“Yes, we must set up our society as a school as best we can—I have already sent you letter. Please formulate the whole curriculum because we have to immediately submit to the Draft department and if this is accepted that will be great gain for our society. “Bhakti-sastri” is awarded after extensive study of Bhagavad-gita, Easy Journey, and Nectar of Devotion. “Bhakti-vaibhava” is awarded after study of Vedanta-sutra and Srimad-Bhagavatam on a preliminary basis; and “Bhaktivedanta” the highest title, is awarded after extensive study of Caitanya-caritamrta.” (Letter to Brahmananda, Hawaii, March 23, 1969)
Thus spake Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur ;
If we take up the practical activities of the Madhva and the Gaudiya Vaisnavas for the purpose of such comparison, we find that the former put themselves under a severe reserve in their propagatory methods, whereas the latter are vigorously proselytizing. The Madhvas keep up the old habits and ideas, whereas the Gaudiya Vaisnavas have advanced towards and utilized everything facilitating the true cause of devotion. The former are very fond of archana according to the pancharatrika system; whereas the latter, though not different to adopt archana, yet in addition to that, they perform bhajana like the Dasakuta section of the Madhva community. The Gaudiya Vaisnavas give more stress to bhajana than to archana of the Vyasakuta section of the latter community. The habits and customs of the Southern Indian Vaisnavas are different from those of Northern Indian Gaudiya Vaisnavas, though both of them have a common bas
Hare Krishna!
Many arguments are made in this respect, that as long as we don't cut the animal we do not incur sin.
In the Mahabharata, there is a verse which states that one who sells the animal, one who buys the animal, one cuts the animal,one who cooks the animal, one who serves the animal and one who eats the animal, all are bound equally by the chain of Karma.
But leaving the spiritual aspect of it, anatomically, the human body is not structured to eat animal flesh. Studies have shown the length of the intestine of a tiger is 4 times the length of it's torso so when it eats flesh the toxins in the flesh are not kept for long in the intestine and are expelled at the earliest. Also the concentration of acid secreted in the stomach is so strong that it burns the bacteria in the flesh. While in the cow, the length of the intestine is 12 times it's torso and so the food takes longer time to be expelled from the body. We have seen that the incidence of the Mad Cow disease (bovine spongi
