View source for Just like in the desert, Arabian Desert, there is no food, no grain, for them animal-eating may be permissible. Because after all, we have to live. That is a different thing

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{{terms|"animal eaters"|"animal-eating"|"desert"|"eat meat"|"kill some animal and eat"|"meat-eating"}}
{{notes|VedaBase research query: "desert animal"@10 or "desert meat"@10}}
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[[Category:Just Like]]
[[Category:Desert (noun)]]
[[Category:Arabic]]
[[Category:There Is Not]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Grains]]
[[Category:Animal-eating]]
[[Category:May Be]]
[[Category:Permit]]
[[Category:Because]]
[[Category:After All]]
[[Category:We Have To]]
[[Category:Live]]
[[Category:That Is]]
[[Category:Different]]
[[Category:Thing]]
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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="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="1" parent="Lectures" text="Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures"><h3>Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonSB2911TokyoApril271972_0" class="quote" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" book="Lec" index="412" link="Lecture on SB 2.9.11 -- Tokyo, April 27, 1972" link_text="Lecture on SB 2.9.11 -- Tokyo, April 27, 1972">
<div class="heading">Just like in Arabian desert, they were animal eaters. What is growing there? So if in Jerusalem, if they have eaten flesh, so that is not their fault. Jesus Christ might have allowed: "All right." But why in other places where there are so many nice foodstuff?
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on SB 2.9.11 -- Tokyo, April 27, 1972|Lecture on SB 2.9.11 -- Tokyo, April 27, 1972]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">The human civilization is deteriorating. In the name of advancement of civilization, they are becoming animals simply. And the more the age of Kali-yuga will increase, these things will also increase more and more, more and more. Later on, you won't get foodstuff. You will be obliged to kill some animal and eat. Now you have got alternative. But we are becoming very much fond of animals, so Kṛṣṇa will, or nature will make some arrangement that you cannot eat except animals. That day will come. You cannot eat, even if you do not like. Nobody will say, "I don't like." Everyone will like. So there will be no supply of wheat, no supply of rice, no supply of sugar, no supply of fruit. These things will be stopped. No supply of milk. These are stated. You won't get. Then naturally... Just like in Arabian desert, they were animal eaters. What is growing there? So if in Jerusalem, if they have eaten flesh, so that is not their fault. Jesus Christ might have allowed: "All right." But why in other places where there are so many nice foodstuff? What is the reason?</p>
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<div id="LectureonSB551LosAngelesJanuary201969_1" class="quote" parent="Srimad-Bhagavatam_Lectures" book="Lec" index="511" link="Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Los Angeles, January 20, 1969" link_text="Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Los Angeles, January 20, 1969">
<div class="heading">Like Arabia, simply desert, sand. So for them, they can kill some animal and eat, because they cannot die for want of food. But here, in America, you have got sufficient foodstuff. Why should you kill animals?
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Los Angeles, January 20, 1969|Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- Los Angeles, January 20, 1969]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye ([[Vanisource:SB 5.5.1|SB 5.5.1]]). Viḍ-bhujam, a animal who eats stool, viḍ-bhujam. That means the hog. The hog is also an animal, a living entity, and you'll find that it is working whole day, wherever there is stool, simply searching out. Research work—where there is stool. Because he has been made into that abominable condition of life that he is eating stool, he, still... Like Arabia, simply desert, sand. So for them, they can kill some animal and eat, because they cannot die for want of food. But here, in America, you have got sufficient foodstuff. Why should you kill animals? You have got sufficient grains, sufficient fruit, sufficient milk, and is it very nice thing that you take milk from the cow, who is your mother, and kill at the same time? Is that very good reason?</p>
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<div id="General_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="11" parent="Lectures" text="General Lectures"><h3>General Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureEngagementandPrasadaDistributionBostonApril261969_0" class="quote" parent="General_Lectures" book="Lec" index="49" link="Lecture Engagement and Prasada Distribution -- Boston, April 26, 1969" link_text="Lecture Engagement and Prasada Distribution -- Boston, April 26, 1969">
<div class="heading">Just like in the desert, Arabian Desert, there is no food, no grain, for them animal-eating may be permissible. Because after all, we have to live. That is a different thing. But when you have got very nice foodstuff, and a very nutritious, palatable, sweet, why should you indulge in this unnecessary killing of animals? That is, will go against your purification.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture Engagement and Prasada Distribution -- Boston, April 26, 1969|Lecture Engagement and Prasada Distribution -- Boston, April 26, 1969]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Guest (6): Can you explain the reason why yogis don't eat meat?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Hm?</p>
<p>Guest (2): Why shouldn't they eat meat?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Meat-eating, and if you believe in Bhagavad-gītā, is not the..., against the, our purificatory process. You cannot kindle fire, at the same time add water on it. If you want to kindle fire, then you have to keep that place very dry and fan it. Similarly, there are rules and regulations. Out of that rules and regulation is jīva-hiṁsā. Jīva-hiṁsā means unnecessary killing of animals. Now, if you have got sufficient foodstuff—a state I see in America... You have got sufficient grains, sufficient fruits, sufficient milk, milk products. Then if you can live on these things which are meant for human beings, why should you kill animals unnecessarily? If there is no alternative, that you cannot live... Just like in the desert, Arabian Desert, there is no food, no grain, for them animal-eating may be permissible. Because after all, we have to live. That is a different thing. But when you have got very nice foodstuff, and a very nutritious, palatable, sweet, why should you indulge in this unnecessary killing of animals? That is, will go against your purification. Therefore it is prohibited.</p>
<p>Guest (6): Is the unnecessary killing of animals part of, say, in relation to the incarnation, evolution to manual(?) forms. The objection to doing it is...?</p>
<p>Satsvarūpa: Is the objection to eating meat based on transmigration from animal to man?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No, animal can eat... The tiger, he is... By nature, he does not eat food or grain. He simply eats animals. So he can do that.</p>
