Hindu sacrifice of 250,000 animals begins

reply to post by Libertygal


Ahhh, turkeys! I hadnt even thought of it. The US just got done ritualistacally eating tens of millions of them on teh same day, except everyone let the butcher do it for them.

reply to post by IgnoranceIsntBlisss


Exactly. Mine is in the fridge, waiting to be cooked tomorrow. (My husband gets one from his work every year)

Funny, though, how we are so wrapped in our own world, that seeing other cultures would be shocking to us.

That's simply what my story was about, I was shocked at his killing 3 goats, when we kill turkeys and it's all good.

Granted, we in America do not slaughter the animals in a public celebration of religion, but realistically Thanksgiving, along with all of our holidays *has* become a religion of sorts, most particularly, a financial one.

Seriosly, how many people really thought about the pilgrims when they sat down to eat on Thanksgiving? Perhaps in passing, but not in any real depth, I can almost assure you.

Same with Christmas. So many people have used the word "commercialized" that it has become cliche', but in reality, that's what it is all about. Commercialism, and the stores raking it in. Now that the food fest is over, we have "Black Friday".

How much more evil could you get than Black Friday? Of course, it is meant to be "sales in the black", or profit, but it makes me feel creepy, and I avoid black Friday like the plague.

The Black Plague.

reply to post by karl 12
Oh how horrible man is. He abuses and kills all in the name of God / Goddess.

Won't we as a species ever grow up.

Animals and children have no voice, no rights and so the abuse continues.

People who do this kind of stuff in my opinon are primitive savages.





[edit on 27-11-2009 by ofhumandescent]

reply to post by kindred


After I saw the OP, I went and looked up the info on this festival. Seems pretty interesting to me in a lot of ways, but the things that caught my attention were a couple really interesting facts about Hinduism. I was going to skip it all together, but in keeping with the thread, I will add them.

hinduism.about.com...

Hinduism is the world's oldest extant religion, with a billion followers, which makes it the world's third largest religion. Hinduism is a conglomeration of religious, philosophical, and cultural ideas and practices that originated in India, characterized by the belief in reincarnation, one absolute being of multiple manifestations, the law of cause and effect, following the path of righteousness, and the desire for liberation from the cycle of births and deaths.

There are some interesting points here, which others have brought up in the thread, about their beliefs in reincarnation. Note that last line, they seek "liberation from the cycle". I did not know this.

I also was not aware this was the oldest extant religion. People talk about Christianity being the oldest religion, I got used to hearing it. Just another parroted line, though.

The religious tradition of Hinduism is solely responsible for the creation of such original concepts and practices as Yoga, Ayurveda, Vastu, Jyotish, Yajna, Puja, Tantra, Vedanta, Karma, etc.

How odd we find ourselves using their terms and meanings in our everyday life. Particularly, yoga and karma.

Hinduism has its origins in such remote past that it cannot be traced to any one individual. Some scholars believe that Hinduism must have existed even in circa 10000 B.C. and that the earliest of the Hindu scriptures – The Rig Veda – was composed well before 6500 B.C.

Again, wow.

I found it interesting the festival is once every 5 years. Considering the food is used, and the hides, once every 5 years isn't disconcerting to me. Seems if the people are really having that much issue with hunger, perhaps it should happen every year. It is a means to an end...

I think what offends us is the publicness of it all, the seemingly needless bloodshed, the seeming barbarism of it all. Other posters were right, we are just shielded from that in our lives, so to us, it is disgusting and sick.

And I saved the best for last, let us not forget the Kama Sutra. No links for that one!

I work with many Indian people at my job, but very few call themselves "Hindi, or Hindu". They almost all refer to themselves as Indian, and Christian.

Anyway, the thread was great for the learning experience, and particularly because of my story I added, I took time to learn some things I didn't know.

After the millions of turkeys slaughtered in the US, I just can't stand in any kind of judgement, I just found it interesting, and what a wonderful learning experience!

Edit for typos

[edit on 27-11-2009 by Libertygal]

reply to post by Libertygal


The Buddha founded Buddhism and he *died half a century before Christ (something like that).

There are many similar spiritual principles at the core between Hinduism and Buddhism. This is not a coincidence. The Buddha was born in India. The Buddha called Buddhism the 'Middle Way. This was a middle way between Hinduism and Jainism (the religions in India at the time).

