Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

96
have come down to about the plan from where they started. The hard
fact is that the progress of man towards his ideas is imperceptibly
slow and the graph of this progress is never linear. There have to be
ups and downs. Not to make an attempt on the account is to be
cynical of human progress altogether. No historical evidence
demonstrates that ‘not to resist evil’ has triumphed over evil by its
own intrinsic logic and compulsion. Where it possible, there would
have been no need for new religious, social or revolutionary movements
to lead and guide mankind on the road to progress. In any case, the
discipline of history can hardly accept the logic of this argument as a
basis for its functioning.
The response of Guru Hargobind and of the later Gurus to the
problem is unambiguous. All that we have to see is whether this
response involve, as alleged by some scholars, a deviation from the
thesis of Guru Nanak and his successors up to the period of Guru
Hargobind. There is a long hymn of Guru Nanak which makes his
attitude towards eating meat quite clear.
“One is first conceived in flesh, and then, abideth in flesh (of
the womb),
And one’s mouth and tongue are a flesh: yea, one’s life is tied to
flesh all around…
“Men know not Wisdom and quarrel over the affair,
Knowing not what is flesh and what is non-flesh, and which
food is sinful and which is not…
“But they, who’ve abandoned meat and cannot stand even its
flavour, devour men in the darkness of night.
They make a fetish of its before others, for, they know not
Wisdom…
Born of the mother’s and father’s blood, lo one eateth not fish
nor meat…
In the Puranas, as in the Semitic texts, is the mention of meat;
through all the four ages, men have dealt with flesh…
All men, all women, are born of flesh, as are kings and chiefs, O
Pundits !