Why Did God Allow Animal Sacrifice For Christianity And Islam But Not Sikhism?

[TheLion]

Waheguru Ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji ki fateh

Hello fellow Sikhs,

I am a Sikh recently whom has had his faith re ignited and I've been contemplating God a lot but there's one issue I can't seem to understand.

We as Sikhs accept that prophets from other religions have been on Earth (I think) so that is stating that their religious practices hold some sort of relative validation in terms of their pursuit of God. In Christianity and Islam, God allowed sacrificing of animals in his name and allowed the eating of meat. Whereas in our religion all meat is forbidden and the cruelty of animals and slaughtering of them is forbidden. So why did Waheguru allow animal sacrificing in the past but made an exception now for our religion?

This is just something I've been thinking about and would appreciate it if some of you could share your input!

[NavdeepSingh74]

Let me explain this by the caste division system.As you know there are 4 classes of people divided:

1)kshatriyas

2)brahmans

3)shudars

4)vaishyas

Kshatriyas were the people who managed the empire (i.e kingdom),they were the kings.They also used to eat meat.But in Sri dasam granth some of them are said to be of high spirituality and resulting in "mukti".

Some havans done by Brahmans also needed animal sacrifices too.Animal sacrifice is also related to the victory of goddess Durga on the demons.

Sikhi is made by combining 4 classes(kshatriyas,brahmans,shudars,vaishyas) into a single person.That's the main reason Shri Harmandir Sahib has four doors ,explaining that it is open for all 4 classes.A Amritdhari(khalsa) can take life of someone for the purpose of selfdefence.But sacrificing and eating animals is not allowded in Sikhi due to the spiritual cost and the negative energy from the eating material.

The universe is made by the God with "Maya" as he himself remain untouched to it.Maya further made 3 guns

1)Sato gun

2)Rajo gun

3)Tamo gun

and then 5 elements were made.

1)sato gun is the state of mind of a person with compassion,faith,love etc.

2)Rajo gun is the state of mind of a person with intellectual skills,more interested in politics etc.

3)Tamo gun is the state of mind of a person who is short temppered,always ready to fight.

Tamo gun is the lowest of these guns.Meat is a Tamo gun food.It increases tamo gun in us.Sikhi's ultimate aim is to reach the 4th gun state (Brahm gian) which can only be given by God not Maya ,after one reaches the state of sato gun then brahm gian is obtained.

These answers will help you :

Question: Master ji, we all know that it's very crucial to abstain from the eating of meat because this increases our karmas, but can you explain in more detail the reasons for becoming vegetarian?

Thakar Singh: We should not increase our burden of karmas as you have already said. There is karmic value in every kind of thing we use in this world. The air we consume, we have to pay for. The water we use, we have to pay for. The light of the sun or moon is also not free for us, and this green grass is also to be paid for - nothing is free. Depending on the "Jun" (life-form), there is a price to be paid. Lower life forms have a lower price to pay. Plants have a lower spiritual price than animal life forms. So why take the higher burden?

If you are to construct a house, you don't make it with gold or silver or jewels. If you can, you make the house with stone - Stone is very strong and cheap -- So, why don't you make your house with stone and bricks instead of gold? This body is like a house. Build it with material that is spiritually cheap and strong. Fruits and vegetables are spiritually cheap and they can make you spiritually and physically strong. Higher life-forms are expensive - and you will have to pay a higher price!

In the same way, if we can maintain a simple life style, with a spiritually lower cost - with this greenery, fruits, etc - then why attract so much burden and payment of karma by consuming higher life-forms? God did not really say that it is "burden-less" or it is all free. He has never explained it like this, but He has allowed us to have these lower forms because with our meditations we can release ourselves very quickly and easily and therefore we will not "over-burden" ourselves for a long time.

This is also the case with people who eat animals. Their nervous systems have been seriously disturbed and shaken. Even if you look at an animal that has been killed you will be emotionally affected; your nervous system will be disturbed and you will lose so much peace; you will not feel good and your heart will be affected by it. Look at a dying fish. It is out of water and if you look at it, for one or two hours or even some days your heart will not feel good. You will think of the condition of that fish and it will feel horrible and your heart and mind will be in some kind of perturbed state.

For months even this state of mind will continue. Maybe after a long time you will forget this scene and its effect will be gone from your heart and then perhaps you cannot remember it - still it has its effect. If just looking at a dead fish causes this then what will be the case when we eat it and all these negative vibrations enter into our system. So many diseases will come up and our mental systems will be disturbed.

But when we eat some greenery or fruit everything is wonderful. The plant produces the fruit for consumption by an animal so that the seeds can be transported to new places. In fact by eating the fruit you are doing a favour to the plant! - the fruit is a bait for the animal to do a function that the plant desires - That is the function of a fruit. If you look at fruit that is ripe the colors tell you so wonderfully that it is ripe. A fragrance is also available and when you smell it you enjoy it and even when you remember the smell you feel good. Your heart is also enjoying and your mind and body are at peace.

