– Anushil Munshi
From the time he was a young boy, Swami Lakshman Joo was opposed to eating meat. Once his mother tricked him by telling him that meat came from trees. Even then he rejected it. She was worried about him, like so many Kashmiri Brahmins, she believed that young boys needed to eat meat to remain healthy. Even though she tried in many ways to get him to eat meat, he always refused.
Throughout his life, Swamiji would never eat at anyone’s house unless they refrained from eating or cooking meat in the house for at least two weeks prior to his coming. This was a very strict rule from which he would not deviate.
Once I donated some money to purchase a sheep that was to be slaughtered and eaten at a celebratory dinner for a group of workers I employed. Swamiji found out about the purchase and subsequent slaughter of the sheep was deeply saddened by this event. Early, next morning he called me to his house. When I arrived, he was visibly agitated. He asked me, “Do you know what you have done by slaughtering this sheep? Last night when this sheep was slaughtered I felt its pain and anguish. It suffered so much that I remained awake throughout the night experiencing its pain. How could you cause this kind of pain and suffering to an innocent animal that had done nothing to you? You did all of this violent action only to satisfy the sense of taste. What a sin this is!” He then sent me away.
Swamiji was not unaware that a number of his Kashmiri devotees were non-vegetarian. Meat-eating had been widely accepted for generations in Kashmir. For their benefit, he gave the following talk at Shaiva Institute, Gupta Ganga, Srinagar, Kashmir, in 1980.
āhimsā means non-violence and is of two kinds, predominant and subtle. Subtle non-violence is that wherein the effects of one’s actions or words are taken into account. It is also violence if your words or actions harm another’s psyche, or cause anger or hatred in another. You should be humble and soft-spoken. You should discipline yourself to prohibit yourself from inflicting subtle pain, which though latent, is painful. Maintaining this subtle non-violence does not permit you to deal with others in a loud and shrill manner.
This subtle non-violence should be followed through strict discipline of the body, mind and soul. One who maintains this discipline of subtle non-violence in body, mind and soul, and is established in this discipline, influences all mutual enemies by his presence. For example, if a cat and a mouse are in the presence of such a person, though they are natural enemies and the tendency is for the cat to attack the mouse and for the mouse to attempt to escape, they both remain placid and harmless. The cat does not attack the mouse and the mouse does not run. This is the all-pervasive power of non-violence, which permeates these creatures in the presence of a person or spiritual aspirant who is established in the discipline of non-violence.
ahimsāpratiṣṭhyāyāṃ tatsannidhau viaratyāgaḥ
(Patañjalī: Yoga Sādhanā Pāda, verse 35)
‘No power on earth can make two mutual enemies enter into combat in the presence of he, who being established in subtle non-violence, does not harm anyone’.
Predominant non-violence is the shunning of that which is the worst of all violence, the killing of a living being, the taking of its life for the pleasure of eating it. There is no greater sin than this. To be really established in non-violence you must leave meat eating. You must shun it completely. It is a fact that the fruit of meditation can only be possessed by a pure soul.
All those involved in any way with the acts of killing, preparing and eating meat are equally guilty and equally depraved and criminal. Every aspect of the act is wrong. Even those who witness the act of killing or witness the act of eating meat are criminals. The butcher, the cooks, the final consumer, even the witness of any of these acts, are all sinners.
You may think that only the butcher who has actually slaughtered the animal is a sinner. You are wrong. Any person involved in any way is equally a sinner and a criminal in this most terrible, violent act of killing. Take one small piece of meat and you are just like the butcher himself. You both belong to the same class. Even if you are a vegetarian and do not oppose this act of extreme violence, do not deprecate this horrible act, you are a sinner judged to have committed the same crime.
yathāhyatanmayo.apyeti pātitāṃ taiḥ samāgamāt | (Abhinavagupta’s Tantrāloka 15:99)
‘Even if you are not a thief and yet you associate with thieves, you are also considered to be a thief’.
A person who is sociable with butchers, maintaining friendly contact with them, though he is a vegetarian, is also a sinner and receives punishment. So it is your duty not only to maintain a strict vegetarian lifestyle but also to loudly oppose the killing of animals and the taking of meat.
Yājñavalkya tells us in his smṛti that there are three ghastly crimes committed in the slaughtering of animals for the enjoyment of eating their flesh. These crimes are praharaṇa, pīḍā, and vīryākṣepa.
