Category:Animalism

Theme Analysis

Śrīla Prabhupāda defines animalism very simply: it is the mindset that life is meant only for eating, sleeping, mating, and dying. Animals perform these activities by instinct, but when human beings use their higher intelligence solely to improve these four bodily necessities, they are engaging in polished animalism. For example, instead of eating simple, natural food, a person in animalism uses their intelligence to create massive slaughterhouses to eat beef. Śrīla Prabhupāda argues that this is not an advancement of civilization; it is a severe misuse of the human brain.

A prominent theme in this category is the illusion of modern "freedom." Modern society equates freedom with throwing off all moral restrictions—leading to unregulated sex life, rampant divorce, and exploitation. Śrīla Prabhupāda forcefully points out that laws and regulations are what distinguish humans from animals. An animal roams free and mates without restriction; therefore, a human being demanding that same unrestricted freedom is simply crying out for animalism. True humanism means voluntarily following the laws of God and the regulations of civilized life (such as strict marriage or the vows of a brahmacari). Because the world has forgotten the real problem of life—the cycle of birth and death—dharmasya glanih (a deficiency in religion) has occurred, reducing society to a dangerous, animalistic state. Śrīla Prabhupāda concludes that the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is the only scientific, spiritual rescue mission capable of training people to rise from gross animalism back to genuine humanism and God consciousness.

• The Misuse of Intelligence: Using advanced human intelligence to simply invent better ways to eat, sleep, mate, and defend is not civilization; it is polished animalism.
• The Illusion of Freedom: Rejecting rules and regulations to pursue unrestricted sense gratification (like divorce and illicit sex) is not liberation or freedom; it is a regression to animal behavior.
• Exploitation vs. Humanism: Animalism means exploiting and killing others for one's own sense gratification, whereas true humanism means doing good for others and following divine laws.
• The Ultimate Cure: The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement was established specifically to save human society from the deep dangers of animalism by awakening pure God consciousness.

• Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Animalism - The Danger of Modern Materialism.