View source for It is not the question of vegetarian or nonvegetarian. It is the question of understanding higher standard of knowledge

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{{compiler|Labangalatika}}
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[[Category:It Is Not]]
[[Category:There Is No Question]]
[[Category:Vegetarian]]
[[Category:Nonvegetarian]]
[[Category:Question]]
[[Category:Understanding]]
[[Category:Higher]]
[[Category:Standards]]
[[Category:Knowledge]]
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Sri_Brahma-samhita_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="5" parent="Lectures" text="Sri Brahma-samhita Lectures"><h3>Sri Brahma-samhita Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonBrahmasamhitaVerse32NewYorkJuly261971_0" class="quote" parent="Sri_Brahma-samhita_Lectures" book="Lec" index="2" link="Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Verse 32 -- New York, July 26, 1971" link_text="Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Verse 32 -- New York, July 26, 1971">
<div class="heading">It is not the question of vegetarian or nonvegetarian. It is the question of understanding higher standard of knowledge. When one comes to the standard of high elevated knowledge, naturally he becomes vegetarian.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Verse 32 -- New York, July 26, 1971|Lecture on Brahma-samhita, Verse 32 -- New York, July 26, 1971]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Don't be frivolous. Don't waste your time. This is the greatest opportunity, human form of life. We have to understand all these things. They are mentioned in the authoritative books, Vedic knowledge. Just we are reading, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, before you. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī's recommending that prāyaścittaṁ vimarśanam. Real atonement is to be thoughtful, sober, think over... That is called meditation. You think over whether your body, or if you are something else, transcendental to body, what is God. So if you want to know all this knowledge, then you have to practice austerity, tapasya. And the beginning of tapasya is brahmacarya. I've explained yesterday: brahmacarya, celibacy, or restricted sex life. Not unrestricted. That's not good. Then you forget yourself. This material attraction is sex life. Not only human society—in animal society, in bird society, everywhere. You have seen the sparrows, the pigeons, they're having sex life three hundred times daily, you see, although they are very vegetarian. Yes. And the lion is not vegetarian, but it has got sex life only once in a year. So it is not the question of vegetarian or nonvegetarian. It is the question of understanding higher standard of knowledge. When one comes to the standard of high elevated knowledge, naturally he becomes vegetarian. Because paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ ([[Vanisource:BG 5.18|BG 5.18]]). Paṇḍita means one who is very highly learned, paṇḍita. Sama-darśinaḥ. Sama-darśinaḥ means he does not distinguish between a man, learned man...</p>
:vidyā-vinaya-sampanne
:brāhmaṇe gavi hastini
:śuni caiva śva-pāke ca
:paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ
:([[Vanisource:BG 5.18|BG 5.18]])
<p>A paṇḍita is sama-darśī. He sees equally, who? A very learned scholar, brāhmaṇa; and a elephant; and a dog; and a cow. How he's sama-darśī? How his vision is equal to all of them? Because he does not see the body; he sees the soul. Brahma-bhūtaḥ. He sees the Brahman, spark, that "Here is a dog, but it is also a living entity. By his past karma, he has become a dog. And here is a learned scholar. He's also living spark. But he has got this nice opportunity for his past karma." So he does not see the body. He sees the spirit soul, spark. So when one comes to that position, he does not make any distinction between this living entity to that living entity.</p>
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