Is Prabhupada’s usage of “Thou shall not kill” to meat-eating an out-of-context application?
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Hare Krishna Question from Shantipur Prabhu I was talking with a Christian missionary and when I told him about how Christians should not eat meat because the 10 commandments include thou shall not kill he said that this is a out of context usage of the commandment because the commandment is a prescription for not killing unnecessarily but in the Bible there is also the concept of righteous war in which even human beings can be killed and the Old Testament is filled with incidents of righteous war which are glorified in the Bible so thou shall not kill does not even apply as a blanket statement to all human beings then what to speak of to animals so is Prabhupada's application of it to stop against animal slaughter a misapplication answer in every religious tradition there is a statement of this there are scriptural statements and there are ways in which that statement has been understood within the tradition and these two are not always the same so the very first principle is if Prabhupada never claimed to be a biblical scholar who was going to argue based on biblical scholarship about any of the principles of living sometimes when some Christian pastors came and the devotees tried to argue based on the Bible some devotees tried to argue with them based on the Bible Prabhupada said don't get involved in that Bible is their book and we can't interpret it for them so Prabhupada did not get into that zone too much now what does this mean when we say he did not get into he never claimed to be a biblical scholar and he did not claim to he did not try also to base his discussions as a biblical scholar so it's not a matter of technical scriptural technicality over here that Prabhupada is talking about so if you look at the literal wording of the statement thou shall not kill it does include a sanctification of life a recognition of the sanctity of life and therefore a recognition that life should not be taken away now although within the Christian tradition there are so that is the literal statement is Prabhupada is not going into biblical technicalities Prabhupada is simply talking in terms of a literal statement that it is a statement thou shall not kill that means it is recognizing the sanctity of life and no one debates whether animals have life or not they do have life and taking away that life will involve killing so without getting into technicalities the literal wording of the statement is entirely compatible with what Prabhupada explains now going back going from that literal wording to the way it has been understood within the biblical tradition now there is there are no Christians who will argue or there is no biblical basis for arguing that one has to be a vegetarian to follow the Bible so one has to be a non-vegetarian to follow the Bible that so certainly meat-eating is not mandated in the Bible so it's not necessary that's the first point so now within the tradition in every scripture there is there are eternal principles and there are contextual application of those principles so when we look at the eternal principle the broad teaching of Jesus was of acknowledging the value of life and of sacrifice of compassion of forgiveness in fact what does the cross or the crucifix on which Jesus was crucified symbolize you know it symbolizes not responding to not causing violence but even responding to violence with tolerance and forgiveness so if you look at the broad Judeo-Christian ethos it is an ethos of tolerance of forgiveness Jesus famously said that if somebody slaps you turn the other cheek so what does this mean this means you don't commit violence so again from the point of view of the tradition it is not necessary to eat meat to follow the Bible and if you look at the broad spirit of biblical teachings then it is clear that the broad biblical teachings are in favor of non-violence are in favor of tolerance and definitely this applies to everything that is living not just to human beings now whether some Christians choose to apply it in a particular way and other Christians choose to apply it in a different way so this application will depend on interpretation but within the tradition there is nothing necessary for to say that animals cannot be killed that animals have to be killed for following the Bible and living as a Christian and secondly the overall spirit of Christian teachings as given by Christ are more in accord with ethos of non-violence which would include non-violence towards animals so now going further if we look at the now the sixth commandment which is there Sathya Rajput Stephen Rosen has written an article on this Prabhupada and sixth commandment and he explains how there are there are abundant references in the Bible which talk about how one should live on grains and right from the old testament in Genesis itself when the food is talked about there is a reference that the grains and the plants are the food for the human beings their animals are not mentioned so again from the point of view of injunction for eating meat there is no injunction that they have to eat meat nor is there an injunction when there is talking about food there is no direct reference that one has to eat food one has to eat among the food that one should eat there are food bearing plants and grains that are mentioned but meat is not mentioned in the Genesis verse so overall it is not exactly not at all an out of context interpretation or misinterpretation that Srila Prabhupada is giving Srila Prabhupada is giving is giving a biblical foundation or a biblical basis for a universal human principle which is very much in accordance with the overall teaching of Christianity as embodied through the example of Jesus so now as far as righteous violence is concerned those are exceptions so how often does righteous war have to be fought and especially how often does that apply for the life of a general citizen it does not apply for the life of a general citizen because most citizens don't have to take up weapons and fight for themselves so yes, there can be contextual exceptions and that way the same with respect to Mahamsa Sarvabhutani this sort of general principle and exception is there in the Vedic tradition also there is Mahamsa Sarvabhutani where it is said that don't harm any living being at the same time there is also the injunction that Atataina that Atataina, those are aggressors can be killed so there is the concept of righteous war within the Vedic tradition also and the concept of righteous war has never been seen as a justification for violence against animals brutality against animals and going further yes, in the in the Judeo-Christian tradition often thou shall not kill has not been applied to meat eating and in general Christians have not necessarily followed like that but there have been Christians who have been vegetarian and especially the principle of being non-violent is something which is which is very much compatible with the overall Judeo-Christian ethos and so if someone can if someone can recognize that broad principle which embodies the teachings of Jesus then that person can see that actually vegetarianism is very much compatible with the overall teachings of Jesus so if if we are going to talk with Christians you know we shouldn't at all talk with them in a way as if we know we know Biblical scripture better than them if we have a supercilious attitude then that will not go off well on them just like we would not like some Muslims or Christians to interpret the Vedic scriptures and tell us what they mean so they have a full right to understand their scriptures but we can talk about broad principles which can be human principles which can be spiritual principles and which can be the spiritual teachings within the Bible so Prabhupada did not just focus on that spiritual teaching within the Bible he talked about a broad human principle of non-violence which is also definitely overall incompatibility with the scriptural ethos of Christianity Thank you. Hare Krishna.