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Let Non-Violence be thy Creed

About 150 years ago, animal sacrifice during yagnas was highly prevalent.
Sahajanand Swami endeavored to stop the killing of innocent creatures. The Minister of Bhuj, Jagjivan Mehta, turned a deaf ear to the preaching of non-violence by Swami Sahajanand. However, in a scriptural debate, Sahajanand Swami established that, "The Vedas condone animal sacrifice in yagnas in order to restrict the highly rampant violence. However, the Vedas really aim at the total eradication of animal sacrifice in the yagnas, since they hold ahimsa as the highest ethical code." He heralded non-violent yagnas by conducting one such yagna in Jetalpur in V.S. 1865. The impostors belonging to the Vama sect conspired with the Peshwa of Amdavad to kill him, but to no avail. Undaunted by such attempts on His life, Swami Sahajanand performed yet another non-violent yagna in Dabhan.
As time went on, the persistent efforts of Swami Sahajanand totally eradicated yagnas involving animal sacrifice, and replaced them by non-violent yagnas.


    

© 1999, Bochasanwasi Shree Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, Swaminarayan Aksharpith