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Individual and social consequences of animal-killing

Śrīla Prabhupāda sends a warning to the world: as long as human societies allow animals to be killed unrestrictedly, there will certainly be serious consequences.

The law punishes. If you kill someone, if you commit murder, then you will be punished. This is punishable. But because it is man-made law, therefore it is defective. A man is a living entity, and a cow is also a living entity. Why this discrimination, that if a man is murdered or killed, that murderer must be punished? But that law is not permissible in God's law. In God's law, either you kill a man or you kill an ant, you are punishable.

Śrīla Prabhupāda speaks of consequences on both the individual and societal levels, showing how the practice of violence against animals actually harms human beings as much as it harms the animals being abused.

Animal-killing and karma

Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches that human beings shape their future lives through their desires and actions of the present. Referencing statements and examples given in the Vedic literature, he shows how unnecessary killing or violence toward animals - whether committed directly or indirectly, as in the case of meat-eating - condemns its perpetrators to future suffering. This section will present the various ways in which Śrīla Prabhupāda discussed the karmic consequences of animal-killing.

Accountability for actions

Śrīla Prabhupāda's first lesson is that when an animal dies at the hands of a human being, that person is held accountable according to the laws of God and nature. Regarding human responsibility, Śrīla Prabhupāda writes:

Although a tiger is not sinful if he attacks another animal and eats its flesh, if a man with developed consciousness does so, he must be punished. In other words, a human being who does not use his developed consciousness but instead acts like an animal surely undergoes punishment in many different hells.

This accountability, he says, encompasses both direct and indirect involvement in the killing. Śrīla Prabhupāda describes how the scope of natural law is reflected in Manu-saṁhitā, the Vedic law book for mankind.

According to Manu, the great author of civic codes and religious principles, even the killer of an animal is to be considered a murderer because animal food is never meant for the civilized man, whose prime duty is to prepare himself for going back to Godhead. He says that in the act of killing an animal, there is a regular conspiracy by the party of sinners, and all of them are liable to be punished as murderers exactly like a party of conspirators who kill a human being combinedly. He who gives permission, he who kills the animal, he who sells the slaughtered animal, he who cooks the animal, he who administers distribution of the foodstuff, and at last he who eats such cooked animal food are all murderers, and all of them are liable to be punished by the laws of nature. No one can create a living being despite all advancement of material science, and therefore no one has the right to kill a living being by one's independent whims. For the animal-eaters, the scriptures have sanctioned restricted animal sacrifices only, and such sanctions are there just to restrict the opening of slaughterhouses and not to encourage animal-killing.

Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the Vedas prescribe regulations and processes for animal sacrifice to educate and protect the ignorant.

They are thinking that "We are not going to slaughterhouse to kill. They kill; we purchase." The Buddhist says like that. Everyone says like that. Therefore, according to Vedic scripture, those animal-eaters, they should kill them personally so that they can see how much suffering is there, so he will stop. But now the things are being done in the slaughterhouse. They do not see. They purchase very nicely packed. They do not know. And they are becoming implicated. Therefore, according to Vedic injunction, if you want to eat meat, you kill yourself in your front, in the front of goddess Kālī.

The idea is that ultimately, when one understands how he is accountable, he will cease to commit offenses.

In the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī explains that a man becomes sinful out of ignorance only. The resultant effect of sinful life is suffering. Those who are not in knowledge, who commit violations of the standard laws, are subject to be punished under criminal laws. Similarly, the laws of nature are very stringent. If a child touches fire without knowing the effect, he must be burned, even though he is only a child. If a child violates the law of nature, there is no compassion. Only through ignorance does a person violate the laws of nature, and when he comes to knowledge he does not commit any more sinful acts.

Animal bodies for animal mentalities

Śrīla Prabhupāda writes:

Men must be intelligent to realize the importance of human life and refuse to act like ordinary animals... Animals can kill other living animals, and there is no question of sin on their part, but if a man kills an animal for the satisfaction of his uncontrolled taste, he must be responsible for breaking the laws of nature.

Put simply, he says that animal-killing is for animals, not human beings. Furthermore, Śrīla Prabhupāda states that human beings who support the killing of animals are essentially animals themselves by dint of their mentality and behavior. Regarding animal-killing for food, he once said: "They are animal, those who are eating another animal; they are not human being. Although they have got the form of human being, they are not considered human being." In the general sense, he gives this analogy:

If a cat and dog becomes nicely dressed, that does not mean he becomes a human being. He is cat and dog. Similarly, if we keep our mentality like cats and dog and outwardly we dress very nicely, they have been described as dvi-pada-paśuḥ, "two-legged animal."

Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches that according to the laws of karma and transmigration of the soul, human beings shape their future lives through their mentality and actions. He reveals the implication or these laws for those who behave on the level of animals:

If my activities are lower-grade like animals, then I will have to take birth in the animal family. That is force. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur deha upapattaye (SB 3.31.1). We develop a certain type of body according to our karma.

