About Buddhism and Animal Sacrifices
MADHAVA KUMAR TURUMELLA (madhava@emirates.net.ae)
Tue, 07 Jan 1997 23:55:19 +0400
At 12:58 PM 1/7/97 -0500, you wrote:
I may be excused for writing unrelated stuff on TELUSA!
namaskAraM PrabhakargAru,
>Coming to my point, 'buddha' opposed some of the 'vEdic' traditions' of his
>time (especially animal sacrifice during 'yAgAs') and preached 'ahimsa' one
>of the most imortant principles of 'buddhism'. Hence, 'buddhism' emerged
>in contrary to 'vEdic' religion.
IMHO, "Ahimsa" is not the main point that attracted many people towards
buddhism.
It is the "nihilistic" preaching that attracted many people towards Gautama
buddha.
Imagine, you don't have to offer any sacrifices! you don't have to punish
yourself by
starving in the name of God! Buddhisam obvisously emerged at the right
time, when
people were fed up with the continuous rituals and facing punishments in the
name of
rituals. I think, Buddha gave a vent to the ignorant.
In Buddhism there is no beginning and no end, no Creation, and no Heaven.
There is a middle way of life between the extremes of self-indulgence and
self-mortification.
To pursue the middle way, one must recognise the Four Noble Truths. They may
be briefly stated
as follows: Human life is an existence of suffering. Human suffering is
caused by desire for things
that cannot satisfy the spirit. Suffering can be ended and man set free by
renouncing these desires,
which are rooted in ignorance. Man can free himself of desire by following
the Noble Eightfold Path
of right views, right aspirations, right speech, right behavior, right mode
of livelihood, right efforts,
right thoughts, and right contemplation.
In everyday life, the eightfold path requires that the individual do no harm
to any creature. Expressly forbidden are theft, falsehood, unchastity,
strong drink, and the taking of life. These laws remind Christians of the
Ten Commandments. As a rule of conduct Buddha taught the Golden Rule. He
believed in the statement that "all that we are is the result of what we
have thought."
Most of the buddhistic thoughts are actually extracted from Vedas. Indeed,
except nihilism, one can
very much find Buddhistic thoughts in Bhagawad Geeta. Bhagawad Geeta also
declined the
thought of Sacrifices because they lead one into eternal bondage:
trividyA maaM sOmapAH poota pApA yagnirishTvA svargatiM prArdhayaMtE |
tE puNya mAsAdya surEMdralOkaM aSnaMti divyAndivi dEvabhOgAn || Ch 9-20
Those who perform action with some interested motive as laid down in these
three Vedas
and drink the sap of the Soma plant, and have thus been purged of sin,
worshipping Me
through sacrifices, seek access to heaven; attaining Indra's paradise as the
result of their
virtuous deeds, they enjoy the celestial pleasures of gods in heaven.
tEtaM bhuktvA svargalOkaM viSAlaM ksheeNE puNyE matryalOkaM vishaMti |
EvaM trayeedharma manuprapannA gatAgataM kAmakAmA labhaMtE || Ch 9-21
Having enjoyed the extensive heaven-world, they return to this world of
mortals on the stock
of their merits being exhausted. Thus devoted to the ritual with interested
motive recommended
by the three vedas (as the means of attaining heavenly bliss), and seeking
worldly enjoyments,
they repeatedly come and go (i.e. ascend to heaven by virtue of their merits
and return to earth
when their fruit has been enjoyed).
If we go throughly through Buddhist teachings we can find that most of it is
nothing but Hindu
way of thinking. Probably that is why Buddha is treated as one of the
incarnations.
---------
We are often carried away by the thought that our vEdic traditions are
nothing but
animal sacrifices.
FYI:
One is advised to perform twenty-one sacrifices. These are three types:
pAkayajna, haviryajna, sOmayajna. In each category there are seven
subdivisions.
In all the seven pAkayagnas as well as in the first five haviryajnas there
is no animal
sacrifice. It is only from the sixth haviryajna onwards (it is called
"nirudhapasubandha")
that animals are sacrificed.
To tell the truth, there is no sacrifice in which a large number of animals
are killed.
For "vAjapeya" which is the highest type of yagna performed by Brahmins,
only twenty-three
animals are mentioned. For aSvamEdha (horse sacrifice), the biggest of the
sacrifices
conducted by imperial rulers, one hundred animals are mentioned.
There are rules regarding the meat to be carved out from a sacrifical
animal, the part of the
body from which it is to be taken and quantity each ritvik (priest) can
partake of as prasada.
This is not more than the size of a pigeon-pea and it is to be swallowed
without anything added
to taste.
>Also, were the terms 'vEdic' religion and 'Hindu' religion are *primarily*
>the same? Or they were different? If so, what is the difference and when
>did this change occur?
According to some "Hindu" means "Love" "heenaM dooshayati iti hiMdu"
The name Hindu was given to us by foreigners. People from the West came to
our land
accross the Sindhu river which they called "Indus" or "Hind" and the land
adjacent to it
by the name "India". The religion of this land came to be called Hindu.
However it be,
"Hinduism" was not the name of our religion in the distant past. Nor was it
known as
"vaidika mata" (vedic religion) or as "sanatana dharma" (the ancient or
timeless religion).
Our basic texts do not refer to our faith by any name.
In my opinion, the religion has to be identified with a name therefore it is
called as "hindu".
Just like Christianity is identified by the name of Christ.
Regards
Madhava
From: madhava@emirates.net.ae
>
>With regards,
>Prabhakar Vissavajjhala
>
>
>
>