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Don't kill and don't eat meat

Recognizing our humanity is the path to purification. Animals exist in cycles of consumption, unaware. Humans possess a higher potential but often revert to killing. The capacity for violence is given, yet the instruction is clear: do not kill any creature. Taking life returns one to an animalistic state. The principle of non-violence extends to refusing what others have killed. This understanding is universal, not confined to one tradition. Historical conflicts distorted natural ways of living. Now, many treat creatures cruelly, acting without humanity. To live rightly, one must awaken to this truth.

A daily practice affirms this awareness. Upon waking, declare "I am human." When standing, acknowledge the earth as your mother. Approach water, seeing a single drop as your fleeting portion. Recognize that all life is interconnected like sensation in a body. Observe the peaceful cow that eats only grass. Understand the five elements and time. Ultimately, turn to the divine. Without this inner sight, one acts blindly, trapped in cycles of cause and effect. The choice to live as a human is yours.

"Do not kill anyone. Then you will come to the human state, and from there, progress further."

"Life is life. We should come home and not kill. Do not kill, nor accept what someone else has killed."

Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jai, Dev Puruṣa Mahādeva Kī Jai, Satya Sanātana Dharma Kī Jai, Oṃ Śānti, Śānti, Śānti. My dears, our sisters and brothers. I spoke early morning: Jīva Jīva Bhakṣate. So many creatures are eating each other because they do not know any better. Bhagavān, God, Śiva—whatever name you give—has made the human, the manuṣya. Animals and other creatures are different; they do not know, and so they go through cycles of coming and going. But it is said that a manuṣya, a human, is like a God. They can go to heaven and attain great things. The principle is: do not kill. Do not kill anyone. Then you will come to the human state, and from there, progress further. Yet, humans go back to killing all creatures. Why has God given us this capacity? It is said that when you come to me as a good human, we speak, I help you, I will work for you and your children. Mahāprabhujīp Karatā. Regarding eating meat: meat is not for humans. It is only for animals or creatures. There are many things you should know yourself. You did not know before, but now you say, "Oh, it is like that." Yes. You have your children. Would you eat them? But what of other creatures? They also create life. Even birds' eggs contain life. Inside is life. Life is life. We should come home and not kill. Do not kill, nor accept what someone else has killed and brought to your home. This is not the end. You will go into another life. You will go like animals. Even a little ant—if you take it and kill it, you have killed someone. An ant or an elephant, all are the same. It is only the bodies that are different. The life inside has been given by God. Many people do not know this; they were not taught. I have seen references from Jesus. They said Jesus was not eating meat, only once when there was nothing else. It is said something came from the water. Otherwise, he was not a meat-eater, and his mother also. So do not think this teaching exists only in India, among Indians and Hindus. That God, whom we call God, Jesus—they said, "No, don't do it." About a hundred years ago, there was a great deal of fighting. After that, things changed. Otherwise, people in Austria, New Zealand, Fiji, and everywhere lived differently. Women wore headdresses for Jesus all the time. Men also worked in that way. They did not know otherwise. During the war, what happened? People came home and went to work. Women were at home, caring for the children, fruits, and everything. They said they could not eat all animals. But then, during the first war, with Australians, Americans, and others everywhere, people did not know how to eat meat properly. I saw in Austria myself. They spoke of meat and lemons. Women would go washing, and there was a lot of spiritualism. All women were like a great mother. Men also, you could see thousands. It was a time when people asked, "May I come to India?" I came more. It was a time made by battle. They were told to kill. They had nothing to eat. People went to farms, worked, and came home with very little. Little children do not know this history. What happened? Everyone had their cows, pigs, and other animals that give milk and have their own nature. And now what do they do? They eat them. They hold animals and cut them. There are two types: one who kills animals slowly and painfully, and another who does it quickly, saying, "At least you were quick." People see this in China and other places. They ask, "How to take the cat?" They go to a restaurant where there are many cats, big ones inside. Children or others point and say, "I will have this arm." They pour hot, hot water and then put it in cold water. Still, life is inside. Is that life? It is something. Dogs, too—see how they are treated. So many people in many countries are doing such things. This means now we are not human. You may think you are, but you are not there. You will again go inside the cycle of life. I wish for you, and many of you who have not known this, that now when you see, when you get something and go to your house, take it in your hand. You will not kill any animals now. Anyone can come and kill us. It can happen. People put animals in a very big hot bowl. They kill them with... sometimes, what was it? Girls, very much, everybody. Let us see, my dears. What have we seen? Tell tomorrow, my dears, in my house. I will not. If somebody comes and gives you something, take it like this. We have to learn. But is that God? He said, "Because God has brought humans, and humans were not meant to be like animals. Therefore, you are very great people, very nice." I think some of you definitely are not eating meats. If you want, you will be done, you will come. There are many good things. What good do you have? You have everything. You have money, you have this, everything. Can we not live rightly? You know your yoga, that Swami here. When did He give up? He did that. So be peaceful, be happy before everyone. Eat very good food—seeds and everything—and be happy. Also, give others happiness. I am human. I am human. So what is that? When I tell you: when you are sleeping at night, and early morning when you wake up, what do we do? We open our eyes. At that time, when you open your eyes, you should tell this to yourself. Say, "I am human." I wake up, I open my eyes, I am human. You will see, my dears, the whole day till evening you will be so happy and feel good. "I am human." Tomorrow you should do it. It’s only one word. "I am human." Man or movement, nothing is done. Then we are sleeping, we sit up and say, "I am human." Then we come from the sleeping