(a) Praharaṇa is the crime of taking life away from an animal, removing its life though it is innocent, though it has done nothing to deserve having its life taken away.
(b) Pīḍā is the crime of inflicting great pain on an animal while killing it.
(c) Vīryākṣepa is the crime of taking away its strength.
The scriptures have also indicated the punishment to be given to those guilty of committing these three crimes. Those who are guilty of committing the crime of praharaṇa, the crime of taking away life, shall be punished for twenty rebirths by having to experience in each rebirth premature death, dying in infancy or in early or middle life. These deaths are not peaceful. They are filled with pain and suffering.
The punishment for those guilty of the crime of pīḍā inflicting physical pain and agony is that for twenty lifetimes they themselves will undergo pain and torture. Their lives will be filled with disharmony and struggle. They will not experience peace of mind but will experience the torture of family feuds and the like.
For those guilty of the crime of vīryākṣepa, the taking of an animal’s strength through slaughtering it, the punishment is that they will experience for twenty lifetimes, lives which are devoid of strength or health. They will become void and wasted like the living dead. These are the punishments exacted for the three heinous crimes which accrue to one who eats meat. This is why we call meat māmsa: māṃ sa atti (‘he will eat me’).
māṃsa bhakṣayitāmutra yasya māmsamihādmyaham |
etanmāṃsasya māmsatvaṃ pravadanti manīṣiṇaḥ || (Manusmṛti 5:55)
‘Ancient sages teach us that whosoever flesh you eat in this world will eat you in the next world’.
This means that if you eat the flesh of an animal, that animal will not release you. He will follow you even to other worlds, he will chase you continuously, without break, not only for one lifetime but for twenty lifetimes. In these twenty lifetimes, you, who have eaten the flesh of this animal, will experience the punishments I have indicated. Manu in his Manusmṛti expresses an even stronger viewpoint. He says:
yāvanti paśulomāni tāvatkṛtvo ha māraṇam |
vṛthā paśughnaḥ prāpnoti pretya janmani janmani || (5:38)
‘Count the hairs of the animal you have killed and eaten and for that many lifetimes, you will be killed by that animal’.
He further says:
varṣe varṣe.aśvamedhena yo yajeta śataṃ samāḥ |
māṃsāni ca na khādedyat tayoḥ puṇyaphalaṃ samam || (5:53)
‘He who avoids meat-eating for his whole life receives the same meritorious fruit after death as he who adopts the aśvamedha yajña every year for one hundred years.
Can you understand? A person who performs aśvamedha sacrifice; a person who only does abstain from eating meat, is higher, sinless, more virtuous than he who performs the yearly aśvamedha sacrifice.
It is also said elsewhere in our Shaivism:
na vivāhe paśuṃ hanyānna cātmārthe kadācana |
yāgakāle ca na hanyāt neṣṭabandhusamāgame || (Jayaratha’s commentary of Tantrāloka 16:57b)
‘You should not kill animals at the time of marriage celebration, or for your own self-satisfaction, or in rituals, or in hosting your dear loved ones’.
You should not serve meat on marriage occasions, nor should you fool yourself into thinking that you must take meat for reasons of health. This is no reason. Why should you kill an innocent being, take its life, because of your disbelief and fear of death? It is better you die than try and preserve your own life by taking the life of an innocent being.
You may also say, “We have a problem and our priest, who is a well-read Pundit, has recommended that we sacrifice a sheep and this sacrifice will absolve us from any danger or fear’. I say that this is all nonsense, irrelevant and meaningless.
Even my father, who went to the Khrew shrine, worshipped there by offering the lungs of sheep. I would wonder at that time how on earth they thought that they would reach heaven at the cost of so much pain and suffering and loss of life and blood inflicted on an innocent and speechless lamb. Hence do not eat meat. This is real non-violence.
surā matsyā paśormāṃsaṃ dvijātīnāṃ balistathā |
dhūrtaiḥ pravartitaṃ yajñe naitadvedeṣu kathyate ||
‘Offerings of wine, fish, flesh of animals and birds, etc., at the sacred sacrifices, are introduced by the wicked hearted. These are not prescribed in the Vedas’.
The question sometimes arises as to why Swamiji was so vehemently against eating meat, when some of the ancient śāstras, particularly those of Kashmir Shaivism, ordain meat-eating. Also, it is well known that for centuries meat-eating has been common amongst Kashmiri Brahmins.
