01-12-2006, 08:52 AM
Ramana,
When looked through the prism of sAmiSha/nirAmiSha, the concerns mentioned by you in the first post get diluted significantly.
Hinduism is not stuck on vegetable/animal classifcation. The paramount importance is given to "violence" or lack of it. It is connected with karma theory as violence and its fruits build up bad karma. For spiritual practices, where one is trying to dissolve as many karmas as possible, an strict adherence to ahiMsA is required which requires nirAmiSha food.
In that sense growing foetuses for the express purpose of stem cell research is an extreme order of hiMsA/violence, as Mitradena also mentioned.. And the traditional hindu view will be thoroughly opposed to it. In Hindu smR^itis, killing an embryo (bhrUNa-hatyA) is considered an extremely grave sin.
Use of dead embryos is alright as no hiMsA is involved.
In the same vein using transgenic plants is fine, as no violence is involved. As Mudy mentioned, valid concerns can still be present regarding guNa (sattvika etc) of the food.
When looked through the prism of sAmiSha/nirAmiSha, the concerns mentioned by you in the first post get diluted significantly.
Hinduism is not stuck on vegetable/animal classifcation. The paramount importance is given to "violence" or lack of it. It is connected with karma theory as violence and its fruits build up bad karma. For spiritual practices, where one is trying to dissolve as many karmas as possible, an strict adherence to ahiMsA is required which requires nirAmiSha food.
In that sense growing foetuses for the express purpose of stem cell research is an extreme order of hiMsA/violence, as Mitradena also mentioned.. And the traditional hindu view will be thoroughly opposed to it. In Hindu smR^itis, killing an embryo (bhrUNa-hatyA) is considered an extremely grave sin.
Use of dead embryos is alright as no hiMsA is involved.
In the same vein using transgenic plants is fine, as no violence is involved. As Mudy mentioned, valid concerns can still be present regarding guNa (sattvika etc) of the food.