bag down, and what do we say? Two things. First, to your mother. You say, "Mother, may I come sit down?" or if "Mother is gone." Then we say, "My dear, whole earth, whole earth, I would give, please me, that I put my feet on you." We are stepping on the earth. This is very important. How I am. Sometimes something comes and says, "Oh, mother." Which mother? The Earth. We understand the earth. That is number two. Number three: go to the water. We have water in our hand. How much water do you have here? Or this water, you know what you call it? You are sitting, water is flowing, but a drop is in my hand. What I say: this little drop in my hand is my portion. Can you give it back? Can it come back again? No. It will all go. Everywhere we are all like this. One drop or the whole ocean is the same. So they come from it. When water comes, even a little, in the whole body, in the nerves and everything, vibration comes. If you give a little needle prick somewhere, the pain is felt in the whole body. My dear, I am like this. Everything is connected. So, when I wake up: I am human. I stand up; the earth is my mother. Then I come to the water. After that, I come to my stomach. What will I do? This is about that. There, every creature eats what it eats. Look at the poor cow. The cow doesn’t eat any others, only grass. How many animals are there? They don’t eat anyone. Only grass and water. So, we know everything ourselves, my dears. That is very great. After that, what you do, you get this, and that I will bring after this. I come to the air. Air—if we had no earth, we would be like this, we could not exist. This earth is so good. The five elements are given to us, and then time will come and go. Where you have given, what you did and what you did not. My dears, we have to understand that whether you do or don’t do, it is like that. What you drink, where you drink. And then there comes the Parabrahma, Paramātmā, Bhagavān, God—the God of the gods, the God of the dead. Otherwise, everything... and you know how many things are happening, busy with what they have in their bodies. How? I am in Europe, and a lot of them are in Europe and everywhere. I see how people are completely... either they are so many, how long they are like this, like this, nothing. And they give you something, a doctor gives a little something to go. No, see, my dear. Now, I am also whole day and night. When I get up in the morning, I say, "Please, please, please." It happens to us. We will fall down. We will have this, we have this. We’ll have needles, everything we will have like that. But it is the end of that. I am like sunrise. Now the sun goes down. What do we do? You have this light. Why do we make this? Because this is like that. Until Sūrya will come, until there, it is a... I will, I will be here. I will not die. I will not die. This is light. It is my light. It is in my life. There was a room, a very big room, with only one door. One man with a blade, he had one nail, these teeth. He takes his teeth and goes like this, going, going, and one hand... it goes till here, and he said like this. But going, and, oh, hand again there onto the wall. Again going, again going... Coming nearby, he said, "You like this," and went out. The third time, again he is coming from what he is doing, like that. The fourth time, he said, "How is this instrument? How have you built this building so big?" One wall said, "No, you don’t need it." He says, "You have not." It is your mistake. The man, the blind man, said to the other man, "You are not good. All the times you put your hand." And he said, "You don’t know, man. I am on the wall all the time. You can do it." He said, "No, because you were just doing like this, and the door was gone here, this side." So how many times did we go from door to door but did not take it? In life, we are doing. We should, therefore, have our eyes inside very much. If we are blind, we will definitely act like this. When we have to show something, remain, stand, and do like this, and then do this. Human, oh my human. Otherwise, of course, you are killing these animals. How will it be? Next, he will come to kill you. That’s it. The cycle is going like this. The cycle, when you have... therefore, that’s only what I tell you. If you do not want it, it is yours. If you do, it’s yours. Everything is yours. But what I speak about is how we will live as human beings. Bhajan, the Bhajan Siṅgha. Śrī Dīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Akī: So we are blessing, we go to God. God will give to us, and we all the time remain with God, with your family, your children. In the beginning, when your child comes, what will you call him? Child? You give milk, a mother’s milk. For how long? And then after, what will you do? Take off karma ideas. Hurry up. Give one bhajan, okay? So, each word you should tell them first, and then they will understand, because they don’t understand the language. You have to tell them what this word is, and then they will be very happy. So, "Prabhu mere avaguna chitana dharo," it says: Lord, please do not look at my bad qualities. You are Samdarśī, known as Samdarśī, which means the one who has equal vision. The śloka describes the paras, the stone that changes iron into gold, and it does not distinguish between what the iron was used for. It changes the knife used to kill, and the same iron in the knife used for the cutting of the Praśar. So, Parāś changes both into gold. That’s all I can remember, Swāmījī, from translation. It is written by Vañchur Dās. There was a man, a human, who lived for many long years, and he was a very unique blend. He was going everywhere in a blend. He was so great and was singing such nice bhajans—many songs. He said, "The blinder, he’s sitting, he’s saying to God, ‘My God, look how it is.’" So that was the one black man. He could not see. But he was very great. He had a very great brain. He was giving a song. You know what a song is? That we are listening, and we were doing something. We are what we are talking, and how this or this... Such a blind man. He’s sitting there and speaking something. There are many, many bhajans. A bhajan means a song—what we are talking about. He said, "I am blind, but I know I will go, and I want to speak to God. My voice, how it is." Then it is said, "I will go into the ocean, but I don’t know how I will go. Oh my Lord, take me out from the ocean until I am out. I know that there was very big water somewhere, but I cannot go anywhere out. Please bring me out from this water." There are more, so beautiful from him. We will make it very nice, and that time will be great, very good. So those are all the bhajans. These are the bhajans that you cannot miss. In India, each and every one knows something like bhajans. It is very great. Very anyhow, my dear, Sarī Om. Thank you. Wish you all the best, and have a good night.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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