These people are not ignorant of the pain that
results from beating and fastening in chains.[1160] In every creature
that is endued with the five senses live all the deities. Surya,
Chandramas, the god of wind, Brahman, Prana, Kratu, and Yama (these dwell
in living creatures), There are men that live by trafficking in living
creatures! When they earn a living by such a sinful course, what scruples
need they feel in selling dead carcases? The goat is Agni. The sheep is
Varuna. The horse is Surya. Earth is the deity Virat. The cow and the
calf are Soma. The man who sells these can never obtain success. But what
fault can attach to the sale of oil, or of Ghrita, or honey, or drugs, O
regenerate one? There are many animals that grow up in ease and comfort
in places free from gnats and biting insects. Knowing that they are loved
dearly by their mothers, men persecute them in diverse ways, and lead
them into miry spots abounding with biting insects. Many draft animals
are oppressed with heavy burthens. Others, again, are made to languish in
consequence of treatment not sanctioned by the scriptures. I think that
such acts of injury done to animals are in no way distinguished from
foeticide. People regard the profession of agriculture to be sinless.
That profession, however, is certainly fraught with cruelty. The
iron-faced plough wounds the soil and many creatures that live in the
soil. Cast thy eyes, O Jajali, on those bullocks yoked to the plough.
Kine are called in the Srutis the Unslayable.
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