Buddha Boy (Ven. Palden Dorje) plans to give blessings to pilgrims and to protest animal sacrifices at Hindu festival. That is, he had planned to do so from November 18 to 23 at Gadhi Mai Mela (a Hindu festival honoring the Goddess Gadhimai held every five years). However, citing security reasons, Hindu priests were unwilling to allot a space for the blessing ceremony. It is presumed that the authorities either arrested him or otherwise prevented him from attending so as not to interfere with the planned massacre.
Palden Dorje planned to make an appearance and meditate at the animal slaughter festival on Nov. 24, 2009 when the sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of animals were to take place. Last November, he gave blessings. Approximately 400,000 pilgrims lined up in the jungle to receive them over a 12-day period. He gave two speeches in which he urged people to recognize the compassion in their hearts and their connection to all forms of life.
Who is the Buddha Boy? Ram Bahadur Bomjon, now Palden Dorje, became world famous when he began a six year meditation at the age of fifteen to promote world peace in May of 2005. He meditated for at least ten months in front of crowds apparently without sustenance in Bara District’s Ratanpuri before disappearing to continue his meditation in private.
KATHMANDU, Nepal -- Emotional appeals to Nepalese officials by animal advocates from around the world have not persuaded them to call a halt to the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of animals and birds planned for November 24 and 25 at a village in Bara district in southern Nepal.
Every five years, animals and birds are slaughtered in the name of the Hindu deity Gadhimai. The event on the premises of Gadhimai Temple in the village of Bariyapur is believed to be the largest ritual sacrifice anywhere in the world and draws thousands of visitors from India and Nepal.
French actress and animal advocate Brigitte Bardot is one of those who sent a letter to Nepal's President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav, who is a Hindu, pleading with him to stop the Gadhimai sacrifice. "I have dedicated my life to protect animals and the best gift I could receive for this lifelong struggle would be the announcement of the stopping of ritual sacrifice of animals," Bardot wrote. "I personally find it hard to imagine that your heart can withstand such cruelty, knowing that you, being the head of the country, are ultimately responsible." More>>
When the Gods Kill
(WQ) Neither Goddess Gadhimai nor any god should be blamed unless they requested this slaughter. Such things have been known to happen. Think of the countless deaths at the God of the Bible's request -- or at the Biblical interpretations of humans -- for he is a "jealous and wrathful God."
Maybe these are the actions of misguided brahmin priests. Brahmanism (Hinduism), even at the time of the Buddha, could go terribly wrong. The Buddha went against the tide in calling for an end to animal sacrifices.
If a god (deva), demon, or other unseen being does ask for sacrificial killings, one should not think that therefore the karma only belongs to that entity. Those who carry out such a request also bear the burden: In the absence of subsequent mitigating (e.g., upapilaka) karma, they are sure to experience a great deal of misery.
It may be that they are reborn in the animal world (or worse) to experience the result there. If they should come to birth again in the human world, they are likely to be sickly and short lived. Due to the immensity of the act, they may be reborn in a desolate interstitial world (lokantarika niraya). This is the terrible danger of delusion, which supports greed and hatred, karma motivated by "evil wishes" or cruelty, respectively.
The Buddha: "There are, bhikkhus, world interstices, spaces, untouchable [by the world-systems], dark and gloomy, where the light of the moon and the sun so glorious, so powerful, has no effect." The commentary to the Great Lineage Sutra (D.ii.1) explains how between every three world spheres there is an "interstice," just as there is an interstice between three cartwheels that touch. It is so dark there that eye-consciousness cannot arise (The Workings of Kamma, p. 249).
