Govinda Tandon of the Pashupati Development Trust in Annapurna Post, 17 November
Many distortions have sullied the great philosophy of tolerance, non-violence and humanity that is inherent in the Hindu religion. Unfortunately, many superstitious rituals that have nothing to do with Hinduism have now come to be regarded as part of this great faith. Among the distortions of Hinduism is the practice of animal sacrifice. We think we can earn divine merit by killing and sacrificing to the gods innocent animals that trust us to protect them. Our conscience tells us it is wrong, yet we continue with mass sacrifices of animals. No Hindu text or gods and goddesses have ever asked for appeasement by sacrifice. It is us selfish human beings who have transformed the gods into blood-thirsty ogres.
The Gadhimai Festival of Bara district is starting on Monday, in the next ten days there will be thousands of animals that will be slaughtered there. A thousand people have been hired to do the killing, tenders have been floated for the leather and meat. The sacrifice is being driven by the leather industry mafia, it has nothing to do with religion. The priest of the Gadhimai Temple himself is against the sacrifices. So whose interest does this blood-letting serve? Who benefits from turning a place of worship into a slaughterhouse? Publicity about the sacrifices has tarnished Nepal’s image internationally. The following steps are necessary to immediately outlaw religious sacrifices:
– The state should stop subsidising animal sacrifice.
– Animal sacrifices at government buildings, vehicles and aircraft should be stopped.
– Ban import of animals from India 15-20 days before festival
– Ban transport of animals from other parts of Nepal to Gadhimai
– Spread message against animal sacrifices through mass media
– Government to proactively spread the message that animal sacrifice is not religion
Read also:
Overkill in Gadhimai Lucia de Vries and Deepak Adhikari
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The Gadhimai (mela) festival.
The history of this bloodthirsty and gory spectacle originated when ‘Bhagwan Chaudhary’ a feudal landlord imprisoned in Makwanpur fort prison Nepal during the 18th century when he dreamed that all his problems would be solved if he made a blood sacrifice to Gadhimai (one of the many ‘avatars’ of the deity Kali aka Kalika). Immediately upon his release from prison he took counsel with a local village healer whose descendant ‘Dukha Kachadiya’ had started the ritual the day before with drops of his own blood from five parts of his body. Apparently, a light then ‘appeared’ in an earthenware jar and from this the sick bloodletting sacrifice ritual began.
The animals are not slaughtered to be eaten, the animals are slaughtered as offerings to appease the goddess ‘Gadhimai’ with her ‘belief’ desire for blood-spilling; in return it is believed that she will grant her devotees health, wealth and prosperity.
The ‘Gadhimai festival’ is based on nothing other than the combination of a no less than average meaningless dream and an optical light delusion to ‘supposedly’ one of the number of avatars of the mythical divine ‘Kali’ that can’t be located within any dated Vedic (Hindu religious) scripts.
Footnote:
If the flesh or any other parts of the sacrificed animal is made available for human use – then the point of sacrificing animals as offerings to believed divine beings becomes futile and worthless towards their belief concepts.
How about a simple practical law: You can kill animals only in an approved licensed slaughter house.
Should solve the problem – right?
please. We are more than this, the animals don’t deserve that
Please stop this masacre this is terrible
Stop animal sacrifice. It is a horrible crime.
i’ve seen cruelty but this is beyond anyone’s heart… no more violence against animals!! From Colombia i beg you to stop this!!!
THIS IS A MAASSACRE
hate this
No more sacrifice.
Stop killing animals!!!!
Please stop this animal cruelty , it is not necessary to do this, pray to your God in a different way , this is insane and really cruel …
please stop this
Stoooop!
STOP THIS CRUELTY!!!!!!!!!!
stop
stop, please
STOP THIS KILING ¡¡¡
If there is a God, I´m sure he cries when see this…
Please! STOP those mass beheading festival! It’s horrible!
NO MASACRE!!!! STOP MUERTES
NO MASACRES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
What is necessary to stop this..?
STOP IT
Not sacrifice
NO!
NO a la masacre de ningún animal
No sacrifice !!
Stop
stop killings animals
UNFAIR, CRUEL, UNNECESSARY, APPALING…YA BASTA !!! ENOUGH !!
stop this cruelty. Demand it to their guverment
Stop this madnness
Incivilizados!
This is a cruel tradition and i hope that stop because animals have not fault to the human stupid
I am a girl of españa, I am charmed with Nepal and especially his people and culture, I do not understand that they adore and respect so much to the animals and allow that this should take place, the people every time know more of this Hindu custom and I believe that it is not a good image for his country, please, the Buddhists we do not accept this, this must be prohibited, thank you very much
This is really awful. Please stop. In all the UK press and giving Nepal a very bad image.
as a Hindu i follow my Hindu path, so killing life is out of Hindu religion . stop it and i request all Hindu leaders , to generate awareness to those people, . bcz Hinduism making revolution all over the world for its love and serve to all living beings . Hinduism is unique, special . if this killing continue , there is no difference between Hinduism and another religion where they are permitted to kill life even human life . so stop it. plz—————————————-300,000 plz
Gadhimai Jatra is all nonsense and insane practice of cruelty against other living beings, the issue here is of blind faith out of delusion dream. There are certain cases in India where father sacrificed his own son after a dream in which he dreamed of boon of prosperity and success if he sacrifice his own son to god, such many cases of blind faith and brutality are there and will arise if such insane silly practice is not stopped. Killing animals at slaughter house is different case, it is sad but are only meant for food supplement. These mass killing of animals is an bad example in the eyes of every people, as it degenerates the sense of compassion to other living beings, this indeed is very bad example of mercilessness. This bloody blind faith and insane practice should be stopped. SAY NO TO MERCILESSNESS AND BLIND FAITH! STOP THIS NONSENSE PLEASE!