In this way, he explains, one who eats meat can look forward to being awarded with an animal body in subsequent births.

Everything is food, but the human being has got an allotted foodstuff by the Supreme Lord. Eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān. That Supreme Personality of Godhead is supplying everyone foodstuff. But not that the dogs' and hogs' foodstuff is the same for the human kind, no. Tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā (ISO 1). You should enjoy as it is allotted by the Supreme Lord. So if we transgress this law... Our constitutional position, anatomical fittings, is to eat fruit, vegetable, rice, wheat, milk or milk product. This is our constitutional position. But if we imitate the cats and dog, without any discrimination, if we eat, then my next body is ready, the hog's body or the dog's body. This is natural law. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu (ISO 1). As you associate with different types of material modes of nature, then you get the next body accordingly.

For meat-eaters, the best-case scenario Śrīla Prabhupāda gives is that of the bali-dāna sacrifice described previously in this article. Yet even when one follows this procedure, he must pay a price for the life he is taking. Śrīla Prabhupāda notes how the karmic cost of meat-eating is expressed in the very word for "meat" in Sanskrit, māṁsa.

By killing animals, not only will we be bereft of the human form but we will have to take an animal form and somehow or other be killed by the same type of animal we have killed. This is the law of nature. The Sanskrit word māṁsa means "meat." It is said, māṁ saḥ khadati iti māṁsaḥ. That is, "I am now eating the flesh of an animal who will some day in the future be eating my flesh."

Thus the person who kills an animal for meat must, in a future life, accept the body of an animal to be killed for meat. In any event, Śrīla Prabhupāda assures us, God and nature can certainly provide meat-eaters with a body in their next life to better suit their gustatory desires.

Cardinal Danielou: But, why, why, why God make some animals who eat other animals? There is a fault in the creation because... It is a fault in the creation?

Prabhupāda: No. The God is very kind. If you want to eat animals, then He'll give facility, good facility. Just like tiger. You become tiger, and eat animals. Those who are animal eaters, unrestrictedly, God will give him the body of a tiger next life so that he can very freely eat. "Why you maintain slaughterhouse? I give you nails and jaws. Just eat." So they are waiting that life.

Equal and opposite reaction

Śrīla Prabhupāda posed the question in one lecture:

Why these animals are being slaughtered? There is some nature's law. They were murderer or slaughterer in their past life as human being. Now they have assumed, they have accepted a body to be slaughtered by the laws of nature.

The law of karma (action and reaction) has a purpose, as Śrīla Prabhupāda explains: "Unless one comes to the platform of actual experience, one cannot realize what is pain and what is happiness in this material world. The laws of nature act accordingly." Along these lines, Śrīla Prabhupāda instructs through his scriptural translations, commentaries and conversational exchanges that anyone who is involved in an act of violence against any living entity is bound to suffer reaction according to the nature of the offense.

Consequences after death

The fifth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam specifically cites several offenses against animals along with the hellish suffering that awaits the perpetrators. Chapter 26 (verse 24) directly condemns recreational hunting; in verse 32, the text condemns those who offer shelter to animals but then abuse them under the pretense of protection. Furthermore, verse 34 suggests the kind of activity carried on in present-day commercial agriculture along with its punishment:

Those who in this life confine other living entities in dark wells, granaries or mountain caves are put after death into the hell known as Avaṭa-nirodhana. There they themselves are pushed into dark wells, where poisonous fumes and smoke suffocate them and they suffer very severely.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (5.26.17) declares that even the lowest of insects should not be subjected to violence. It also makes the point that the human being, having a higher level of awareness, is held accountable for violent acts in a way that lower animals are not. Śrīla Prabhupāda translates:

By the arrangement of the Supreme Lord, low-grade living beings like bugs and mosquitoes suck the blood of human beings and other animals. Such insignificant creatures are unaware that their bites are painful to the human being. However, first-class human beings—brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas and vaiśyas—are developed in consciousness, and therefore they know how painful it is to be killed. A human being endowed with knowledge certainly commits sin if he kills or torments insignificant creatures, who have no discrimination. The Supreme Lord punishes such a man by putting him into the hell known as Andhakūpa, where he is attacked by all the birds and beasts, reptiles, mosquitoes, lice, worms, flies, and any other creatures he tormented during his life. They attack him from all sides, robbing him of the pleasure of sleep. Unable to rest, he constantly wanders about in the darkness. Thus in Andhakūpa his suffering is just like that of a creature in the lower species.

More examples of punishment for abuse of animals can be found in Śrīla Prabhupāda's translations of scriptural narratives. One is the case of King Prācīnabarhiṣat, a monarch from ancient Vedic times who was engaging in large-scale animal sacrifices for the sake of material advancement. He was advised by the sage Nārada Muni to give up this path of fruitive activity and warned in particular of the reaction awaiting him for the sacrifice of so many animals. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam reads:

The great saint Nārada said: O ruler of the citizens, my dear King, please see in the sky those animals which you have sacrificed without compassion and without mercy in the sacrificial arena. All these animals are awaiting your death so that they can avenge the injuries you have inflicted upon them. After you die, they will angrily pierce your body with iron horns.

