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Animal slaughter in the RigVeda
Dear Friends:
In a previous post, I wrote that I do not know of beef eating references
in the Vedas, and I gave some references from the Manusamhita. I maintain
such a position since I do not know the guhA-nihita meanings of the
RigVedic verses.
Investigating further, I came across a bunch of references in the RigVeda
that talk about animal slaughter, at least they appear to be. I strongly
believe that unless the symbolism used in the Vedas are kept in mind, the
verses do not give straight, even uniform meaning. However, I read that
scholars refer to several verses to support the animal eating practices.
I am not able to judge either the verses or the merits of the translations,
but here are some of these references:
Bull (vrisha) meat eating (1, 164.43, 10.86.13, 14), buffalo meat eating
(5.29.8) , goat meat eating (1.162.3) etc. appear to be part of socially
accepted practices in the straight meaning of these verses.
I would like to draw your special attention to one particular verse that
will illustrate the difficulty I referred to, but luckily, we have Sri
Aurobindo helping us out here:
asya shreshThA subhagasya samdug devasya chitratamA marteshu.
shuchi ghritam na taptamadhyAnyAyAH spArhA devasya manhaneva dhenoH. 4.1.16
The literal meaning of this verse is:
Most glorious is the vision of this Godhead, most richly bright in
mortals: as if the pure and warm butter of the milch-cow that can not be
slain, her desirable gift is the vision of the Godhead. (Hymns to the
mystic fire - Sri Aurobindo). Sri Aurobindo explains what this reference
to the cow really means:
"Here the connection between Fire and Ray-cow and Aditi comes out: so
also the psychological nature of the clarified butter and its connection
with the vision of the Sun.
Who is this cow that "can not be slain" if not the cow aditi - the
Infinite Mother - the supreme Divine consciousness creative of the
cosmos, of the gods and the demons, of men and of all that is?"
This passage may perhaps be difficult to follow if you are not familiar
with Sri Aurobindo's style of writing, and his use of words. This is a
very important verse politically, since it supposedly is the one RigVedic
verse that suggests cows are not to be killed by men. It is obviously a
misrepresentation.
I would not be so presumptuous to try to explain better than Sri
Aurobindo, but I could add a few notes on word use. The Divine Mother is
the Shakti personality of God, the Brahma-yoni or Mahad-Brahma (SBG),
with which the creation was created. By psychological, Sri Aurobindo
refers to psyche = spirit meaning, therefore, psychological is spiritual.
With best regards,
Dhruba.