In answering this one has to understand that the ancient śāstrasa in general, and Abhinavagupta in particular, only condone the offering and partaking of meat in the context of special initiations (dīkṣā). Outside of that, both Abhinavagupta and the śāstras say that eating meat is a ‘great sin’. These initiations are highly sophisticated and can only be performed correctly by an enlightened master. To illustrate this point, not only is the gender of the animal to be considered, but also the number of previous incarnations in which this particular animal has already undergone the same process.
For Putraka initiation, only a male sheep is offered, not a female sheep. Female paśu is prohibited. And that sheep must be very strong, healthy, young; not an old male sheep. He must be young and healthy because he is being sentenced to god-consciousness.
parokṣe.api paśāvevaṃ vidhiḥ syādyojanaṃ prayi |
praveśito yāgabhuvi hatastatraiva sādhitaḥ |
cakrajuṣṭaśca tatraiva sa vīrapaśurucyate || (Tantrāloka 16:52)
‘In previous births also, this sacrifice has been done by this paśu. But the master has to see in his samādhi, that he is a vīrapaśu (heroic sheep). Then, when the vīrapaśu enters the maṇḍala, he is slaughtered there without any botheration. He does not cry, he does not jump, he does not want to move. He just welcomes this treatment’.
This elevating of the sheep is done through the subtle transfer of prāṇa, and this can only be done by an elevated master. Outside of this, the taking of meat for the purpose of sense gratification or taste is strictly prohibited. Hence the following verses which appear in Jayaratha’s commentary:
nahyagniṣṭomīyahiṃsā hiṃsaiva bhavati |
Agniṣṭomīya is the Vedic sacrifice where sheep are slaughtered, but that is not an act of butchery. This is a divine act that is not sin.
On the contrary,
na haṭhena paśuṃ hanyānnārtibhāve kadācana |
nacodeśena subhage yagapūrvaṃ vidhānavit ||
Such slaughter is allowed only on the occasion of Putraka Dīkṣā in the context of Kashmir Shaivism.
The three makāras: meat (māṃsa), wine (madya) and sex (maithuna) – give excitement to the individual. Those who use them freely in their daily life without undergoing the cycle of rituals according to the law and order of their masters are sentenced to a terrifying hell. These makāras are just to arouse excitement in that cycle of God-consciousness. You have to infuse that excitement in the cycle of God-consciousness, not in the cycle of individual consciousness, which is a sin.
When does a person become eligible to practice these makāras? After you have completed the course of āṇavopāya you are qualified, then you have the right to indulge in caryākrama, not before that. And then everything will be divine, there will be no right and no wrong. But still, outward behavior will remain the same, i.e., everybody will think he is quite normal.
Having accepted Abhinavagupta’s point on the sacredness of rituals, Jayaratha raises the question concerning the position of the sheep that is to be slaughtered.
‘Now we have accepted that paśu yāga (animal sacrifice) on this occasion is divine, but still, to cut the throat of a paśu on that occasion is always disliked by the sheep. He will not like it since cutting his throat is not a joke’.
To this objection, Abhinavagupta puts forth this answer:
‘This is a great blessing and great help that you cut his throat on this occasion. This is a great service to this paśu. No matter if he will not like it at the time of slaughtering, it will not be appreciated by that sheep’.
To clarify, Abhinavagupta gives the following example. When you are overwhelmed with some peculiar disease, the doctor prescribes a mixture and fasting; but fasting you don’t appreciate, the mixture also you don’t appreciate because it is not sweet, it is sour. But this is a great service to that diseased being. So this is a kind of drug we are giving the sheep, and this drug is a terrible mixture for getting rid of the disease of rebirths – birth and death, birth and death, in continuity.
Jayaratha then raises the following objection:
“If it is true that by cutting his throat he will be liberated, then what is the purpose, what is the sense, what is the meaning in initiation then? You just cut his throat and he will be liberated. Why undergo all these cycles of procedures of rituals, just cut his throat and he will be liberated’.