Śrīla Prabhupāda stresses that accountability for cruelty to animals is very strict, as the laws of nature excuse no one from responsibility. He illustrates this through an incident from the life of the sage Maṇḍūka Muni. Maṇḍūka, who had been known to be a saintly person, was brought at the time of his death to the court of Yamarāja, the demigod who judges and punishes sinful persons upon the termination of their lives. To Maṇḍūka’s great surprise – and pain – he found himself sentenced to a horrible punishment for an act he had committed as a child. Śrīla Prabhupāda continues:

So the muni asked Yamarāja that "Why you have put me into this tribulation, this punishment? What is my fault?" The Yamarāja explained that "In your childhood you pierced with a nail through the rectum of an ant. Therefore you must be punished like this." Just see. In childhood playing he pierced. Sometimes we have seen, the children do that. That is also counted. You cannot do any harm to any animal, any living being.

Warning to killers and abusers

Another instructive narrative that Śrīla Prabhupāda references is the story of a hunter named Mṛgāri. Mṛgāri pointedly practiced his trade by fatally wounding his victims and letting them suffer in a half-killed state before they died. In the following lecture excerpt, Śrīla Prabhupāda introduces the story, where the sage Nārada Muni encounters Mṛgāri in the forest:

There is a story that one hunter, he was killing in the forest all kinds of animals and he was killing them half. So they were suffering too much severe pain. So Nārada Muni was going in that way. He saw that these animals have been half killed, and they are so much suffering. Who is doing that? So he searched out the hunter. He requested, "Sir you are killing the animals, why don't you kill them all at a time? Why you are killing half? They are suffering. You'll have to suffer in that way." The hunter did not know that killing animals is sinful and he has to suffer again. So he said, "Sir, I am trained like this by my father. This is my profession. I do not know what is sin, but this is the first time I am hearing from you that killing this animal, especially in this way, is very much sinful."

Nārada Muni warned Mṛgāri: "My dear hunter, your business is killing animals. That is a slight offense on your part. But when you consciously give them unnecessary pain by leaving them half-dead, you incur very great sins. All the animals that you have killed and given unnecessary pain will kill you one after the other in your next life and in life after life." Mṛgāri took heed of Nārada Muni’s words. Eager to avoid punishment, Mṛgāri surrendered to the sage's instruction, thereby giving up his cruel behavior and indeed his hunting profession altogether. Mṛgāri's reformation was so great that he came to be known as a first-class saintly man.

Śrīla Prabhupāda extends Nārada’s instruction in his commentary, in which he compares the offenses of Mṛgāri to that of modern slaughterhouse operators. Here he also refers to another story from śāstra in which a hunter is advised, "Don’t live, don’t die." The purport: killers and tormentors of animals are bound to suffer in this life and the next.

If one gives another living entity unnecessary pain, one will certainly be punished by the laws of nature with a similar pain. Although the hunter Mṛgāri was uncivilized, he still had to suffer the results of his sinful activities. However, if a civilized man kills animals regularly in a slaughterhouse to maintain his so-called civilization, using scientific methods and machines to kill animals, one cannot even estimate the suffering awaiting him. So-called civilized people consider themselves very advanced in education, but they do not know about the stringent laws of nature. According to nature’s law, it is a life for a life. We can hardly imagine the sufferings of one who maintains a slaughterhouse. He endures suffering not only in this life, but in his next life also. It is said that a hunter, murderer or killer is advised not to live and not to die. If he lives, he accumulates even more sins, which bring about more suffering in a future life. He is advised not to die because his dying means that he immediately begins to endure more suffering. Therefore he is advised not to live and not to die.

Śrīla Prabhupāda summarizes his warning to slaughterhouse society:

Those who kill animals and give them unnecessary pain - as people do in slaughterhouses - will be killed in a similar way in the next life and in many lives to come. One can never be excused from such an offense. If one kills many thousands of animals in a professional way so that other people can purchase the meat to eat, one must be ready to be killed in a similar way in his next life and in life after life.

Unintentional killing

Even though Śrīla Prabhupāda upholds the principle of ahiṁsā, he shows that actually, violence and killing cannot be entirely avoided in the material world. Aside from killing knowingly or even accidentally, he says that we are sure to commit violence and kill living beings even in the course of our daily lives.

It is fine to vociferously support nonviolence, but in actual life one is compelled to commit acts of violence. One may succeed in avoiding many kinds of sin, but it is impossible to escape committing the five great sins called pañca-sūnā. While walking on the street we may crush many ants to death against our wishes. While cleaning house, we may squash many insects to death. While grinding food grains or lighting a fire, we destroy many tiny lives. In this way, while executing our ordinary, daily chores we are forced to commit violence and take many innocent lives. Willingly or unwillingly, we commit sins.

