Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 11.5.14
Ūti· What drives us to actReligious Pride Cannot Excuse Animal Cruelty
“Those sinful persons who are ignorant of actual religious principles, yet consider themselves to be completely pious, without compunction commit violence against innocent animals who are fully trusting in them. In their next lives, such sinful persons will be eaten by the same creatures they have killed in this world.”
What the purport teaches
- Claiming to be pious does not excuse violence against innocent animals. The purport connects such cruelty with failure to accept the supremacy and law of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- An animal may trust the person who feeds and protects it, without knowing that this person intends to kill it. Slaughter betrays that helpless creature’s trust.
- The purport teaches that killing animals or eating meat creates a debt to those living beings. The offender must repay that debt by having his own body consumed in a future life.
Try this today
Choose a meal without meat today, remembering the innocent animals whose lives are spared.
Ask yourself
Do my choices toward animals agree with my wish to follow the Supreme Lord’s laws?
Carry the question through the day, then answer it in your own words before sleep.
From Canto 10, chapter 14 onward, the translation and purports were completed by Śrīla Prabhupāda's disciples after his departure, and published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.