How do we understand Prabhupada’s statement – vegetarianism and nonviolence are not qualifications for devotion?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, Prabhupada says vegetarianism and non-violence are not qualifications for devotional service, an act of devotion. So, when I said that anything that brings us out of ourselves, that is positive. There are different contexts.
If you consider much of our Vedic literature, much of our Bhakti literature is spoken to raise people from goodness to pure goodness. If you consider that, in most of the Gaudiya Vaishnava literature, if you read, Chaitanya Bhagwat describes how degraded the society was at that time. And what is the parameter for degradation? Today, if you say degraded society, oh, you know that, marriages are falling apart, there are so many premarital, extramarital relationships, there are so many abortions.
We will say that is degradation. But Chaitanya Bhagwat describes what is the degradation. He says, actually, everybody was worshipping the Goddess.
People were worshipping so many devatas, but nobody was worshipping Krishna. People would chant the Vedic mantras, but they would never chant the names of Krishna. People would speak on the Bhagavatam, but they would not speak on Bhakti.
So now, actually, if I say somebody is worshipping devatas, somebody is studying the Bhagavatam, somebody is chanting Vedic mantras, is that degraded? It’s quite elevated, isn’t it? In today’s world, if you meet somebody who is chanting Vedic shlokas, if you are travelling and distributing books and somebody is chanting Sanskrit shlokas, you will be quite impressed. How do you know this? So, Chaitanya Bhagwat and Chaitanya Chaitanya Tamala, what they are describing is that when people are so caught in the mode of goodness, they forget that there is something higher. Now, worshipping devatas is definitely better than being atheistic.
It is definitely better than being degraded in terms of modes of passion and ignorance. So, if the mode of goodness itself becomes the ultimate standard of progress and success for us, then that is condemned. That will rise beyond goodness to transcendence.
But much of the Bhakti literature, in order to emphasize the glory of Bhakti as being superior even to goodness, it minimizes goodness. But sattva guna and sattvic life is very important for a balanced existence in this world. And that’s why, in today, when Prabhupada is saying that non-violence and non-heterism are not qualifications for devotion, what he means is, don’t be stuck with sattva guna.
One of Prabhupada’s prominent disciples was Bob Cohen, Brahmateertha Prabhu. Prominent in the sense that he had interactions with Prabhupada. His conversation is what is described in the book, perfect questions, perfect answers.
So, there Prabhupada tells, he tells Prabhupada, I am Swamiji, I am a vegetarian. Prabhupada says, so what, even monkeys are vegetarians. So Prabhupada, at that time, he says, ok, now you are interacting with me, but vegetarianism is not that great, you have to rise higher.
But then there is another disciple of Prabhupada, Peter Barwash, who was a well-known tennis player, and he became a tennis coach eventually. So Prabhupada told him that, be like a plainclothes devotee, and raise people’s consciousness so that they can come at least to vegetarianism. Help people to understand, follow the regulative principles at the basic level.
Don’t teach basic morality. So it will be context-dependent. If goodness itself is considered to be the highest goal, then definitely it has to be pointed out that it is not good enough.
But at the same time, for people who are in passion and ignorance, goodness is definitely very good. If somebody is already a vegetarian in today’s world, especially in the western world, in India people may be vegetarian because they are just adhering to their tradition. Again, they may not necessarily be spiritual, but they may just be adhering to their tradition.
That also requires strength, because in India, to be cool means to be non-vegetarian, to eat non-vegetarian. Here, becoming vegan or vegetarian has become quite cool. Still, it’s an alternative problem.
It’s not the mainstream lifestyle. So either way, if somebody is vegetarian, that is not a problem. But if somebody thinks, that’s the perfection of my life, I don’t need to do anything more, that is when it is a problem.
The mode of goodness alone does not qualify anyone for devotion. But if somebody starts practicing devotion, if they are already in sattva guna, then it becomes easier for them to practice devotion. If sattva guna makes one complacent, then sattva guna is an obstacle to devotion.
But if somebody is seeing sattva guna as a launching pad for bhakti, then sattva guna does make bhakti much easier to practice. Does it answer your question? Thank you very much.