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Friday, April 23, 2010

Vegetarianism: The Zarathushti world view

The Zarathushti faith being a promoter of Science and Knowledge recognizes Man as the only being empowered with a "Mun"; (pronounced to rhyme with "bun") the ability to Reason. This exclusive gift of mental capability is balanced with an advisory to act like an honest Trustee of the Earth, its bounty and its other life forms.
Summarized in the Gathic dictum: 
That action is GOOD, the Most Enlightened; that results in Good outcomes for ALL;
The advisory is to avoid any or all activities that mistreat or hurt animals.
Zarathushtra preached respect for all forms of life and environment
Bahman, Mohor, Gosh, and Ram as well as, the whole month of Bahman  are days established in the Zoroastrian calendar to eat exclusively vegetarian meals.




Yasna 32-12:

"Welfare protection of animals, is enshrined in the original advisory “Geush Morendan”,

Slaughtering animals by painful, non-enlightened methods is forbidden.
According to Dr. Pallan Ichaporia,in his writeup "Vegeterianism in Zoroastrian Teachings", "edict against beef eating from High Priest Atrupat-e Emetan in Denkard Book VI written in the 9 century circa. .......

"ku.san enez a-on ku urwar xwarishn bawed shmah mardoman ku derziwishn bawed, ud az tan i gospand pahrezed, ce amar was, eg Ohrmaz i xwaday hay.yarih i gospand ray urwar was dad."
"They hold this also: Be plant eaters (urwar xwarishn) (ie vegetarian), O you, men , so that you may live long. Keep away from the body of cattle (tan i gospand), and deeply reckon that Ohrmazd, the Lord has created plants in great number for helping cattle (and men)." "
 For those who opine thoughtlessly that Asho Zarathushtra had recommended in the Gathas to eat meat; read before spouting garbage.
“O ye men! You partake of a vegetarian diet so that you may have a long life.-"Din-kard"
- Dinkard Book VI Prof. S. Shaked, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1979.”"

Further Reading-Eduljee (Heritage Institute)

1 comment:

zaneta said...

I agree with a vegetarian lifestyle, kinder to animals and saves land and water to be used for vegetable production instead-meat production has afterall a 90% waste level, so the same land and water can be used to produce food for much more people-also there is no production of methane gas which comes from cattle and is a powerful greenhouse gas