Hare Krishna. Dear Murali Sampath Prabhu, This mail is directed at your goodself. > Looks to me like most of you missed the point in my earlier message. I do > not contradict the shastras and agamas nor what most of you have written > about vegetarianism. Matter of fact I myself am a vegetarian. Very good. We are glad to know that you are a vegetarian but that is not vaishnavism's ideal. Vaishnavism's ideal is to be come Krishnatarian or who who only accepts foostuffs offered to Lord Narayana. It is best if we could all come to that platform. Vegetarianism or meat-eating is not our business. >I do not eat at McDonald's nor french fries or meat. If only those of you who wrote back, > cared to read my first posting on this topic, you would have noticed that I > had let be known that Dannon Yogurt contains Gelatin and that I contacted > the FDA regarding this. I would not have wasted my time calling Dannon and > the FDA if Gelatin was not there in the yogurt. Thank you for yoru efforts. We perfectly understood your intentions. We were merely reiterating our points and qualifying the fact that statements made must ultimately corroborate with shastra. > All that I was trying to point out was that it is for one to decide what > they want to eat, when to eat, what to eat and where to eat. Yes, most certainly. That is common sensical and all of us are aware of this - that ultimately it is up to the individual to decide. But I would assume that we are all aspiring to be servants of the Lord and hence have relegated our independence to that of the will of the Lord. As such, at least we as aspiring Vaishnavas should know what to do and what not to do. The choice is personal but the proper standards cannot be so. They apply to one and all. It is a lack of such proper standards that has led to so much decadence today. All wishy washy substandards are being broadcast as perfectly fine and that is the first step to start the degradation. Let the proper standards be properly established. whether people follow or not is not the issue here. we must act to please the Lord and the Acharyas and let at least those who are sincere in following have the guidance and standards for them. Otherwise that select few we may lose to frivolous sub-standardisation. > I never said that one should not follow or learn what's in the scriptures or the vedas > and more. When I wrote it is a "matter of personal choice", I meant that it > is for the individual to decide whether they want to read, listen and follow > what our respective elders, scholars and others have given to us. This is > akin to grooming our kids - telling them what to do and not, with a hope > that when they grow up they will have a nice life. We strive and try to > discipline them. Beyond this we pray to the almighty that our kids take to > the right path in life. We make all efforts by caring for them and showing > them the right path, just like our Acharyas lead us. But the point here is, > even despite parents advices and teachings, if the kids go out and choose > their own life style, it is they who made that choice. We did our best but > the choice was theirs. Our influences was only to help them make a better > choice. But eventually what they chose remained a decision made by them. You > and me can only influence them but the final decision is theirs. Likewise, > we have the Shastras, the scriptures, our Acharyas, Gurus, elders and more > all pointing to how we should lead our lives, what we should eat, what we > need to wear for the temple, what we can do to help others, and so on, which > you may be knowing much more than I do. Whether one wants to follow these or > not is something that the individual decides. And this person shoulders the > responsibility for having made such a decision. By this I do not mean to say > that no one should be advised or helped or guided. It would be wonderful to > learn all great values and practise these. One may even be willing to listen > and learn all these but may end up not following them. It's his or her > decision. Yes, yet again this is already understood. But let us at least set that standard before praying to the Lord for further help ! that is why this list and so many other such lists are there ! not to take pity upon ourselves and cry but to save the situation to the best of our abilities. These days even vaishnava parents are sleeping at times or becoming lax in the name of adaptability in this regard. Then when the child finally breaks all barriers they sit and cry ! what is the use ? let us first do our duty before saying ultimately upto the Lord and the individual. we are not to promote a sense of helplessness in the name of individual choice. > Learned friends, I do find some of you getting offended for no reason at > all. Your outbursts! Does it help you? None of us are getting offended here. Kindly do not likewise feel offended when nothing of that nature has been intended in any of our mails. We have merely been firm in asserting what is shastric and what is ashastric. There is no explosion or outburst on the list at all, unless you have created one in your imagination. There is nothing we can do about that. Anyway, we are all learning - no malice intended. :-) Nothing that has not been created by us has the need to help us. dasan R. Jai Simman Singapore
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