Text 157]
Pastimes of the Lord in His Youth
341
sei śāstre kahe,—pravṛtti-nivṛtti-mārga-bheda nivṛtti-mārge jīva-mātra-vadhera niṣedha
SYNONYMS
sei śāstre —in the scripture (the Koran);  kahe —it is ordered;  pravṛtti —of attachment;  nivṛtti —of detachment;  mārga —ways;  bheda —difference;  nivṛtti —of detachment;  mārge —on the path;  jīva-mātra —of any living entity;  vadhera —of killing;  niṣedha —prohibition.
TRANSLATION
"According to the Koran, there are two ways of advancement—through increasing the propensity to enjoy and decreasing the propensity to enjoy. On the path of decreasing attachment [nivṛtti-mārga], the killing of animals is prohibited.
TEXT 157
अरुङ्खि-मार्गे गोवध करिते विधि हम् ।
শাস্ত্র-আজ্ঞায় বদ কৈলে নাহি পাপ-ভয় ॥ ১৫৭ ॥
pravṛtti-mārge go-vadha karite vidhi haya śāstra-ājñāya vadha kaile nāhi pāpa-bhaya
SYNONYMS
pravṛtti-mārge —on the path of attachment;  go-vadha —the killing of cows;  karite —to execute;  vidhi —regulative principles;  haya —there are;  śāstra-ājñāya —on the order of the scripture;  vadha —killing;  kaile —if one commits;  nāhi —there is no;  pāpa-bhaya —fear of sinful activities.
TRANSLATION
On the path of material activities, there is regulation for killing cows. If such killing is done under the guidance of scripture, there is no sin.
PURPORT
The word  śāstra  is derived from the  dhātu , or verbal root,  śas .  Śas-dhātu  pertains to controlling or ruling. A government's ruling through force or weapons is called  śastra . Thus whenever there is ruling, either by weapons or by injunctions, the  śas-dhātu  is the basic principle. Between  śastra  (ruling through weapons) and  śāstra  (ruling through the injunctions of the scriptures), the better is  śāstra . Our Vedic scriptures are not ordinary law books of human common sense; they are the statements of factually liberated persons unaffected by the imperfectness of the senses.
Śāstra  must be correct always, not sometimes correct and sometimes incorrect. In the Vedic scriptures, the cow is described as a mother. Therefore she is a mother