I think the oldest religion is probably coming out of Sumer tho, or cave shamans

Also, don't forget the 'Old Testament' section of Christian bibles comes from an older religion

[edit on 28-11-2009 by silver tongue devil]

reply to post by Libertygal


Libertygal,interesting stuff - Carl Sagan once said an intriguing thing about Hinduism:

The Hindu religion is the only one of the world's great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond, to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long. Longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang. And there are much longer time scales still.

Carl Sagan, astrophysicist

Albert Einstein also (may have) said this about Buddism:

"Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and the spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity."

Albert Einstein

tricycleblog.wordpress.com...

As for 'appeasing the gods' with the ritual slaughter and blood sacrifice of all these animals - would it make any difference to your opinions if the carcasses were not eaten and just left there to rot?

[edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12]

The Goddess want to see blood...she is not partaking of it however.
How did so many cultures get the idea that their Gods & Godesses wanted them to kill animals or people?

So these people are bringing their own Oxen to be sacrificed?

And the carcass is Given to the Meat Processors?

I guess their dreams are coming true..All that profit and so little investment.

I am a hindu. And let me make one fact clear. Though the religion is same through out India and Nepal, the culture and religious practises will change from state to state. So, while we here in south India believe that performing a marriage between two donkeys will bring rain(trust me, it works) and hence prosperity to land, the people there believe that this kind of sacrifice will please the gods. And this is being followed from the ancient times, alebit with a modern twist of selling the animals to companies instead of storing them and consuming them as food.

So, it is not a issue with the religion as a whole. It is with the belief and culture of that region.

Originally posted by EnlightenUp

I'll judge all I please as I am entitled to do so by birthright.

Okay, Thomas Hobbes. The only "birthright" you have is to breathe. "Birthright." Pffft. :shk:

[edit on 28-11-2009 by SpeakerofTruth]

Originally posted by SpeakerofTruth

Originally posted by EnlightenUp

I'll judge all I please as I am entitled to do so by birthright.

Okay, Thomas Hobbes. The only "birthright" you have is to breathe. "Birthright." Pffft. :shk:

[edit on 28-11-2009 by SpeakerofTruth]

Partially in comment to an above poster and to you, how come everything seems to "please the Gods" but sensitivity, decency, sharing and love?

And, I'm not sure what you're driving at regarding the idea of negative liberties. I suppose you aren't much of a fan of the U.S. Constitution even in principle. Just sound like pessimism to me.

reply to post by aorAki
I gave you a star for that cute doggie. No animal should be abused, or "sacraficed" in the name of "god/goddess".

What a cute doggie............he/she was lucky to be born in USA.

reply to post by halfmanhalfamazing
I grew up on a dairy farm, and cows are like dogs - they follow you around and are very sweet loving animals. They are not "smart" but sweet and loving. We should not be eating them, at least the way they are "butchered" is cruel.

Animals have a soul. They are beings just like we are. Maybe not as "intellegent" but does that give us the right to torture them?

Karma.

What you condone, you ensure as your "karma". You have an individual karma and a group karma as well.

Read Gail Eisnitzs "Slaugher House". I am well researched on "animal rights". Humanity still sucks big time on this one issue.

All life is sacred.

[edit on 30-11-2009 by ofhumandescent]

Originally posted by EnlightenUp

Originally posted by Doc Tesla
its a different culture who are we to judge?

what about all the turkeys that will be killed tomorrow for our festival?

I'll judge all I please as I am entitled to do so by birthright. Some cultures suck.

Anyway, I think the turkeys were killed and frozen in advance behind closed doors. You can hardly call that the same thing now, can you?

No really you cant...how many TURKEYS were killed for America this year?
250,000?..
no hardly that more like in the MILLIONS, possibly (or probably) the multi millions.
As well...the Hindu's treat the animals WAY better than the turkeys ever have been. The difference between them and us, is they REALIZE what we are doing. Just because its behind "close doors" does not make it better. If anything im sure 90% of Americans ate turkey this year, and never really thought much of it. Im sure they did NOT think of there living conditions, what this animals death would bring to us.
At least they see there animal deaths, as a way of bringing positive into there life. And are thankful and grateful towards the animals. Rather than you and all the other families, not concerned with HOW the turkeys died, HOW they died, What there living conditions were, and what this food actually MEANS.

This is the exact definition of "barbaric".

Since when did the Hindus start acting like cavemen?

