We Are All Sentient Beings!
By Parasuram das
Breaking News from the UK! This week a news story came that shocked the
nation. A footballer from West Ham Utd was seen on video kicking a cat.
The story infuriated practically the whole UK population. The footballer
received heavy chastisement, a £250,000 fine, his two cats were taken away
and he’s likely to lose his job. Over 7 days the story hit the news
headlines on television, radio and social media. Despite public opinion the
footballer was allowed to play a match in Watford the day after the news
broke. But every time he touched the ball the fans would show their
disapproval by booing him. Then he suffered an injury and the whole stadium
sang “this is because you kicked the cat”. Instant karma?
A message one could pull from this story is:
1) people generally believe in the law of karma.
2) most people don’t like to see a defenceless creature mistreated.
3) deep inside people are by nature caring and kind.
Yet every year in the UK approximately *2.6 million cattle, 10 million
pigs, 14.5 million sheep and lambs*, 80 million fish and 950 million birds
are slaughtered for human consumption.
There is an urgency to distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books in order to
bring a revolution in consciousness.
The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees with equal vision a
learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater
[outcaste]
A Krsna conscious person does not make any distinction between species or
castes. The brahmana and the outcaste may be different from the social
point of view, or a dog, a cow, or an elephant may be different from the
point of view of species, but these differences of body are meaningless
from the viewpoint of a learned transcendentalist. This is due to their
relationship to the Supreme, for the Supreme Lord, by His plenary portion
as Paramatma, is present in everyone’s heart. Such an understanding of the
Supreme is real knowledge.