116 THE SCIENCE OF SELF-REALIZATION
Father Emmanuel: But in the Old Testament the commandment ‘‘Thou
shalt not kill’’ does refer to murder. And when Jesus said, ‘‘Thou shalt
not kill,’’ he extended this commandment to mean that a human being
should not only refrain from killing another human being, but should
also treat him with love. He never spoke about man’s relationship with
other living entities, but only about his relationship with other human
beings. When he said, ‘‘Thou shalt not kill,’’ he also meant in the mental
and emotional sense—that you should not insult anyone or hurt him,
treat him badly, and so on.
Srila Prabhupada: We are not concerned with this or that testament but
only with the words used in the commandments. If you want to interpret
these words, that is something else. We understand the direct meaning.
‘*Thou shalt not kill” means, ‘‘The Christians should not kill.’ You may
put forth interpretations in order to continue the present way of action,
but we understand very clearly that there is no need for interpretation.
. Interpretation is necessary if things are not clear. But here the meaning is
clear. ‘‘Thou shalt not kill’’ is a clear instruction. Why should we in-
terpret it?
Father Emmanuel: Isn’t the eating of plants also killing?
Srila Prabhupada: The Vaisnava philosophy teaches that we should not
even kill plants unnecessarily. In the Bhagavad-gita [9.26] Krsna says:
patram puspam phalam toyam
yo me bhaktya prayacchati
tad aham bhakty-upahrtam
asnami prayatatmanah
“*If someone offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or
a little water, I will accept it.’’ We offer Krsna only the kind of food He
demands, and then we eat the remnants. If offering vegetarian food to
Krsna were sinful, then it would be Krsna’s sin, not ours. But God is
apapa-viddha—sinful reactions are not applicable to Him. He is like the
sun, which is so powerful that it can purify even urine—something im-
possible for us to do. Krsna is also like a king, who may order a murderer
to be hanged but who himself is beyond punishment because he is very
powerful. Eating food first offered to the Lord is also something like a
soldier’s killing during wartime. In a war, when the commander orders a
man to attack, the obedient soldier who kills the enemy will get a medal.
But if the same soldier kills someone on his own, he will be punished.
Similarly, when we eat only prasdda [the remnants of food offered to