Given that we are held responsible for killing even the tiniest of creatures, how can we avoid being implicated in sinful activity? Śrīla Prabhupāda answers that we must act from a God-conscious platform in all circumstances of life, abiding by the Lord’s orders and dedicating our activities in service to please Him. In that way, we avoid committing known offenses and remain free from reaction to those we commit unknowingly. He recommends two specific practices along these lines which can protect us from reaction to unintentional violence: regular chanting of the holy name of the Lord and offering all food preparations to the Lord before eating.

Indemnity through yajña

Śrīla Prabhupāda notes that the Vedas instruct one to perform yajñas, sacrificial acts to satisfy the Supreme Lord, in order to counteract or nullify reactions to unintentional violence committed in the course of daily activities. One recommendation is the performance of rituals known as the pañca-sūnā-yajña:

In breathing, you kill so many animals. In drinking water, you kill so many animals. This is bhūta-hatyā. You are killing. This is not intentional. You do not know. Therefore in a Vedic system there is prescription, pañca-sūnā-yajña… You have to perform yajña every day to counteract the sinful reaction of your imperceptible killings of animals. That's it. This is Vedic life.

The pañca-sūnā-yajña, however, is not the only method for coping with everyday, unconscious offenses. Śrīla Prabhupāda shows that the Vedas reveal a simpler, all-encompassing practice especially recommended for our present age. He advises this method, saṅkīrtana-yajña, for today's society:

The Vedic principle of pañca-yajña, five kinds of recommended sacrifice, is compulsory. In this age of Kali, however, there is a great concession given to people in general. Yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ: (SB 11.5.32) we may worship Lord Caitanya, the hidden incarnation of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇam: although He is Kṛṣṇa Himself, He always chants Hare Kṛṣṇa and preaches Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One is recommended to worship this incarnation by chanting, the saṅkīrtana-yajña. The performance of saṅkīrtana-yajña is a special concession for human society to save people from being affected by known or unknown sinful activities. We are surrounded by unlimited sins, and therefore it is compulsory that one take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra.

Spiritualized eating

In addition to saṅkīrtana-yajña, Śrīla Prabhupāda recommends that we offer all foodstuffs to Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Lord, before consuming them. He explains that when foodstuffs are prepared as an offering for Kṛṣṇa and taken as remnants of yajña, persons partaking of that food – known as prasādam, or the Lord’s mercy - will not incur reaction for violence committed unwittingly in its procurement or preparation.

Whatever we do here within this material world, there is some sort of sinful activity. We do not know, imperceptibly. Just like killing of some animal is sinful activities. But even if we do not willingly kill some animal, when we are walking on the street, we are killing so many animals. When we are drinking water, in the, below the waterpot there are so many ants and microbes, they are being killed. When we ignite fire, there are so many small microbes, they also become burned into the fire. When you rub the pestle and mortar for rubbing spices, so many small microbes are killed. So we are responsible for that. Therefore, willingly or unwillingly, we are becoming entangled in so many sinful activities. Therefore the Bhagavad-gītā says, yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ. If you take the remnants of foodstuff of yajña, after offering yajña, then you become free from all contamination. Otherwise, bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpā ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇāt: (BG 3.13) "One who is cooking for eating personally without offering to Kṛṣṇa, he is simply all sinful resultant action." This is our position.

Automatically, this rules out any sort of meat-eating, as Kṛṣṇa does not accept flesh as an offering. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the point is that we act to satisfy Kṛṣṇa and simply take the remnants of His food; that way, any unintentional killing that would have taken place in connection with the offering becomes Kṛṣṇa’s burden, not ours.

We eat kṛṣṇa-prasāda. So Kṛṣṇa says that "You give Me these foodstuffs." Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati (BG 9.26). So we are not eating on the material platform. We are eating on the spiritual platform. Because we are eating, if there is anything sinful, that is Kṛṣṇa's. We are taking His remnants of foodstuff.

Acting in Kṛṣṇa consciousness

In the broadest sense, Śrīla Prabhupāda advises that we always act in God consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, if we are to be fully protected from reactions to unintentional killing of animals. This includes following the rules set forth in scripture and adopting the practices of chanting and offering food as mentioned above. Even more, he teaches, it means dovetailing all one's assets and actions in devotional service of the Supreme Lord. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains the process beginning with the simple example of eating:

Don't think that those who are vegetarian, they are free from all these reaction. No. They are also. They are also. The law is that one has to repay which he is taking the help from other living entities. That is the law of karma. So either you eat vegetables or either you eat flesh, you have to repay that. But yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo mucyante sarva-kilbiṣaiḥ. The Bhagavad-gītā says that if you eat the remnants after offering sacrifice to the Lord, then you, not only you are free from all reaction, but you do not eat anything sinful. That is the direction of Bhagavad-gītā.

