The basic principles of irreligiosity, such as pride, prostitution,
intoxication and falsehood, counteract the four principles of religion,
namely austerity, cleanliness, mercy and truthfulness. The personality
of Kali was given permission to live in four places particularly
mentioned by the King, namely the place of gambling, the place of
prostitution, the place of drinking and the place of animal slaughter.
Srila Jiva Gosvami directs that drinking against the principles of
scriptures, such as the sautramaniyajna,
association with women outside marriage, and killing animals against
the injunctions of scriptures are irreligious. In the Vedas two
different types of injunctions are there for the pravrttas, or those who are engaged in material enjoyment, and for the nivrttas, or those who are liberated from material bondage.
The Vedic injunction for the pravrttas
is to gradually regulate their activities towards the path of
liberation. Therefore, for those who are in the lowest stage of
ignorance and who indulge in wine, women and flesh, drinking by
performing sautramani-yajna,
association of women by marriage and flesh-eating by sacrifices are
sometimes recommended. Such recommendations in the Vedic literature are
meant for a particular class of men, and not for all. But because they
are injunctions of the Vedas for particular types of persons, such
activities by the pravrttas are not considered adharma.
One man’s food may be poison for others; similarly, what is recommended
for those in the mode of ignorance may be poison for those in the mode
of goodness.
Srila Jiva Gosvami Prabhu, therefore, affirms that
recommendations in the scriptures for a certain class of men are never
to be considered adharma, or irreligious. But such activities are factually adharma, and they are never to be encouraged. The recommendations in the scriptures are not meant for the encouragement of such adharma, but for regulating the necessary adharma gradually toward the path of dharma.
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