World Colleges Information

Chapter. 26. The Renunciation of Flesh
Kural-251
How can the wont of 'kindly grace' to him be known,
Who other creatures' flesh consumes to feed his own?
Meaning : How can he be possessed of kindness, who to increase his own flesh, eats the flesh of other creatures.
Kural-252
No use of wealth have they who guard not their estate;
No use of grace have they with flesh who hunger sate.
Meaning : As those possess no property who do not take care of it, so those possess no kindness who feed on flesh.
Kural-253
Like heart of them that murderous weapons bear, his mind,
Who eats of savoury meat, no joy in good can find.
Meaning : Like the (murderous) mind of him who carries a weapon (in his hand), the mind of him who feasts with pleasure on the body of another (creature), has no regard for goodness.
Kural-254
'What's grace, or lack of grace'? 'To kill' is this, that 'not to kill';
To eat dead flesh can never worthy end fulfil.
Meaning : If it be asked what is kindness and what its opposite, the answer would be preservation and destruction of life; and therefore it is not right to feed on the flesh (obtained by taking away life).
Kural-255
If flesh you eat not, life's abodes unharmed remain;
Who eats, hell swallows him, and renders not again.
Meaning : Not to eat flesh contributes to the continuance of life; therefore if a man eat flesh, hell will not open its mouth (to let him escape out, after he has once fallen in).
Kural-256
'We eat the slain,' you say, by us no living creatures die;
Who'd kill and sell, I pray, if none came there the flesh to buy?
Meaning : If the world does not destroy life for the purpose of eating, then no one would sell flesh for the sake of money.
Kural-257
With other beings' ulcerous wounds their hunger they appease;
If this they felt, desire to eat must surely cease.
Meaning : If men should come to know that flesh is nothing but the unclean ulcer of a body, let them abstain from eating it.
Kural-258
Whose souls the vision pure and passionless perceive,
Eat not the bodies men of life bereave.
Meaning : The wise, who have freed themselves from mental delusion, will not eat the flesh which has been severed from an animal.
Kural-259
Than thousand rich oblations, with libations rare,
Better the flesh of slaughtered beings not to share.
Meaning : Not to kill and eat (the flesh of) an animal, is better than the pouring forth of ghee etc., in a thousand sacrifices.
Kural-260
Who slays nought,- flesh rejects- his feet before
All living things with clasped hands adore.
Meaning : All creatures will join their hands together, and worship him who has never taken away life, nor eaten flesh.