Stop Calling These as Scriptures
Questioner: So, since you're very knowledgeable on ancient scriptures—ancient Hindu scriptures—so, a question pertains to that. Should we let ancient scriptures influence our dietary choices, especially when they were created in a different era and the circumstances today are very different?
Acharya Prashant: See, where I come from, and if you say I have read scriptures, so I come from the scriptures maybe—not every book that is being today called a scripture is worth being called a scripture. We have ancient books, wonderful books, wonderful books, valuable books, but they cannot be called scripture. A scripture is a book that tells you about yourself. A scripture has to deal essentially with self-knowledge. A book that talks of dietary choices cannot be called a scripture.
A person who talks of the kind of things you must eat to enhance your health and such things cannot be called a Guru. Shastra is what deals with self-knowledge; a guru is one who encourages self-knowledge in you. This food and all is miscellaneous business. So, this is for those who quote so-called scriptures in favor of meat or milk.
So, you will have Bakrid, and people will say, “You know, it is coming from our scripture,” and then Hindus will say, “You know, it is coming from our Puranas,” and Christians will say, “You know, that the turkey is a part of our tradition.” And all that is just nonsense; those are not scriptures at all.
Scripture is self-knowledge—who am I and what am I supposed to do with this so-called life—that's what constitutes a scripture, nothing else. So, who am I? I am a conscious entity. What am I supposed to do in life? I am supposed to elevate consciousness, respect consciousness, and love consciousness. And the moment you see that this is what scripture says, veganism just smoothly follows.
Veganism is the logical result of scriptural knowledge. If someone says, “I'm well versed in scripture,” and is still not a vegan, the fellow knows no scripture. And if somebody quotes scripture against veganism, that's a dangerous fellow. So, in the Hindu path, it's Vedanta and Vedanta alone that deserves to be called a scripture. And that's what deals with who you are and what your relationship with the world, therefore, is.
It’s a system of enquiry; it's not a system of commandments or beliefs. There is no belief there; there is no morality there. You are not being enjoined to do something; you are not being allowed or disallowed from something. You are being encouraged to ask a few fundamental questions—that's Vedanta, and all those questions pertain to who you are.
Therefore, if you have really gone into Vedanta, if self-knowledge is something you have seen as centrally important, you will naturally drop all kinds of violent behavior because your core itself will no more remain violent. Vedanta addresses who you are within, and if you do not know who you are, you are violent. Violence is nothing but ignorance. Lack of self-knowledge is violence. Once you know who you are, you cannot remain violent. So, that's what.
In vegan circles, it is quite common—I find this attitude—they abhor religion; they feel that religion is an enemy, and I understand the place they are coming from. They have often seen people quote religion against veganism, so they think religion is a problem. No, religion is not a problem. Religion—true religion, true religiosity is, in fact, the very root of veganism. You cannot have veganism without compassion, and who will teach you compassion if not the real scripture? So, Vedanta and veganism go hand in hand.
Questioner: Thank you so much for answering that delicate question. And one last question we received from Shalini: how do we communicate the message of veganism with neutrality—that is, caste and religion-based neutrality—that gets very dirty when people are not sensitive? So, how do we do that?
Acharya Prashant: No—everybody loves a little pup, right? Irrespective of your caste or creed or gender or age, who does not love a kitten? Who does not enjoy playing with a calf? So, that's where we want to work on—the fact that we are humans, irrespective of whatever else we are. And to be human is to be conscious, and that consciousness wants to play with the pup rather than butcher and eat it.
You take a Muslim kid, a Christian kid, a Hindu kid, a Buddhist kid, an upper caste kid, a so-called lower caste kid—you take these kids—a baby boy, a baby girl—you take all of them, and you give them ten rabbits. There is a large lawn where rabbits play, and you send these kids there. These kids are not going to pick up the rabbits and eat them alive. Irrespective of where the kids come from, they'll be delighted looking at the rabbit. They'll run after the rabbits; they'll play with the rabbits—that's what, that's what.
So, doesn't matter who I am, don't I love the rabbit? And the discussion begins from there. And if the discussion starts diverting from the real thing, if religion or other persuasions start creeping in, then you again revert to the kid. You point back again to the fact of one's essential humanness—“Don't you love the rabbit, and if you do, why do you want to rob the rabbit of its hair? Why do you want to brutally pluck its fur away? How can you do that? Don't you love the rabbit? You might be a Brahmin or a Christian, a Protestant—I don't care. There's the rabbit in front of you, and you're looking at the rabbit, and what's your relationship with the rabbit? Come on?” So, that's how we talk of it.
Questioner: Right. That's very well said, and I would like to thank you for answering all our questions. The answers provided us with a new direction. And thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us. I'd like to hand that over to Gauri, ma’am.
Acharya Prashant: Thank you. I thoroughly enjoyed all this.
Questioner: Thank you, Acharya Ji. I think you enriched our consciousness with a lot of wisdom today. I completely agree with so many of your answers about the system of enquiry. That is, you know, you can call it scripture, or the literal English translation could be anything, but there's a system of enquiry that was the bedrock of our civilization. And I think rather than being told stories, we should enquire and introspect.
And each one can have their own little religion, but we will know ourselves so much better. And we'll be so much better connected with each other and with all other forms of consciousness that are around us, and that I think is more important than any, you know, group of people who call themselves anything. But ourselves connected with the whole world—that's probably so important. And that's the spirit of—that's the ethics of veganism that I see.
Acharya Prashant: Wonderful. Very well, very well put.
Questioner: So, thank you so much. We are totally enriched today, and we will look forward to many more sessions with you like this. And I'm sure I speak on behalf of…
Acharya Prashant: I'll be glad, I'll be glad. And in fact, I thank the entire team for making it an enriching evening for me as well. And I just hope I was not too boring or too heavy or something. I enjoyed it, and I hope all of us did.
Questioner: Totally. In fact, there were so many things that were kind of conflict within us, and we didn't find the courage to, you know, articulate them so well. But I think our battle of compassion requires courage and the ability to speak our minds. And it's great that we have somebody like you doing that as a mission. We are partners in the…
Acharya Prashant: Thank you, Gauri Ji. You are an inspirational figure, believe me. And I really wish you all the best and all the courage and all the success—really, from my heart. And may your team do well and prosper.
Questioner: Thank you so much.
Acharya Prashant: Thank you. Thank you.