Q. Flesh-eaters often say to vegetarian Sikhs, if you eat only vegetables you are also taking life. What, then is the difference between taking the life of, say, a pig and that of a vegetable?

A. All the difference in the world. Does a potato cry out when it is taken from the earth the way a calf does when it is taken from its mother? Does a stick of celery scream in pain and terror when it is picked the way a pig does when it is being led to slaughter and is having its throat cut? And how sad, lonely, and frightened can a head of lettuce feel?

We don't need a polygraph to demonstrate that plants have consciousness of a sort, but this consciousness is obviously of a rudimentary kind, far different from that of mammals with well developed nervous systems. Nor do we need tests to prove that fowls and pigs and sheep experience pain to the same degree as human beings, for it is common observation that animals wince, howl, wail, and show terror when abused or injured and make every effort to avoid pain.

Actually many fruits and vegetables can be picked without killing or even harming the plants. These include berries, melons, legumes, nuts, seeds, pumpkins, and many other vegetables. Potatoes are taken from the ground after the plant has died. Most vegetables are annuals, harvested at or near the end of their natural life.

In fact, there is considerable scientific evidence that the human physiology, like that of our closest living creatures - the great apes, is vegetarian in design. The structure of our skin, teeth, stomach and bowels, the length of our digestive system, the composition of our saliva, stomach acids and urine, etc. are all typically vegetarian. There is also a mountain of evidence proving that a meat-based diet contributes to a whole range of diseases. Many scientists now concede that fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains appear best suited to the human body.

Finally, we know that we cannot subsist for long without food, and all food is matter that was once alive. But since we can subsist well and even thrive without meat, why take animal life in addition to the plant life we need to survive?

Among certain spiritually oriented persons one will often hear this strange rationalization: "Sure, we eat meat", they say, "what of it"? What is most important is not what enters the stomach but what comes out of the mind! Although it is true that ridding oneself of one's delusions, breaking out of the prison of the ego-I into a life of sympathy with all sentient beings is paramount, how can we establish a sympathetic rapport with non-humans while we are feasting on them?

"Do not cause pain to any creature, Go back to your Home with honour." (Sri Guru Granth Sahib, pg 322)

Story of Bheesham Pitama

In accordance to Hindu mythology, Draupadi asked the saint Sant Bheesham Pitama, why he had not come to her rescue when she was stripped of her clothing in Duryodans court. She queried him, saying that if he was a saint, why did he not raise his voice when evil was going on before his very eyes in Duryodanas court. He started to cry and said, Daughter, I shall tell you the truth; my mind became clouded by darkness as I had eaten in Duryodans house.

Therefore, this shows how the love of God breaks away from a being as their mind becomes clouded by filth and prevents them from performing good deeds.

[TheLion]

thank you for your post! very detailed! I think I understand now, I didn't realise Karma was so deep, I thought of it as a broad spectrum of good/bad deeds.

[NavdeepSingh74]

Start listening katha it will help u more from www.GurbaniUpdesh.org etc.

[hsingh8963]

SoundCloud Sikh2inspire

SoundCloud Syf

SoundCloud Bhai Sukha Singh

YouTube basics of Sikhi

[happiness]

Afer reading this thread, Now I can understand what exactly karma is.

@Navdeepsingh74 Good one

[harsharan000]

Prophets, gods, devtas... are just to bring righteousness in this world to an extent only.

But if we ever want to know what God wants to tell us, it is only by Bhagats, Gurmukhs and Guru Sahibans, that we can get direct and accurate information or gyan from God, untill we grow spiritually wise and become one with God.... till then we have to rely only on Gurbani.

God can never ever forbid somethings to some, and allow others to do the same.

This is all manmat, moorakhta, agyanta.

Of the islam I do not have much knowledge, so I can not quote anything to prove the the Truth on this topic; but from the Christians, we know from their Ten Commandments, one of them is : thou shall not kill.

And killing is not limited to not to kill humans alone, as it is nowhere specified, but killing in general is forbidden. It is just that, to satisfy the taste of the tongue, the weak humans commit sins and then justify it, by saying, oh, it was done in the name of god...stupid people

At other place is said: as you sow, so shall you reap.

If one plants pain, cheating, killing, robbing ....the very same shall we get in return. The nature is made in that way. Every action has an reaction. Not that God is bad, but it is the bad done by us, whenever it maybe, which returns back.

Then the foolish cry and pray :

Oh God if you are there, why don´t you listen me?

Why do not you take away my pain?

How can you be so unjust?

And blah blah blah ....

Always God is blamed ....foolish people.

They come here in a alien land for a limited time, and do sort of nonsense by not respecting the laws of Nature, thus they bind themselves almost perpetually.

You see, if it is here in this world where we do bad or good, naturally it is here where, we have to come to pay or collect payment.

And to come here, means, again we have to come in a mother´s womb, means, chaurasee ka chakar goes on and on, nonstop.

The force and accuracy of karmas can never be understood fully, they are quite complicated from our actual state, but anyhow, there is no unjustice in it.

Though we may not understand or even agree with it, but in the end, there is a touch of Grace of Wahiguru in the law of Karma, that also for our benefit as souls.

