🌸 Stop Animal Sacrifice in Durga Puja 🌸

 

The Goddess Durga is the eternal Mahishasuramardini. It means she destroys cruelty and darkness, not the seeker of innocent animal blood. True bhakti is never measured in violence, but in compassion and love.  


When we place a sword in one hand of Goddess Durga, we must also place a lotus in the other. The sword is for the protection of the weak and the destruction of Adharma—never for the slaughter of helpless animals.  


The ancient Vedas and Upanishads are crystal clear: Divine power is pleased not by killing, but by kindness. To kill in the name of the Goddess Durga is to go against Her very spirit. When we shed blood, we stain the festival of Shakti itself—a festival meant to awaken strength, purity, and protection for all.  


1. 📌 Rigveda (10.87.16) - “Let no one harm the innocent, neither the one who comes close nor the one passing by.”  


2. 📌 Yajurveda (36.18) -  “With the vision of divine friendship, I look upon all living beings.”  


3. 📌 Atharvaveda (19.48.5) - “Non-violence is the highest Dharma.”  


A sacrifice done in ahimsa is the highest offering—a kind heart, a pure prayer, a compassionate deed. That is the offering Mother Durga accepts with joy.  


Let us reclaim Durga Puja as a festival of compassion, not cruelty. Let us show the world that our culture celebrates life, not bloodshed. May this Durga Puja/Navratri awaken a new strength—the strength to protect, not to punish; the strength to love, not to destroy.


🙏

– @vegansudesh

– @stopanimalsacrifice


The Global Campaign to Stop Animal Sacrifice

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True Human


The Rigveda, Atharvaveda, and Upanishads say that simply being born in a human body does not make someone truly human. A real human is one who disciplines the mind to walk on the path of righteousness and compassion — “Man follows the mind, therefore he is called Manushya.” That is why the Vedas clearly teach — “Manurbhava” (Rigveda 10.53.6) — meaning “Become a true human.”


☘️ VEGAN SUDESH

🪀🤳@vegansudesh

🏡 vegansudesh.com


In today’s context, this Vedic teaching connects directly with our lifestyle. When we cause suffering to animals just for taste or habit, our mind loses its compassion. But when we choose non-violence in what we eat, wear, and consume, we move closer to the ideal of the “true human” envisioned in the Vedas.


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The right of Self-defence


Imagine the situation, when someone suddenly attacks you — say a man barges into your office with a gun, already firing bullets — you don’t have the luxury to sit and calculate, “hmm… should I strike back softly or strongly? What is the exact proportionate response?” No! The human instinct is to act and preserve life. That instinct, in law, is known as private defence.



For centuries, Hindu philosophy too has recognised this instinct — because Jeevan Raksha is not violence, it is an act of Dharma. Even the principle of Ahimsa, never meant passively allowing harm. It meant: do not cause unnecessary injury to other beings. But when life itself is under threat, the effort to protect that life is part of Ahimsa, because Ahimsa begins with protecting the living flame of one’s own existence.


Yet, in courtrooms, judges often treated private defence like a secondary excuse: “Yes, maybe you saved your life, but was your counter‑action exactly proportionate?” Although, The Supreme Court in Rakesh Dutt Sharma Vs. State of Uttarakhand (2025) reminded us of this reality. It leaned on the earlier Darshan Singh Vs. State of Punjab (2010) case, where a doctor in his own clinic was shot at, and fired back to protect life. The Supreme Court said clearly: self‑defence cannot be weighed in golden scales. You cannot expect mathematical perfection when survival is at stake. 


Now, as a vegan, I feel that to protect your own life or the life of an innocent animal under assault — that is the truest practice of Ahimsa. Because life is sacred, whether it is the trembling goat at the butcher’s shop or the trembling doctor in a clinic. Both deserve defence. Both deserve the shield of protection.


If you read my next post on the *Right of Self-defence under the Indian Penal Code (IPC)*, you may find through various real-life stories that survival is not a sin. Protecting life — human or non‑human — is not cruelty, it is compassion in action. The law must breathe with the realities of India, where dangers come suddenly, and instincts guide action. In that moment, self‑defence is true Dharma.


👨‍🏫 Sudesh Kumar

🌎 sudeshkumar.com