So in every aspect of our life... This is also one of the insignificant example of our activities of our life. If we act, dovetailing our actions with the Supreme Lord, then we are free from reaction. Otherwise we are bound up by the reaction. That is the law. So in order to get myself free from all reaction of my activities... Because so long I am... Because I am living entity, I have to act. Either I act spiritually, either act materially, I have to act... If you don't act spiritually, then you have to act materially. And if you are fully engaged in spiritual activity, then there is no chance of material activity... Just like in our ordinary life, if we do something at a particular moment, we cannot do other things; similarly, we have to engage ourselves fully in the spiritual life. Then our material activities will be stopped altogether, and then there will be no reaction.

Regarding the question of unintended violence, Śrīla Prabhupāda gives the same instruction:

We are entangled in this material world because we are creating one after another entanglement… consciously, unconsciously, we are in such a position in this material world that we have to commit sinful activities even if we are very, very careful. You have seen the Jains, they are after nonviolence. You'll find they keep a cloth like this so that the small insects may not enter the mouth. But these are artificial. You cannot check. In the air there are so many living entities. In the water there are so many living entities. We drink water. You cannot check it. It is not possible. But if you keep yourself fixed up in devotional service, then you are not bound.

He concludes:

How it is possible to become nonviolence? It is not possible. Therefore in every step we have to act in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or God consciousness. Then there is indemnity from the sinful activities. That is recommended in the Bhagavad-gītā, that yajñarthāt karmaṇo 'nyatra loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ. (BG 3.9) Unless you act in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or God consciousness, or as ordered by Kṛṣṇa, or God, then you become bound up by the reaction.

(Go to references for "Animal-killing and karma")

Degradation of humanity

In one lecture, Śrīla Prabhupāda spoke of the degraded attitude toward animals that prevails in today's society:

The material world is a very dangerous place. The living beings within the material world are kṣatram. They do not know the purpose of life. They are simply interested in their own advancement, somehow or other. So they engage in all kinds of destructive activities which cause harm to themselves and to others... I was visiting the Kṛṣṇa consciousness farm in British Columbia, and on the road we were passing large herds of beef cows. We were discussing that the farmer thinks of these cows not as spirit souls but as commodities. He simply puts them in a field to eat, and when they get big enough, kills them and takes the money for his enjoyment. He doesn't see that these are living entities, spirit souls. So this activity of the human beings, killing the cows, helpless cows by the thousands daily, is causing the..., or is an indication that there is no merciful quality in the human beings. They are simply interested in their own aggrandizement and welfare.

Śrīla Prabhupāda characterizes animal slaughter as an expression of gross ignorance and pinpoints it as a key factor contributing to the ongoing degradation of the human condition. In discussions ranging from the adverse effects of animal-killing on human character to its connection with manifest events in human history, he observes and explains how the practice of animal-killing poisons human civilization, thereby underscoring the urgency for all societies to put an end to this unnecessary violence.

Spiritual advancement not possible

As indicated previously in this article, Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches that the proper function of civilization is to utilize human intelligence with an aim toward spiritual advancement for all members of society. He argues that unprincipled animal slaughter is a prime detriment to human culture in these very areas - intellectual and spiritual development.

To begin, he says that animal-killing and meat-eating dull the human intelligence, rendering people unreceptive to spiritual culture and incapable of higher modes of thinking.

The gross materialists, they are animal-killers, gross materialists. That, these animal-killers, according to Bhāgavata also, they cannot understand finer things. Those who are animal-killers and animal-eaters, they cannot understand finer philosophical matter. Their brain is gross. Therefore they are much inclined to mechanical way of life. Machine. Machine is gross.

Those who are animal killers, their brain is dull as stone. They cannot understand any thing. Therefore meat-eating should be stopped. In order to revive the finer tissues of the brain to understand subtle things, one must give up meat-eating.

This subtle degradation of humanity, Śrīla Prabhupāda notes, was a key factor involved in the nonviolence movement of Lord Buddha.

What is sin, what is pious activities, these things are not understood by them because they are animal killers. It is not possible. Therefore Lord Buddha propagated ahiṁsā. Ahiṁsā. Because he saw the whole human race is going to hell by this animal killing. "Let me stop them so that they may, in future, they may become sober."

Lord Buddha appeared to stop animal-killing, ahiṁsā. He did not say anything more. His only mission was, "Let these rascals first of all stop this animal-killing, they'll understand further about spiritual advancement." Those who are animal killer, they cannot understand anything about spiritual advancement. That is not possible. Therefore this thing must be stopped first.

Śrīla Prabhupāda also observes that Jesus Christ taught similarly. His main reference, however, is to a verse spoken by Parīkṣit Mahārāja in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.1.4).

