NOT ALL GODS ARE VEGETARIAN

                                              picture credits- Hari Menon Photography    

While many call it a 'ritual' , I call it a SLAUGHTER.

  India is God's own land, where people go to any extent to impress Him. We have been successful in showing some diversity here too, while some reach Him through poojas and idol worships or by Havans
many see self torture as a divine medium and some keep themselves in a safer position by constructing the path to God by using the corpse of animals.

  In India, from smaller animals like hens and goats to larger ones like buffaloes, all have got a 'divine' cause of death- for the Almighty.

Devotees who worship by burning, torturing and piercing themselves are any day better than those who shed blood of animals because they are doing it to themselves by their own will!
 The poor animals are killed to be presented as an offering or a tribute or an oblation to the God.

Some Hindus believe  sacrificing an animal can wash away their sins.
I would rather suggest them to 'wash away' their sins in the holy waters of Ganga than in the blood of animals.
 In the Phulpati festival, a goose is sacrificed.
 People gather in a temple where the priest first worships the goose, tilaks it and bathe it.
 The goose, would have been feeling good at the special treatment until its neck it chopped and the                         blood is offered to the idol of Goddess Durga.

Animals are usually killed using the 'Jhatka' method, where the animal is killed in a single blow.
This is because Hindus believe that it is a bad omen if the animal makes a sound before dying.
Some may sacrifice the animal  by piercing its heart with a a spike or by choking it!

'God lives in his own creatures' is a line much unknown by the devotees who sought to impress their Deity but end up killing His own creatures.

The worst instance of animal sacrifice, I could discover was the Gandhimai festival.
This slaughter is held in Nepal but witness a huge participation of Indians.

This cruel way of worship takes place once in five years where 250,000 animals are killed in a month!
It is not one of those where a single small animal is killed, it is a MASS SACRIFICE where buffaloes are killed. As the dawn breaks, the festival officially opened with the sacrifice of two rats, two pigeons, a pig and a rooster in the main temple, to cheers of "Long Live Gadhimai".
In the main event, 250 appointed residents with traditional kukri knives began their task of decapitating more than 10,000 buffaloes in a dusty enclosure guarded by high walls.

And to make things worse and more inhumane this blood is not offered to the goddess but is drunk by the priest directly from the body of the sacrificed animal.

 

   During, Ed-ul- Adha, Muslims of the country sacrifice a large mammal like a goat or a camel or sheep. Over 100 million are slaughtered during this 48 hour period

 It is sad to know that we are foolish enough to believe that taking the life of an animal who does not have the tongue to protest can fulfill our wishes, wipe away our sins, make us stronger and can impress the God.

While animal sacrifice, in many places is no longer a popular creed, it is widely practiced in several parts of our country because it is not easy to explain the conservatives that it is NOT  a ritual or culture it is murder and slaughter.


Maybe they would realize this only when God himself would descend and tell them -" I AM A VEGETARIAN !"

“Could a being create the fifty billion galaxies 

each with two hundred billion stars 

then rejoice in the smell of burning goat flesh?” 

― Ron Patterson

     

                         India is INDEED God's own land !

THE ACTUAL SIN

His eyes were dry
 and his face like a morning flower, which was yet to bloom
Like a snail he crawled
His entangled legs seemed be fooled
He didn’t want but could not stay
 His heart had a sea of words
 But not a word he could say

The bright sunshine could not compel him to blink,
The fluttering butterflies could not snatch his attention
 Even the color soaked kites in the sky could not for him to admire them.
The fragrance of fresh crêpes could not change the path he walked
His direction was determined and he walked along the tall trees that seemed to pluck balls of cotton from the sky.

Finally his feet came to rest and he raised his head to see a white church amidst the busy market
He stepped into the chapel and looked around. A tear dropped on his polished shoes. His heart melted like the candles that burned in the glory of Lord Jesus
He seeked the blessings from Jesus and turned towards the confession box.
 His heart had locked in a sin, a sin he could not forgive himself for. He dragged himself into the close both. It took him a great effort to unseal his lips that stuck together because they were too dry and in a shaky voice he spoke –

“ It is not a murder Nor a robbery, for which I am here to confess
It is worse. It is darker. It is unforgivable.
It is something that eats me inside. It is something that hollows the emotion of love.
I have committed a sin, for which no punishment is severe I have committed a sin for which no confession can cover up.”

 But son, what sin have you committed? -Echoed a fragile voice from the other side.

“The sin of BETRAYAL- the actual sin.
   I stood in the witness box, and in the witness box just in front of me stood the accused-my dear friend  The prosecutor questioned me while my friend’s yearning eyes dripped hope. I glanced at the public and other witnesses present in the court.  A man in the jet black suit signaled me. I crossed my heart and declared:

Yes my eyes saw my friend murder the victim at the party last night, who fell from the roof
A friend accusing a friend is more than any evidence or proof
 He is a devil. He is a murderer.
This is all I have got to say
 Punish him, so that justice may prevail."

  I lied! I lied oh Father! My friend is innocent but my job was at stake. My boss pushed that girl at the annual bank party But he stuffed my mouth with the fear of loosing of loosing my job and lured me by tempting me for money and promotion. Today my friend is behind the bars because I betrayed him Today he is considered guilty because I lied !  My tongue shivers when I call myself his friend because I am no friend of his.  I am a traitor, a betrayer, a deserter. I must be hanged, I shall not live

The next thing father could recollect was a loud shout. He rushed to the other side of the confession box to see a dead body He had killed himself. he could not live with the guilt of committing the actual sin – Betrayal.