Meditations on The Journey Home – Lesson from Chapter 2
Inspirations from ‘The Journey Home ‐ Autobiography of an American Swami’
On entering India, Richard found everything excitingly new, yet very familiar. On the very first day Richard was exposed to a variety of experiences. He saw a multitude of people gathered at the railway station; some cooking, others begging, few lepers and dozens sleeping peacefully amidst the deafening noise all around. He also dangerously dived into a moving train and shared a compartment with two hundred people, in a coach which had the capacity of sixty. He was fed bhang, an intoxicating drink derived from the cannabis plant. Still reeling under its hypnotic effect, a snake charmer put a deadly snake around his chest and demanded fifty rupees. If this wasn’t enough, he ate a red hot chilli pepper and his mouth erupted into flames. Richard absorbed every bit of the panoramic scene of India’s capital, Delhi, and found the atmosphere to be a celebration of life.
A kind hearted man offered dinner to Richard, and while eating, Richard was moved to see a cow and a calf share loving exchanges, so similar to a human mother and a child. Just then, Richard’s host pointed out to pieces of meat on Richard’s plate, and for the first time Richard made a connection between his diet and the suffering of animals. He lost his composure, dissolved into tears, and was shaken with nausea.
“As I was dozing off on a bed of twine under the starlit winter sky, the mother and baby cow appeared in my dream. Their gentle, tearful eyes looked helplessly into mine while the blade of a butcher ruthlessly slaughtered them for meat. From my heart burst the biblical commandment: “Thou shalt not kill.” … I awoke from the nightmare in a state of unbearable nausea and rushed to the toilet for relief. I could see only those two cows gazing at me with their innocent eyes… In that dark, rooftop latrine in Old Delhi, I offered another vow before my Lord. I will never again eat meat.”
Benjamin Franklin’s words echo in my mind, “Flesh eating is unprovoked murder.” To a spiritual novice as myself, meat eating isn’t attractive for other reasons. A meat diet has hazardous effects on the environment such as forest destruction, agricultural inefficiency, soil erosion and desertification, water depletion, and air and water pollution. Meat eating is also directly related to world hunger. If all the soya beans and grains fed yearly to U.S. livestock were set aside for human consumption, it would feed 1.3 billion people. While it takes only 25 gallons of water to produce a pound of wheat, it takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat. Harvard nutritionist Jean Mayer has estimated that reducing meat production by just 10 percent would release enough grain to feed 60 million people.
Besides the environmental hazards and impact on poverty, meat eating is also unnatural for humans. I ask myself, if I am stranded in a jungle with nothing to eat, and I see an apple tree and a goat grazing, what would be my natural choice? Will I jump on the goat and feast on its flesh or am I more naturally inclined to eat an apple? Since fruits and vegetables are the natural diet for humans, those with an unnatural meat diet are more susceptible to diseases and disorders as compared to their vegetarian counterparts. Comprehensive investigations by groups such as the National Academy of American Sciences have linked meat eating to cancer, and the journal of American Medicine reports: “90-97% of heart disease could be prevented by a vegetarian diet.” Albert Einstien thus noted, “It is my view that the vegetarian matter of living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.”
For an aspiring spiritualist, Mahatma Gandhi’s words of wisdom ring in the ears, “I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants.” Richard had reached this stage of spiritual progress, and his sensitivity spurred him to vow giving up meat.
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Founder-acharya of the International Society For Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)
“Go to India” a sweet but commanding voice; spoke up in the heart of young Richard (later Radhanath Swami) who was immersed in meditation, his search for meaning in life has brought him to the Isle of Crete. Today he was ordered to go to India. Born and raised in the middle class suburbs of Chicago, Radhanath swami grew up in the 1950’s and 60’s era when popular musicians protested war, prejudice and social injustice. Radhanath swami would listen to these songs again and again, but their lyrics referring to God stirred his soul. Peter, Paul and Mary- the folk trio from Greenswich village sang in their debut album
“Early in the morning, about the break of day
I ask the Lord, to help me find my way”
This simple prayer was to guide Radhanath swami in the coming years of his life........
As we sow, so shall we reap. The merciless & inhuman killings of the innocent animals is bringing about so much strife, violence & terror in our “civilised” society.
To know more about HH Radhanath Swami Maharaj, please visit http://www.radhanathswami.blogspot.com/
View CommentCommon sense is so uncommen …
View CommentThanks for heart rendering meditations. Maharaj is so sensitive that he took a vow to never eat meat again and followed. I also wish to follow in his footsteps and wish to become more sensitive and compassionate.
View CommentPeter Burwash gives emphasis on ‘Harmony’ in all relationships and all the spheres of life. Maharaj truly lives by this principle.
Amazing, to convince people Radhanath Swami Maharaj goes to the extent of finding out the statistics, “If all the soya beans and grains fed yearly to U.S. livestock were set aside for human consumption, it would feed 1.3 billion people. While it takes only 25 gallons of water to produce a pound of wheat, it takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat.”….Radhanath Swami takes great care to prove the things in the best way that, today’s society can realte to!
You can also visit http://audio.iskcondesiretree.info/index.php?q=f&f=%2F02_-_ISKCON_Swamis%2FHis_Holiness_Radhanath_Swami%2FLectures%2F00_-_Year_wise to hear from Radhanath swami
View CommentRadhanath Maharaj ki jay!
View CommentEvery action has equal and opposite re-action.
View Commentvery inspiring. Radhanath swami is a rare soul
View CommentHare Krishna
View CommentMaharaj is so crystal clear in his expression of emotions and thoughts along with references from Holy Scriptures.
Many foolish people put their own mental concoction (indirectly trying to justify their uncontrolled taste for meat).
Really true, mankind must wake up to this fact. Better early than be late.