Just in the beginning Christ says, "Thou shall not kill." That is the beginning of religious life. The animal killers cannot understand what is God. It is not possible. There is a statement in the Bhāgavata, viṇa paśughnat.

nivṛtta tarṣair upagīyamānād

bhavauṣadhāc chrotra-mano-'bhirāmāt

ka uttamaśloka guṇānuvādāt

pumān virajyeta vinā paśughnāt

(SB 10.1.4)

"Who can remain aloof from the chanting of the holy name of God unless he's an animal killer?" Yes. Animal killers cannot understand what is God, what is God's name. That's not possible.

Śrīla Prabhupāda argues that both animal-killing and meat-eating ruin one's prospects for spiritual advancement.

Foodstuffs should be given, nice foodstuff given, should be given to the particular person for developing nice brain. Milk is a foodstuff which can develop your finer tissues of the brain so that you can understand higher philosophy. And if you become blunt, and you eat meat by killing any animal, then how you will understand? The finer tissues given in the human form of life for understanding spiritual things... You cannot. Vinā paśughnāt. Therefore Parīkṣit Mahārāja says, vinā paśughnāt. Nivṛtta-tarṣair upagīyamānād bhavauṣadhāc chrotra-mano-'bhirāmāt uttamaśloka-guṇānuvādāt (SB 10.1.4). Uttamaśloka, Kṛṣṇa, guṇānuvādāt, glorifying His activities, who can be bereft of this opportunity, vinā paśughnāt, unless he is an animal killer? Unless he is animal killer, nobody will deny to hear about Kṛṣṇa. Because the animal killers, they have lost their brain.

Vinā paśughnāt (SB 10.1.4). Vinā means without. Unless one is animal killer, he cannot give up this opportunity of hearing about Kṛṣṇa. Therefore we forbid, "No meat-eating." This is the qualification. Unless you stop meat-eating, you cannot understand. Blunt head... Our Ramakrishna Mission, they say, "What is there in food? Whatever you like, you can eat. It has nothing to do with spiritual life." Nonsense. You see?

Animal-killing, Śrīla Prabhupāda says, counters the very purpose of human life, which is to develop God consciousness.

In the Ten Commandments he says, "Thou shalt not kill." When there is absolute necessity, there is no other food, that is another thing, but if there is sufficient other foodstuff, why should you kill? They are not even human being, those who are animal killers. Vinā paśughnāt (SB 10.1.4). Those who are animal killers, they are not even human being, what to speak of religious system. Nivṛtta-tarṣair upagīyamānād bhavauṣadhāc chrotra-mano-'bhirāmāt ka uttamaśloka-guṇa (SB 10.1.4). If you are animal killer, your God consciousness is finished. You'll never be able to understand what is God. Then your life is finished. This life is meant for understanding God, and if you are animal killer, then your God understanding is finished.

Therefore, he concludes that ending the practice of animal-killing should be a top-priority item for human society.

Sinful life cannot help. Vinā paśughnāt. (SB 10.1.4) That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that "One who is killer of animal, he cannot understand the spiritual science." Vinā paśughnāt. (SB 10.1.4) This is the statement. Paśughna means the animal killer. Therefore the first prohibition is stop this animal killing. Otherwise, this dull brain will not be able to understand. They are not fit for understanding.

Societal issues

Śrīla Prabhupāda speaks of how the adverse consequences of animal-killing manifest on a mass scale as well as individually. He describes how the results and repercussions of unprincipled animal-killing are observable in historical events and in the daily news and affairs of our own times.

War

The incidence of war, particularly the large-scale warfare of modern times, is one which Śrīla Prabhupāda specifically links to unrestricted animal slaughter.

To be nonviolent to human beings and to be a killer or enemy of the poor animals is Satan's philosophy. In this age there is enmity toward poor animals, and therefore the poor creatures are always anxious. The reaction of the poor animals is being forced on human society, and therefore there is always the strain of cold or hot war between men, individually, collectively or nationally.

In this age of Kali the propensity for mercy is almost nil. Consequently there is always fighting and wars between men and nations. Men do not understand that because they unrestrictedly kill so many animals, they also must be slaughtered like animals in big wars.

In one of his Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam purports, Śrīla Prabhupāda notes that mass civilian deaths are further reaction to sinful activity. He contrasts modern warfare with the warfare waged in Vedic times, correlating the slaughter of innocent citizens with the mass slaughter of innocent animals:

Violence is certainly a path leading to a hellish condition of life, but it is also required for maintenance of the law and order of the state. Here Lord Manu prohibited Dhruva Mahārāja from killing the Yakṣas because only one of them was punishable for killing his brother, Uttama; not all of the Yakṣa citizens were punishable. We find in modern warfare, however, that attacks are made upon innocent citizens who are without fault. According to the law of Manu, such warfare is a most sinful activity. Furthermore, at the present moment civilized nations are unnecessarily maintaining many slaughterhouses for killing innocent animals. When a nation is attacked by its enemies, the wholesale slaughter of the citizens should be taken as a reaction to their own sinful activities. That is nature's law.

