134 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 6, Ch. 16
gained? By causing pain to one’s own self due to self-envy and by
causing pain to others, one arouses Your anger and _ practices
irreligion.

PURPORT

Any religious system but the process of bhaégavata-dharma—service
as an eternal servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead—is a
system of envy of one’s own self and of others. For example, there are
many systems of religion in which animal sacrifices are recommended.
Such animal sacrifices are inauspicious both for the performer and for
the animal. Although one is sometimes permitted to sacrifice an animal
before the goddess Kali and eat it instead of purchasing meat from a
slaughterhouse, permission to eat meat after a sacrifice in the presence of
the goddess Kali is not the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
It is simply a concession for the miserable person who will not give up
eating meat. It is meant to restrict his desire for unrestricted meat-
eating. Such a religious system is condemned. Therefore Krsna says,
sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekarm Saranam vraja: “Give up all other
duties and surrender unto Me.” That is the last word in religion.

One may argue that the sacrifice of animals is recommended in the
Vedas. This recommendation, however, is a restriction. Without Vedic
restrictions on the purchase of meat, people will purchase meat from the
market, which will be overflooded with meat shops, and slaughterhouses
will increase. To restrict this, sometimes the Vedas say that one may eat
meat after sacrificing an insignificant animal like a goat before the god-
dess Kali. In any case, a system of religion in which animal sacrifices are
recommended is inauspicious for those who perform the sacrifices and
for the animals. Envious persons who perform ostentatious animal
sacrifices are condemned in Bhagavad-gita (16.17) as follows:

atma-sambhavitah stabdha
dhana-ména-madanvitah
yajante ndma-yajnais te
dambhenavidhi-pirvakam
“Self-complacent and always impudent, deluded by wealth and false
prestige, they sometimes perform sacrifices in name only without follow-
