Should a devotee cardiac surgeon avoid doing angioplasty because it uses an animal product injection?

Transcript

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Hare Krishna. Question. Can a cardiac surgeon use injections for angioplasty which involve animal content, which may even be cow content? So, should one stop this? Because otherwise one will get implicated in animal killing.
Or can one do this? Answer. Krishna describes in the Bhagavad Gita, In all endeavours, all endeavours are covered by faults. Just as fire is covered by smoke.
This means essentially that we cannot avoid faults in terms of some sort of contamination of sin in any activity. Prabhupada gives the example of directly killing, which is, Kshatriyas have to kill on the war field and Brahmanas have to kill in some of the animal sacrifices, some of the sacrifices which involve animal killing. So, in general, when we live in the material world, especially when we live in Kali Yuga, we cannot avoid some contamination with sin.
So, if we start avoiding all activities, just because there is some sin involved in it, we will practically not be able to do anything. Certainly, activities which are directly involved in breaking the four regulative principles, we strongly avoid that. But when the purpose is curative, the point of abstaining from the activities, from the four activities which are prohibited, the point of avoiding, point of the prohibition is to minimize the enjoyment mentality and the entanglement thereof.
Entanglement both in terms of the increased enjoying mentality and in terms of the karmic reactions. So, now, when we are not getting involved in that activity for that particular purpose, that means the activity is… So, when a doctor is using some medicine for treating some patients, there’s definitely no enjoying mentality there. Somebody might say that doctor is earning money for one’s own gain.
That applies everywhere. But the point of the specific context is not to hurt, it is to heal. And if for healing, certain medicines are made which are made using animal products, and if there is no alternative, ideally speaking, one should look for an alternative.
And even if the alternative is a little more expensive or whatever, even if it requires more labor in getting that, one can use the alternative. But if that is not possible, and this happens even in Ayurveda. Ayurveda also has many medicines which involve non-vegetarian content also.
Now, we have to understand here there are two broad branches of knowledge, there is Paravidya and there is Aparavidya. Paravidya is transcendental knowledge. And Aparavidya is material knowledge.
So Ayurveda comes in the Aparavidya. Now, the same principle of curing people which underlies Ayurveda, that same principle applies, is used in allopathy also. So in Ayurveda, generally speaking, there are medicines which are involving animal products.
And usually there are some substitutes given. There are medicines without animal products also. But in some cases, there may be no substitutes.
At that time, for medicinal purpose, a person can take the medicine, and if somebody is taking the medicine, then somebody also has to administer the medicine. So there is a difference between taking meat directly as a medicine and taking some animal ingredient, which is just one part of the medicine. So, firstly, that means there are three different levels over here.
First is that it is not done with an enjoy mentality. Secondly, first is that faults are unavoidable. Second is that we are not doing this with an enjoy mentality.
And third is, it is not directly that the meat is being taken, that is only one ingredient. And when it is unavoidable, there are precedents in Ayurveda of using medicines which have animal content in them, some animal ingredients within them. So there is no need to become unduly worried of sinful reactions.
But still, yes, there is, even through an indirect connection, there is some amount of violence, and some amount of reaction will be there. So as devotees, we do want to avoid such entangling activities. And we can, if we feel very concerned by it, then we can, at one level, we practice bhakti intensely, so that practice of bhakti itself will purify us, will cleanse us.
Now we don’t practice bhakti with the intention that okay, I am doing this sinful activity and I am practicing this bhakti so that this sinful activity will be cleansed. No, we want to avoid sinful activities entirely, but we practice bhakti primarily to develop our love for Krishna. And we don’t worry too much about what happens at the material level, as long as we are not involved in directly breaking the regulatory principles.
Now moving forward, if we feel very concerned, then we can try to ourselves find or support the development of some plant-based or alternative for that particular medicine, which is involving animal product. In that way, say whatever earning we are doing, we can decide some small fraction of that. We can use it for supporting non-meat-based alternatives, non-animal product-based alternatives for that.
And even if we are not in the field of research and we are not in the position to develop anything, but there may be certain organizations who are doing some research and we can try to support them. And we can’t, while we are living in this world, we can’t switch off entirely from all sinful activities. But that also doesn’t mean that we just accept it and not try to change it at all.
So as devotees, at one level, we focus entirely on Paravidya, we focus largely on Paravidya and try to develop our love for Krishna. But while we are living in this world, we have to earn our living, we have to function in this world. So we have to use our Paravidya also.
So Paravidya, we will try to use the material knowledge in as much way as is harmonious with the principles of Krishna Bhakti. And beyond that, the development of material knowledge, which is harmonious with Krishna Bhakti, can be a part of a larger culture of spiritual rejuvenation. So this is something which we can do voluntarily if we feel very concerned about it.
But overall, Sarvarambhaai Doshina Dhume Nag Nirbhava Vrithaha. All endeavors are covered by faults, so we don’t have to necessarily give up using animal products, just because you give up doing angioplasty or give up doing a particular activity in the profession because it involves one component which has animal product. This is not like, say, abortion, where the whole activity is centered on killing the embryo.
And this is not like animal slaughter, again. So, therefore, if we wanted to put something on a continuum, animal slaughter is directly for the purpose of killing animals for sense gratification. Now, abortion, it is also involving killing directly.
And there is no curative purpose. Abortion when the mother’s life is in danger is a different issue. But there it is primarily to, various factors are there.
Abortion is also a complex issue, but there is direct killing in it. So, whereas, when we talk about this sort of medicines which involve animal products, there is no direct killing. The components, they are produced in various ways, and they may involve some killing, but because in a continuum this will fall relatively at a milder level.
So, certainly, it is not entirely karma free. But then we could say that nothing in this world is karma free. On a continuum, if we go, because it involves some connection with breaking the regulative principle, so it will be lower on the continuum than, say, a person who gives treatment using entirely medicines which don’t use any animal products.
But when that is not possible, when there are no alternatives, then we can certainly do it. But we also try to, we can do it when that is required. But we can also try to take some measures for protecting ourselves and for developing some alternatives in the future whenever it may work out possible.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.