Elsewhere Śrīla Prabhupāda suggests that if meat-eaters would follow bona fide sacrificial rituals instead of patronizing the slaughterhouse, it would benefit humanity on the mass level.

At the present moment, so-called civilized men do not sacrifice animals to a deity in a religious or ritualistic way. They openly kill animals daily by the thousands for no purpose other than the satisfaction of the tongue. Because of this the entire world is suffering in so many ways. Politicians are unnecessarily declaring war, and according to the stringent laws of material nature, massacres are taking place between nations.

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ

ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate

"The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by nature." (BG 3.27) The laws of prakṛti (nature) are very stringent. No one should think that he has the freedom to kill animals and not suffer the consequences. One cannot be safe by doing this.

Śrīla Prabhupāda especially opposes the slaughterhouse industry.

We don't stop trade. We don't stop food, producing food grains. But we want to stop these killing houses. It is very, very sinful. Therefore in Europe, so many wars. Every ten years, fifteen years, there is a big war and wholesale slaughter of the whole human kind. And these rascals, they do not see it. The reaction must be there. You are killing innocent cows and animals. Nature will take revenge. Wait for that. As soon as the time is ripe, the nature will gather all these rascals, and club, slaughter them. Finished. They will fight amongst themselves, Protestant and Catholic, Russian and France, and France and Germany. This is going on. Why? This is the nature's law. Tit for tat. You have killed. Now you become killed. Amongst yourselves. They are being sent to the slaughterhouse.

Abortion

Śrīla Prabhupāda draws a parallel between animal-killing and the practice of abortion. One point he makes was that the victims of abortion are suffering the reaction for their own killing activities in previous lives.

Why so many abortions are taking place nowadays? Because the child which has come into the womb of the mother, he is sinful. He has done previous life so many killings. Now he has to be killed so many times. He has to be killed so many times. As many times he has killed other poor animals. This is the law of nature. Just like in the state laws, if you kill somebody, the state law will kill him. Life for life. Similarly, God's law, how even if you kill one ant even, you will be responsible for this, and it will have to be punished. They do not know this. They do not know this.

In addition, Śrīla Prabhupāda perceives that abortion, like animal slaughter, is a manifestation of mercilessness and breach of trust between protector and protected.

The productive class, they should give protection to the cows. The cows are given under their protection, not that "Because the cows are given under my protection, therefore I must open a slaughterhouse and kill them." Similarly... So children under the protection of father and mother... Just like this child is sitting on the lap of... He is comfortable. But if the father thinks, "He is under my protection; therefore I shall cut throat..." Now it is going on. The abortion means that. The child is taken shelter of the mother's womb for protection, but now she is being killed. The time is so bad. You see?

Unless one is very expert in killing animals, he's not bereft from Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That means one who is very expert in killing, he cannot understand. Therefore Christ also said, "Thou shall not kill," the first business. Nobody will be able if one is a killer of animal, small or big, ultimately killer of his own children, killer of his own self. The killing process is so nice that it goes up to the point of killing one's children. That is now happening. Killing business has so expanded that they are killing their own children. Just see the influence of Kali-yuga. The children, they take shelter of the father and mother, thinking very safe. Now, in this Kali-yuga, even there is no safety under the care of father and mother. Just see how this material civilization is progressing. Very, very dangerous.

Degraded lifestyles

Śrīla Prabhupāda observes a connection between animal-killing and many aspects of social degradation. One of these is the association he notes between meat-eating and alcohol consumption.

Meat-eater means other things will follow. Illicit sex will follow and drinking will follow. Because you cannot digest meat by water. You must drink. That is the fact… In India we have seen, everywhere. This wine and meat, they are together. Because you have to digest.

He further comments on how meat-eating, along with drinking, provides fuel for an angry and animalistic way of life.

Modern civilization is centered around animal-killing. Karmīs are advertising that without eating meat, their vitamin value or vitality will be reduced; so to keep oneself fit to work hard, one must eat meat, and to digest meat, one must drink liquor, and to keep the balance of drinking wine and eating meat, one must have sufficient sexual intercourse to keep fit to work very hard like an ass.

In the modern civilization especially, they are being trained up to work very hard and, to get strength, eat meat, and to digest meat drink wine, and then become infuriated and work very hard. This is the modern type of civilization. But Vedic civilization is different. Vedic civilization is not meant for working so hard. The human being should be very peaceful and sober and intelligent and cultivate spiritual knowledge, become brāhmaṇa, brahminical culture.

Śrīla Prabhupāda sees animal-killing to be an integral part of the wretchedness of modern urban life, as he commented in this 1975 lecture:

The present situation of the human civilization is very, very dark, tamasā. They want to live in the city without working for producing their food. And there are butchers, they kill innocent animals. And in the city they eat the meat, and to digest they drink and work like hogs and dogs whole day and night. This is civilization. This is not civilization. This is darkness, darkness of life.