Following is an example, of how mysterious and complicated can be the karma theory for us.

We all know Dhritrashtra was blind from birth. Once in the company of Krishna, he told him, with my the tap of Yoga, I have been able to go 98 lives back, and in none of them can I see myself doing any such thing to be blind now.

So Krishna, with his power, took him still 5 lives back, and showed him how in that life, while he was a small boy and was playing near a pond, how he was taking out the eyes of a worm with something sharp pointed ....

From this we learn that, we do commit all sort of karmas, but we do not have any clue as per how they act or when they unfold the reactions... it is totally out our understanding, but nevertheless are our very own sown seeds.

If we sow chillies, naturally we are not going to get potatoes, howsoever we may shout, cry or pray.

Nature is perfectly executed as designed by Wahiguru, we can not bribe or alterate Nature.

Only by respecting the laws of Nature can we be at peace here and hereafter.

Some may say, we are mentally and emotionally poor, how can we know what is good or bad?

Or how to respect the laws of Nature and not interfere its course?

For this, there are two options.

One is to, keep Sadh Kee Sangat as much as possible, in order to learn from them being virtuous.

And second, by doing as said in the Bani: Saas saas simroh Gobind.

Because by meditating on Wahiguru, we become pure, and we learn to stay in His Bhaana at all times, thus staying in His Bhaana, we can never do anything wrong.

it is a pity, Sikhee is so simple and complete by itself, but alas, we have adulterated it, and this has made us gone astray. Then we ask ourselves, why sikh youngsters are going into islam or here or there...

You see people in general are not stupid, they want logic answers to strengthen their faith, which they do not see, because there is lot of ritualization and a lot of theories, when the fact is, Sikhee is to discard everything else, and only to pratice one thing : do His Bhajan Bandagee, through His Naam Simran.

The Bani says: Prabh ka Simran sabh tay oochaa. Because if ever there is anything which washes away our impurities, or karmas, past sanskaras, the filthy mind, fight and defeat Maya, yam doots or Kal Purukh himself, that is only His Naam.

And Sangat jee, not only that, but it is by boarding the jahaaz of Nam, that we can surely and safely reach our True spiritual Home namely Sach Khand, which we once left long long ago and since then we have been wandering aimlessly in the mayavee creation.

Not once did we hold the "pallav of His Naam in all our past countless lives. We have done all sort rituals, pilgrimages, moortee pujas, worship gods, godesses, prophets, fastings, bathing in so called holy waters and a big etc......

That is why the Bani tells us: Bahut janam vichuray teh Madhao, ehe janam Tumhare lekhey...

Ninth Patshahee also tells us: Gun Gobind gaayo nahee, janam akarath keen.

Here Guru Jee is telling us, if we do not sing His glory by repeating His Naam, we have wasted away our lives.

So we can see, we may take any Ang from the Bani, it is nothing, but only the wadeayee of His Naam, of that Ik Oankar, Aad Niranjan Prabh Nirankara.

Brothers, we may continue like this for a long time, going on tasting the rus of the sweet Bani of our beloved Guru Sahibans, and never even then getting satisfied, but on the contrary, wanting it more and more, such is the hunger an thirst, for the Pure Paviter Bani....

Sat Sree Akal.

[Akalifauj]

Another long winded off topic post. Lets get back on topic. Sikhi (dharam) doesn't allow sacrifices because all of creation is Vaheguru's. He created it and owns it. No part of creation can provide him with something because it's all his from the beginning.

[Akalifauj]

Vegetarian eat the meat of insects in there fruits and vegetables. Vegatarians don't know insects live in there food like grain and corn and potatoes onions, etc. Vegatarians drink fruit juices which has many insects in the juice. Vegatarians just can't see the insects because the processing plants does a really good job of grinding everything down and packing it for Vegatarians consumers.

Edit: Poster harsharan is lost in his self loathing again and can't seem to read why I speak of vegetarianism. When he is done stroking his ego, he can read the following quote copied and pasted from the person who started this thread.

Whereas in our religion all meat is forbidden and the cruelty of animals and slaughtering of them is forbidden.

Hence I wrote about vegetarianism. Also, I am a vegetarian. Poster harsharan likes to make assumptions(saying I am trying to justify my so called meat eating habits) of those who point out his shortcomings and show others he is not a Sant.

[harsharan000]

Too much of ego, thus there is more noise then actual nuts, in reality.

The topic is, of why other dharmas like christianity and islam are allowed by god to sacrifice animals, but not sikhi.

Thus the topic is not of attacking vegetarians, just because one is a meat eater, and so to justify one´s sense of guilty, it is better to divert the attention on the other side.

Anyway, NavdeepSingh74 gives an explanation with solid foundation, thus is much more credible and valid, than sheer empty words.

A positive person sees goodness, almost in all; while a negative person just vomits the negativity contained within, and sees faults with almost everyone.

There is no doubt, there is a lot of potential, but in the end it all depends on how we use it, whether in being humble, good and helpful, or, egoistic, negative and destructive.

Sat Sree Akal.