View Commentcan all the non-vegeterain proponents take note of this…
View Commentvery true. heart touching experience. we have seen slaughter house in Mumbai during our MBBS course as a visit.
View Commentit was so bad experience in my life & felt really nauseated & left eating non-veg after that.
Once I argued with a Indian-Hindu that how he can eat beaf & he replied that a nonvegeterian person can eat anything which is living. i was shocked after hearing this.
they even don’t know where they r going.
Hare Krishna!! Wonderful article to enlighten us from dark ignorance..we don’t understand the pain we give to others but we are hurt when we actually undergo it….haribol!!
View CommentHaribol !!
View CommentSeek and you shall find – it is said in the bible. Richard was seeking Spirituality so desperately and looking to connect with God so eagerly that in every experience he could realize the hand of God & learn!
View CommentThe sooner we realize this fact, the better it is for our future journey. Thank you for this wonderful article.
View Commentmaharaj is so pure that he feels the pain of every living entity & looks them equal to all living beings. hari bol.
View Commenthow simple it is understand that animals also have a soul.
View CommentThey eat we eat, they cry we cry,all those emotions are there that we humans have,still we fail to realize that they also feel pain when we eat them for our tongue. Thank you for making me realize they are also children of god and god also loves them.
HARI HARI BOL!!!!
View CommentTo look upon everything and everyone as a invaluable property of the Lord is tough. Maharaj does this so naturally that one is just awestruck.One just cant help but get impressed and inspired by him!!
View CommentHow simple to understand that other living beings also love their offspring as much as a human being,yet there is so much of violence towards innocent harmless creatures.
View CommentWhimsical killing of innocent animals should be stopped. I appreciate Radhanath Swami’s views.
View CommentI don’t know whether I should say this but, Maharaj’s book would make an excellent script for a movie or two.
View CommentThanks Maharaj for sharing such a nice realisation…….I hope & pray that atleast a few non-vegetarian persons, after reading this will think of becoming vegetarians
View CommentMan shall have to pay for his inhuman actions by equal and opposite reactions.
View CommentRadhanath Maharaj’s realisations are heart touching , I’m sure many people would become vegetarians by reading this. Thank u very much Radhanath Swami Maharaj.
View CommentVery touching. This was indeed a thoughtful meditation by Radhanath Swami. And Radhanath Swami has so scientifically expressed his logic and emotions.
View CommentVery simple and saintly thoughts of young Richard.
Great Realisation! Animal killing should be band, Its really a very cruel way of filling up onces hunger
View CommentHH Radhanah swami has shared his heart touch touching experience in the book if everyone will feel that logically then the day will come when there will not be animal slaughtering for food at least.
View CommentA good and balanced presentation. Truth is very hard to digest. How can we love our fellow living beings, while at the same time, we in the heart of the heart, desire to eat them. This is HYPOCRISY. And it is our present civilization, polished and clean from outside, and dirty from inside.
View CommentOnce humility and gratitude takes us closer to God, that we can learn from Radhanath Swami from this Article
Thank you for beautiful article
View CommentRadhanath Swami has the vision to see all living entities as equal and all as children of Krsna
View CommentI heard in one of the spiritual discourse that anyone who eats cow meat will have to take birth as many times as the number of hairs on that cows body & get brutally killed.
View CommentThanks for such enlighting meditations
View CommentWhen I was younger, I was looking for a “scientific” reason for becoming a veggie. But gradually I realized that a humane reason is more important than a scientific one.
View CommentIf we become insensitive towards animals and kill them to satisfy our tongues, we will gradually become merciless and insensitive towards other human beings too. This is the cause of all the violence that we see around us today.
View Commentradhe radhe.
View CommentI am amazed at Radhanath Swami’s amazing quality of observing and learning from small incidents in life which for most are not even noticable.
View Commenti think radhanath swami is ecologically way ahead of every scientist studying carbon emission etc.
View CommentThanks for heart rendering meditations.
View Commentvegetables are in the mode of goodness and is a good form of nourishment to feed our tastebuds rather than killing animals and having them, which inreturn leads to a fresh sinful indulgence,
View Commentwe must follow the instructions received from our spiritual master as a word of lord himself
View CommentThe meat industry is so powerful and so lucrative that simple basic nutrional and ethical truths get suppressed, and the views of great personalities like Benjamin Franklin (quoted here), George Bernard Shaw and several others similarly enlightened, are deliberately and dishonestly hidden from public view. This is the way the world works.
View CommentIt is really a wonderful realization one can have. The one of the basic Pillar of religion is Mercy and this is the upmost one should do, that is, not killing a poor animal for the test of tounge.
View CommentRadhanath Swami Maharaj has set an example how to practice Bhakti.
He has shown us that devotional service without love and compassion for living entities is just a fake.
Radhanath Swami maharaji’s book describes all such minute things which we have to follow.
View CommentRadhanath swami ki jai!!!
It’s really amazing thing about HH Radhanath swami maharaj is that from small incidents happening around him, he learns such a great lessions and follows it with all his heart and soul. Thou Shall Not kill… is one of the example.
View CommentVery inspiring and faith giving article
View CommentHow many of us can ever think like that and get such powerful realizations from seemingly common incidents like this? Unless one is deeply connected to the divine, one cannot derive such deep realizations from every experience
View CommentAffection between cow and calf is as good as mother and child. It is natural. If a man comes to his original position, he becomes a child of God. God is Father and mother of all. Radhanath Swami realized his relationship with all living beings keeping Krishna in center. Thank you very much for this wonderful experience.
View CommentThis heart touching narration of the tearful cow and calf by Maharaj is a must read for all meat eaters who can give a thought on their eating habits.
View CommentI enjoyed your website – nice effort!
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