348 Sri Caitanya-caritamrta [Adi-lila, Ch. 17

‘Do not kill.’ Why then are you killing so many animals daily?” they cannot answer.
Some of them imperfectly answer that the animals have no souls. But then we ask
them, ‘‘How do you know that animals have no souls? Animals and children are of
the same nature. Does this mean that the children of human society also have no
souls?” According to the Vedic scriptures, within the body is the owner of the
body, the soul. In Bhagavad-gita it is said:

dehina 'smin yathd dehe
Raumdrarth yauvonam jard

tathd dehdantara-praptir
dhiras tatra na muhyati

‘*As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to
old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul
is not bewildered by such a change.” (Bg. 2.13)

Because the soul is within the body, the body changes through so many forms.
There is a soul within the body of every living entity, whether animal, tree, bird or
human being, and the soul is transmigrating from one type of body to another.
When the scriptures of the yavanas—namely, the Old Testament, New Testament
and Koran—cannot properly answer inquisitive followers, naturally those advanced
in scientific knowledge and philosophy lose faith in such scriptures. The Kazi
admitted this while talking with Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The Kazi was a very in-
telligent person. He had full knowledge of his position, as stated in the following verse.

TEXT 170

Shas BAA “ie, — ofA aq OTF |
wri fe-OraCATY SZ AS 1B TIF HW sae i

kalpita @mara $astra,——-@mi saba jani
jati-anurodhe tabu sei Sdstra mani

SYNONYMS
Ralpita—imagined; Gmdra—our; sdstra—scripture; dmi—l|; saba—everything; jdni-
know; /éti—by community; anurodhe—being obliged; tabu—still; se/—that; s@stra—
scripture; mani—j accept.

TRANSLATION

“1 know that our scriptures are full of imagination and mistaken ideas, yet be-
cause | am a Mohammedan I accept them for the sake of my community, despite
their insufficient support.