<p>Guest (2): No, he was saying is the relationship, is the reason why we're not eating meat due to the fact that once we were animals and now we've progressed to human nature, to human form? Does that have any relationship?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. The nature is that everyone should eat another animal or another living creature for existence. That is the law of nature. Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam: "One living entity is the life of another living entity." That is a fact. Just like sahastānām ahastānam.  Those who have got hands—that means men—for them, ahastāni, means the animals who have got no hands. And apadānanaṁ catuṣ-padām: "And the four-legged animals, they eat the grass, who cannot move." So grass has got life, as the animal has got life. We have got life. So this is... Nūnaṁ mahatāṁ tatra: "The strong is eating the weak." So this is the law of nature. We are eating the grains and fruits. They have got also life. It is not that those who are vegetarians, or eating grains and fruit, they are not eating life. They are also eating life. But the bhakti-yoga process is that, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, that the devotees, they take prasādam. We have got arrangement of distributing prasādam in every Sunday. Prasādam means the foodstuff which is offered to Kṛṣṇa and then you take. So what Kṛṣṇa wants, that is also stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati ([[Vanisource:BG 9.26|BG 9.26]]). Therefore we are not propagating the philosophy of ahiṁsā, or nonviolence, because in some way or other, there is violence, either you take fruit or grain or animal. But the principle is that you have to take prasādam, the foodstuff which is offered to Kṛṣṇa, and then eat. So these things, fruits, grains, are accepted by Kṛṣṇa. We offer to Kṛṣṇa and then eat them. This is the philosophy.</p>
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<div id="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="section" sec_index="5" parent="compilation" text="Conversations and Morning Walks"><h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
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<div id="1975_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="8" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1975 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1975 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="MorningWalkMay71975Perth_0" class="quote" parent="1975_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="60" link="Morning Walk -- May 7, 1975, Perth" link_text="Morning Walk -- May 7, 1975, Perth">
<div class="heading">They spoke in the desert. What will they eat? But you are not in the desert. Meat-eating is a crude form of eating when people are uncivilized. When there is no other food, you cannot produce. But when you are civilized, when you learn how to produce other foods, why would you eat meat?
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Morning Walk -- May 7, 1975, Perth|Morning Walk -- May 7, 1975, Perth]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Paramahaṁsa: But not all of us are Christians. Some of us are Muslims, and in the Koran Mohammed says that eating meat is all right. In fact it is required to be a good Muslim, to eat meat.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: They spoke in the desert. What will they eat? But you are not in the desert. Meat-eating is a crude form of eating when people are uncivilized. When there is no other food, you cannot produce. But when you are civilized, when you learn how to produce other foods, why would you eat meat? How are you civilized?</p>
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<div id="1976_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="9" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1976 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1976 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="MorningWalkandRoomConversationAugust91976Tehran_0" class="quote" parent="1976_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="252" link="Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran" link_text="Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran">
<div class="heading">All this Middle East, desert. So they can be allowed to eat meat. Otherwise, what they'll eat? So everyone must eat something. So if there is no vegetation, if there is no sufficient, they can be allowed.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran|Morning Walk and Room Conversation -- August 9, 1976, Tehran]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Parivrājakācārya: You cannot get nim in Iran. I have never seen a nim tree in Iran.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No tree. In the desert, where is tree? All desert. All this Middle East, desert. So they can be allowed to eat meat. Otherwise, what they'll eat? So everyone must eat something. So if there is no vegetation, if there is no sufficient, they can be allowed.</p>
<p>Parivrājakācārya: I visited some of these small villages in the south of Iran, and the tents of nomads who kept sheep, that was their life. They had a tent and they had hundreds of sheep, and they would move the tent every month. They would take the tent, for one month they would live here, next month they would move.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Why they're changing?</p>
<p>Parivrājakācārya: Because they're desert people. The sheep eat all the little green, and then they have to move on.</p>
<p>Pradyumna: Same thing as the Bible. When the sheep eat up all the green in that place, then they have to go to another place with their sheep. In the Bible the same thing. All that Abraham, Joseph...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Bible was produced here, in this desert. Jerusalem is not far away. Mecca, (indistinct), Arabia.</p>
<p>Parivrājakācārya: All they had to eat was the milk of sheep and goats and sometimes when they would camp near a farm they would have vegetables. Sometimes. And then the meat of the sheep.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: And these dates. In the desert the date tree grows. Sometimes they eat camel also. Do they not?</p>
<p>Parivrājakācārya: Yes. But I don't think if they...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: They cannot be strictly vegetarian; it is not possible.</p>
<p>Parivrājakācārya: It is difficult.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: But even they eat meat they can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, there is no harm.</p>
<p>Parivrājakācārya: But now they are farming in the desert. The Iranian government has started farms. They are irrigating the land with water, and when they put water on the desert they get all kinds of vegetables and grains very easily. So if they do that then they can become vege... They have no excuse. The excuse of the people is that "We have to eat meat."</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: They can have rains from the sky by chanting. The rain will fall from the sky. Who can check it? Kṛṣṇa gives the water from the sky. Yajñād bhavati parjanyaḥ ([[Vanisource:BG 3.14|BG 3.14]]).</p>
<p>Parivrājakācārya: They say in the books that this area used to be all forest with many, many trees two to three thousand years ago. It was a very thick forest. But since then it has become desert, the rain has stopped since then.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Because the yajña stopped.</p>
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