Impact of culture on religion - An analysis of history - Part 3

Another great aspect of Buddhism was the emphasis on service, compassion and kindness for all. Buddha himself wanted to sacrifice his life to protect the lambs meant for the Vedic yagna. It is no wonder that his main thrust was on ahimsa or non violence for all. Swami Vivekananda had said that it was Buddhist influence that largely contributed to the later Hindu traditions of protecting cows from slaughter, although Ahimda was a fundamental tenet in Vedic Hinduism as well as Jainism, more so in Jainism. However before the Buddhist period it was largely forgotten owing to the dominance of the rituals or karmakanda (Vedic sacrifices) that required sacrifices. The sacrifices in fact formed an important constituent of all major religions, including the Abrahamic religions. That Ahimsa was the highest principle was emphatically declared in Gita and Gita also questioned the infallibility of Vedas, because, according to Sri Krishna, the sacrifices were done with a view of quenching the desires of power, fame and heavenly pleasures in the afterlife. Therefore according to Gita the rituals did not give any lasting spiritual benefit to the aspirants. Only when the rituals were carried out without any desire and work was done for the sake of doing it, as an offering or oblation to the great universal cosmic spirit who was firmly established in all yagnas as the Lord Supreme, the rituals bestowed great spiritual progress. It is interesting to note that bull slaughter was done as part of Vedic rituals in the honour of guests or gods. It is mentioned in Mahabharata that in the palace of king Rantideva about 21000 bulls were sacrificed every day for feeding the Brahmins and their blood and skin resulted in the origin of a river called Charmanavati. The same king Rantideva is hailed in the Puranas as a great devotee of Vishnu. In Mahabharata it is also described as to how the sages had a fight with the gods on the concept of animal sacrifice in the Vedas. While gods with Indra at the helm were in favor of animal sacrifices, sages were not - the real dispute was whether "aja" to be used in sacrifices stood for goats or for grains. Rishis stood for grains and gods for goats. They took help from king Vasu, who sides with the gods. Rishis cursed the king for his duplicity and the gods took pity on him an showed a way out of his distress. This story allegorically refers to the great conflict between those who believed in sacrifices in their literal sense while those who considered non violence as the highest principle. Both of them were present in Vedic India and they had periodic conflicts. In fact it would appear that because Kshatriya had to live on meat to derive their physical strength,some of the leading Brahmins who did not depend on rituals for their sustenance decried the practice.  However other Brahmins, because of their greed for gold accruing from sacrifices or other reasons advocated the practice of animal slaughter and this took a new height just before the advent of Buddha. The compassion of Lord Buddha and the impact of Buddhism, more so during the reign of Dharmashoka, almost eliminated animal slaughter. Although the Brahmins did not quite accept the entire dictum, they nevertheless respected the injunction as regards the slaughter of bulls and cows - cow being equated with the mother and the mother earth (Samkrit Go, Ga or Gau stands for both cow and earth). Particularly in Southern India which was more orthodox and where Buddhist influence was low, Brahmins adopted complete abstention from meat. Gujarat and Western regions had considerable influence from Jains and thus had already given up meat eating. Thus Buddhism influenced Hinduism and Indian society to initiate a major reform - of protecting animals. In the post Buddhist era Vedic rituals thus died a natural death, slowly but surely. A branch of Hinduism, the Vaishnavism was greatly influenced by this principle of Ahimsa and practiced compassion towards all creature - much like Buddhists. However Buddhism also influenced another major branch of Hinduism - that of Tantra, and the influence was more negative than positive, esp. during the phase of degradation of Buddhism.