs the sin that attaches to the slaughter
for his act of cruelty. He who purchases flesh slays living
creatures through his wealth. He who eats flesh slays living creatures
through such act of eating. He who binds or seizes and actually kills
living creatures is the slaughterer. Those are the three kinds of
slaughter, each of these three acts being so. He who does not himself eat
flesh but approves of an act of slaughter becomes stained with the sin of
slaughter. By abstaining from meat and showing compassion to all
creatures one becomes incapable of being molested by any creature, and
acquires a long life, perfect health, and happiness. The merit that is
acquired by a person by abstaining from meat, we have heard, is superior
to that of one who makes presents of gold, of kine, and of land. One
should never eat meat of animals not dedicated in sacrifices and that
are, therefore, slain for nothing, and that has not been offered to the
gods and Pitris with the aid of the ordinances. There is not the
slightest doubt that a person by eating such meat goes to Hell. If one
eats the meat that has been sanctified in consequence of its having been
procured from animals dedicated in sacrifices and that have been slain
for the purpose of feeding Brahmanas, one incurs a little fault. By
behaving otherwise, one becomes stained with sin. That wretch among men
who slays living creatures for the sake of those who would eat them,
incurs great demerit. The eater's demerit is not so great. That wretch
among men who, following the path of religious rites and sacrifices laid
down in the Vedas, would kill a living creature from desire of eating its
flesh, would certainly become a resident of hell. That man who having
eaten flesh abstains from it afterwards, attains to great merit in
consequence of such abstention from sin. He who arranges for obtaining
flesh, he who approves of those arrangements, he who slays, he who buys
or sells, he who cooks, and he who eats, are all regarded as eaters of
flesh. I shall now cite another authority, depending upon that was
declared by the ordainer himself, and established in the Vedas. It has
been said that that religion which has acts for its indications has been
ordained for householders, O chief of kings, and not for those men who
are desirous of emancipation. Manu himself has said that meat which is
sanctified with mantras and properly dedicated, according to the
ordinances of the Vedas, in rites performed in honour of the Pitris, is
pure. All other meat falls under the class of what is obtained by useless
slaughter, and is, therefore, uneatable, and leads to Hell and infamy.
One should never eat, O chief of Bharata's race, like a Rakshasa, any
meat that has been obtained by means not sanctioned by the ordinance.
Indeed, one should never eat flesh obtained from useless slaughter and
that has not been sanctified by the ordinance. That man who wishes to
avoid calamity of every kind should abstain from the meat of every living
creature. It is heard that in the ancient Kalpa, persons, desirous of
attaining to regions of merit hereafter, performed sacrifices with seeds,
regarding such animals as dedicated by them. Filled with doubts
respecting the propriety of eating flesh, the Rishis asked Vasu the ruler
of the Chedis for solving them. King Vasu, knowing that flesh is
inedible, answered that is was edible, O monarch. From that moment Vasu
fell down from the firmament on the earth. After this he once more
repeated his opinion, with the result that he had to sink below the earth
for it. Desirous of benefiting all men, the high-souled Agastya, by the
aid of his penances, dedicated, once for all, all wild animals of the
deer species to the deities. Hence, there is no longer any necessity of
sanctifying those animals for offering them to the deities and the
Pitris. Served with flesh according to the ordinance, the Pitris become
gratified. Listen to me, O king of kings, as I tell thee this, O sinless
one. There is complete happiness in abstaining from meat, O monarch. He
that undergoes severe austerities for a hundred years and he that
abstains from meat, are both equal in point of merit. Even this is my
opinion, In the lighted fortnight of the month of Karttika in especial,
one should abstain from honey and meat. In this, it has been ordained,
there is great merit. He who abstains from meat for the four months of
the rains acquires the four valued blessings of achievements, longevity,
fame and might. He who abstains for the whole month of Karttika from meat
of every kind, transcends all kinds of woe and lives in complete
happiness. They who abstain from flesh by either months or fortnights at
a stretch have the region of Brahma ordained for them in consequence of
their abstention from cruelty. Many kings in ancient days, O son of
Pritha, who had constituted themselves the souls of all creatures and who
were conversant with the truths of all things, viz., Soul and Not-soul,
had abstained from flesh either for the whole of the month of Karttika or
for the whole of the lighted fortnight in that month. They were Nabhaga
and Amvarisha and the high-souled Gaya and Ayu and Anaranya and Dilipa
and Raghu and Puru and Kartavirya and Aniruddha and Nahusha and Yayati
and Nrigas and Vishwaksena and Sasavindu and Yuvanaswa and Sivi, the son
of Usinara, and Muchukunda and Mandhatri, and Harischandra. Do thou
always speak the truth. Never speak an untruth. Truth is an eternal duty.
It is by truth that Harischandra roves through heaven like a second
Chandramas. These other kings also, viz., Syenachitra, O monarch, and
Somaka and Vrika and Raivata and Rantideva and Vasu and Srinjaya, and
Dushmanta and Karushma and Rama and Alarka and Nala, and Virupaswa and
Nimi and Janaka of great intelligence, and Aila and Prithu and Virasena,
and Ikshvaku, and Sambhu, and Sweta, and Sagara, and Aja and Dhundhu and
Suvahu, and Haryaswa and Kshupa and Bharata, O monarch, did not eat flesh
for the month of Karttika and as the consequence thereof attained to
heaven, and endued with prosperity, blazed forth with effulgence in the
region of Brahman, adored by Gandharvas and surrounded by thousand
damsels of great beauty. Those high-souled men who practise this
excellent religion which is characterised by abstention from injury
succeed in attaining to a residence in heaven. These righteous men who,
from the time of birth, abstain from honey and meat and wine, are
regarded as Munis. That man who practises this religion consisting of
abstention from meat or who recites it for causing others to hear it,
will never have to go to hell even if he be exceedingly wicked in conduct
in other respects. He, O king, who (often-times) reads these ordinances
about abstention from meat, that are sacred and adored by the Rishis, or
hears it read, becomes cleansed of every sin and attains to great
felicity in consequence of the fruition of every wish. Without doubt, he
attains also to a position of eminence among kinsmen. When afflicted with
calamity, he readily transcends it. When obstructed with impediments, he
succeeds in freeing himself from them with the utmost ease. When ill with
disease, he becomes cured speedily, and afflicted with sorrow he becomes
liberated from it with greatest ease. Such a man has never to take birth
in the intermediate order of animals or birds. Born in the order of
humanity, he attains to great beauty of person. Endued with great
prosperity, O chief of Kuru's race, he acquires great fame as well. I
have thus told thee, O king, all that should be said on the subject of
abstention from meat, together with the ordinances respecting both the
religion of Pravritti and Nivritti as framed by the Rishis."'"