In answer to this objection, Abhinavagupta quotes from the śāstras:
‘In Mṛtyuñjaya Tantra (Netra Tantra), in the section of pāśaccheda it is said by Lord Shiva – when you cut the bindings of an individual to liberate him from repeated births and deaths, at that precious moment, āṇava, māyīya, and kārma malas are also removed along with his body. So, he will not come into this wretched cycle of existence again, he will not be born again – because when both good and bad karma are exhausted, then there is no question of birth again. So this is not slaughtering the sheep, we are initiating the sheep, this is one way of dīkṣā.’
And this is a kind of initiation for duffers who cannot understand. For instance, if I teach a sheep to breathe in and out, in and out, and watch the center of this cycle, will he understand? So, this is the way to teach him. Gross slaughtering is when you simply cut the throat of a sheep, or any being – in this case, āṇava, māyīya, and kārma mala are still there, you commit sin there.
But when you cut the throat and there are no malas left, that is initiation, that is upliftment, that is divine way of initiation. This is where you sentence him to higher worlds, higher elevated cycles of the universe.
Now Abhinavagupta says that the master has to understand in which incarnation the sheep is residing.
‘When he is initially slaughtered and offered through Havana, then he has again come back in birth and six times he is offered. That sheep, in the sixth cycle of his birth, is called ṣadjanmā. And adepts can calculate and understand through meditation that this paśu who is grazing grass is ṣadjanmā paśu, and that is called vīrapaśu’.
Once again it is emphasized that the fate of this vīrapaśu is liberation.
There are questions raised about the use of meat, onions, and garlic, the bliss-producing substances that are considered to be among the twelve jewels of Kula system. They give rise to ānanda only when there is a possibility of the rise of kuṇḍalinī. When during the sexual act the rise of kuṇḍalinī takes place, then that vīrya is not lost. These substances give fire to vīrya because of too much heat, and an ordinary person cannot maintain that fire inside – so the vīrya will be gone, it will ooze out. It is why this is the first way of initiation to avoid meat-eating and onions and all these heat-producing things. But in the case of a Siddha or a Yoginī, that vīrya will not be lost because it will produce the rise of kuṇḍalinī.
Some may ask – when one does Tantric practice or sexual practice, or eating meat, or all those forbidden acts, for the sake of God, don’t they all become divine? Swamiji says, they all become divine, but you should think if you are adopting it correctly? If you have just the slightest leakage of love, then it’s finished!
To his devotees, especially those who were serious about spiritual practice, Swamiji emphasized the value of being a pure vegetarian. He shunned the belief of his own community that meat-eating made no difference on the path to enlightenment. As a master who had experienced the most profound level of spiritual attainment which includes all the various manifestations of kuṇḍalinī, from individual prāṇa kuṇḍalinī to universal parā kuṇḍalinī, Swamiji clearly understood the ramifications of all actions that would affect one’s spiritual progress, both in this life and in lives to come.
In the 15th āhnīka of Tantrāloka, Abhinavagupta mentions various types of initiations (dīkṣa) for different disciples. With reference to sabīja dīkṣā, Swamiji explained the necessity of adherence to rules (niyamas) and regulation (yamas) of the śāstras.
Sabīja dīkṣā is for the disciple who wants to become a master or teacher and elevate others. But he has to be cautious in the span of his lifetime not to commit any wrong. If he at all commits anything wrong during his lifetime, he will be punished. He may be a master, he may be a master’s master, but he will be punished by Lord śiva. So, he has to follow the rules and regulations of śāstras.
dehatyāge sabījāyāṃ karmābhāvādvipadyate |
samayācārapāśaṃ tu dīkṣitaḥ pālayet sadā ||
‘The one who is initiated into the cycle of sabīja dīkṣā, he has to adhere to samayācāra pāśa, a kind of binding to tread on the path of discipline. Telling truth etc., and other yamas and niyamas – he has to observe and see that there is no transgression of any kind during his lifetime. If during his lifetime he commits some mistake, he becomes the recipient of misfortune and for some period he has to face that misfortune’.
‘O Pārvatī, if there is a transgression in the world of his discipline during his lifetime, then after death he will become such a creature that he will have to eat only raw meat for hundred years, just like eagles and vultures’.
Swamiji never performed any rituals involving the killing of animals in his entire life. He stated that there were no priests today who knew how to perform these rituals perfectly. In the 15th āhnīka of Tantrāloka, Abhinavagupta clearly states that such rituals were to be performed by an elevated master and only for the sake of those disciples who were not able to experience the benefits of the practices of āṇavopaya. Swamiji referred to these humorously as ‘duffer disciples’.