Society will continue to suffer, he says, as long as it continues to support mass animal slaughter.

It is the duty of the vaiśyas to protect the cows, to increase agricultural activities and trade. But they are now interested in producing electronic parts. No go-rakṣya, no vāṇijyam, no food production. Cheap profit, and for eating, let there be slaughterhouse and eat meat. And to digest meat, you drink wine. This is being taught. So you create the situation and when you suffer, then why should we lament? We have created this situation, godless civilization, do not follow the direction of the śāstras.

Ahiṁsā and human society

Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that for human civilization to allow the unrestricted killing of animals defies the principle of ahiṁsā (nonviolence) in more ways than one. Ahiṁsā, as he succinctly defines it, means "not checking anyone's progressive life." At the most basic level, this implies that a person should avoid the act of killing. Yet further than that, Śrīla Prabhupāda shows that "progressive life" applies to more than just bodily security. He discusses the implications of ahiṁsā with respect to the human being and human society:

The human being is distinct from animal life in this way, that animal, they do not know what is the aim of life. The human life is meant for realizing, self-realization. If any civilization, that is checking people's progress in the matter of self-realization, that is the most virulent type of violence because people are being checked from the natural advancement of life. This human life is the point when one has to end all the miseries of material existence. That is the aim of human life. If people are not educated to that light, if people are misled in other ways, that is the greatest violence committed to the population.

Ahiṁsā means that people should be trained in such a way that the full utilization of the human body can be achieved. The human body is meant for spiritual realization, so any movement or any commissions which do not further that end commit violence on the human body. That which furthers the future spiritual happiness of the people in general is called nonviolence.

Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches that while progressive life for the animals means completing their requisite term in their animal body, progressive life for the human being means advancing step by step toward the ultimate goal of spiritual realization. In short, he shows that, in the positive sense, ahiṁsā means upholding the processes of progressive life for all living beings, and for human civilization to allow the unnecessary killing of animals obstructs the path of advancement for human and animal alike. In light of Śrīla Prabhupāda's discussion of the deleterious effects that animal-killing has on human society – the degradation of character, the impossibility of spiritual advancement, and the prospect of devolving back into animal bodies after death - it becomes clear that human beings who commit violence against animals are also committing violence against themselves and against humanity as a whole.

According to nature's law

Śrīla Prabhupāda writes:

Exploitation of the weaker living being by the stronger is the natural law of existence; there is always an attempt to devour the weak in different kingdoms of living beings. There is no possibility of checking this tendency by any artificial means under material conditions; it can be checked only by awakening the spiritual sense of the human being by practice of spiritual regulations. The spiritual regulative principles, however, do not allow a man to slaughter weaker animals on one side and teach others peaceful coexistence. If man does not allow the animals peaceful coexistence, how can he expect peaceful existence in human society?

As Śrīla Prabhupāda points out, those who endorse animal slaughter actually live by the ethic of "might makes right." Recalling a conversation he had with one lawyer, Śrīla Prabhupāda noted this implication of meat-eating as well as its extended consequence:

That Goldsmith, he was against war, but when I asked him, "Whether you are meat-eaters, killing animals?", "Yes, that is our food." So if the poor animals can become your food, the big nation can say, "The small nation is my food. I can kill them. We can kill them." Everyone can say. And that is happening like, "Might is right."

Śrīla Prabhupāda emphasizes that nature's law is inescapable, and, as shown throughout this article, he tells of how the Vedas give human beings the direction they need in order to live happier, more auspicious lives according to the laws that God and nature have set out for them. Those who ignore the Vedic instruction, he says, are bound to suffer from their actions.

Prabhupāda: Cows should be given protection. This is the instruction. But in the western country the cows are specially being killed. Now the reaction is war, crime, and they are now repentant. And they will have to repent more and more.

Jayatīrtha: So the wars and the crime are a direct result of the cow slaughter.

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. It is a wholesale reaction. All these crises are taking place… Nature will take action. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ. (BG 3.27) You are not independent. So if you work independently, then you will have to suffer. The law of nature is there. You cannot avoid it. If you infect some disease, you must suffer from the disease. You cannot avoid it. This is the law of nature.

Śrīla Prabhupāda affirms that human beings have a choice in how they live and where they are going in this life and the next. With some understanding of how the laws of nature operate, he teaches, humanity can be prepared to make better choices for the benefit of all.

By practice, one should avoid eating in such a way that other living entities will be disturbed and suffer. Since I suffer when pinched or killed by others, I should not attempt to pinch or kill any other living entity. People do not know that because of killing innocent animals they themselves will have to suffer severe reactions from material nature. Any country where people indulge in unnecessary killing of animals will have to suffer from wars and pestilence imposed by material nature. Comparing one's own suffering to the suffering of others, therefore, one should be kind to all living entities.

(Go to references for "Degradation of humanity")