Disgusting, and pathetic no less. Sacrifice healthy animals because you think it will make your way of life easier. How ridiculous!

The same thing should be done to the ones that are doing the killing.

Originally posted by EnlightenUp

Originally posted by Doc Tesla
reply to post by EnlightenUp

 

are the animals being killed?

yes they are. it doesn't matter how you take a life. what matters is that its gone.

When I reduce that to its essential property, namely taking a life, I find that it doesn't really matter what sort of life either. It's a matter of one's judgement and a matter of conscience where the lines are drawn. Aim for the minimum you can.

I'll take it to the logical extreme and say that this world sucks, irrespective of culture. At least I'm condemning actions, the actions and reactions, and not people per say.

For someone who's name is "enlightened up" you surely ARE NOT.
Life is suffering, that IS this world. You can not change certain things in this world. And this is one of them. "life sucks".... an enlightened person would NEVER say or state, nor believe that. Life sucks...life is what you make of it. Sure there is suffering, but its very necessary part of this world. Without it you would never know the otherwise.

Originally posted by karl 12

Originally posted by Violater1
The turkeys here are served with yams, gravy with mashed potatoes, cranberries, and dressing. Very Delicious.:lol

Yes, turkeys are eaten as a food-source but it appears these animals are being 'sacrificed' due to some 'superstitious bloodlust'.



Really Karl??...lol
turkeys were needed for a FOOD SOURCE??...
your telling me that you and your family had NOTHING else to eat...it was a matter of life and DEATH...and you NEEDED ITS LIFE, to substation your owN?
haha hardly...
Americans i swear...quick to point out other cultures wrongs, but will never admit to there own.
Yes...All of america NEEDED the MULTI-MILLIONS of turkeys that were served this past week, to SUSTAIN life as you said...
right

reply to post by space cadet
You are not hindering them, as most American doggies live better than the rest of the world.

Love your doggies, give them hugs, kisses and the rest of "it". You are not "hindering" them but enriching them..........they are lucky to have been included in your life. It shows how generous and kind you are.

If they were using all the parts of these animals, it would be fine.

If they were using some of the parts, it would be alright, as long as it benefits those who are hungry, and that they ensure that the populations of the animals will still be sustainable.

If they're not using any of the parts, that's really a bummer. Ship them somewhere where people will use them.

Edit- Remember, domesticating animals is sort of ridiculous and weird, too.

So is drinking milk.

And genetically modifying veggies.

You can't get away from it, no matter what you do.

[edit on 11/30/2009 by ravenshadow13]

Originally posted by kaskade
For someone who's name is "enlightened up" you surely ARE NOT.
Life is suffering, that IS this world. You can not change certain things in this world. And this is one of them. "life sucks".... an enlightened person would NEVER say or state, nor believe that. Life sucks...life is what you make of it. Sure there is suffering, but its very necessary part of this world. Without it you would never know the otherwise.

What you are saying is that if there is no suffering, there is no life. But, you do provide the way out by saying that (life is suffering), IS this world. Thus, there is part of this world where there is no life and no suffering up to life, suffering and this world being the equivalent. More strictly, you are saying this world is greater than or equal to suffering and suffering greater than or equal to life. Saying that there is a world without suffering would strangely be without life. But, if life it what we make it, our choices and actions shape it and therefore can transmute it thusly, by degrees, into life without suffering. Life cannot be suffering if we can choose what to make of it. It is not bound by suffering and possibly not by this world. There must be life without suffering, which contradicts the original proposition that life is suffering, is this world.

Another flagrant and decidedly demonic lie is that, as such all polarities must be actualized rather than potentiated in order to provide the contrast. Take temperature. Nothing in the universe need actually realize absolute zero for the possibility to be...possible.

Silly wabbit.

Edit to illustrate:


Edit again: Use more stringently precise inequalities.

[edit on 11/30/2009 by EnlightenUp]

[edit on 11/30/2009 by EnlightenUp]

reply to post by kaskade


I think your sarcasm detector needs a tuneup. You bet it concerns me. It all concerns me and is personally a very painful awareness exacerbated also by my own participation in this level.

So, feel free to attack me. It practically feels like nothing in the larger scheme. "Practically" because it helps divert me a little bit from that pain. For that gift I must bless you...and give thanks. You are my proverbial thanksgiving turkey.



[edit on 11/30/2009 by EnlightenUp]