Virtue

Poem : 251

How can the wont of 'kindly grace' to him be known,
Who other creatures' flesh consumes to feed his own?

Explanation :
How can he be possessed of kindness, who to increase his own flesh, eats the flesh of other creatures.

Poem : 252

No use of wealth have they who guard not their estate;
No use of grace have they with flesh who hunger sate.

Explanation :
As those possess no property who do not take care of it, so those possess no kindness who feed on flesh.

Poem : 253

Like heart of them that murderous weapons bear, his mind,
Who eats of savoury meat, no joy in good can find.

Explanation :
Like the (murderous) mind of him who carries a weapon (in his hand), the mind of him who feasts with pleasure on the body of another (creature), has no regard for goodness.

Poem : 254

'What's grace, or lack of grace'? 'To kill' is this, that 'not to kill';
To eat dead flesh can never worthy end fulfil.

Explanation :
If it be asked what is kindness and what its opposite, the answer would be preservation and destruction of life; and therefore it is not right to feed on the flesh (obtained by taking away life).

Poem : 255

If flesh you eat not, life's abodes unharmed remain;
Who eats, hell swallows him, and renders not again.

Explanation :
Not to eat flesh contributes to the continuance of life; therefore if a man eat flesh, hell will not open its mouth (to let him escape out, after he has once fallen in).

Poem : 256

'We eat the slain,' you say, by us no living creatures die;
Who'd kill and sell, I pray, if none came there the flesh to buy?

Explanation :
If the world does not destroy life for the purpose of eating, then no one would sell flesh for the sake of money.

Poem : 257

With other beings' ulcerous wounds their hunger they appease;
If this they felt, desire to eat must surely cease.

Explanation :
If men should come to know that flesh is nothing but the unclean ulcer of a body, let them abstain from eating it.

Poem : 258

Whose souls the vision pure and passionless perceive,
Eat not the bodies men of life bereave.

Explanation :
The wise, who have freed themselves from mental delusion, will not eat the flesh which has been severed from an animal.

Poem : 259

Than thousand rich oblations, with libations rare,
Better the flesh of slaughtered beings not to share.

Explanation :
Not to kill and eat (the flesh of) an animal, is better than the pouring forth of ghee etc., in a thousand sacrifices.

Poem : 260

Who slays nought,- flesh rejects- his feet before
All living things with clasped hands adore.

Explanation :
All creatures will join their hands together, and worship him who has never taken away life, nor eaten flesh.