Question
The medical world is now very advanced. We can see the growth of a embryo in the womb in very detail from time to time. In some cases, we can see the early abnormal growth that can cause miscarriage and/or birth of a baby who is physically or mentally handicapped. This examination can usually be done in 1-2 months of age womb. If we find abnormal embryo like this, can we suggest to do an abortion?

 

Answer

***Absolutely not! Life is sacred and cannot be tampered with. No one has any right to end another person’s life. This kind of thinking is actually very demoniac and is a symptom of modern day agnostic society, that comes from people who know nothing about the laws of mature and the laws of God. Non believers will put forth so many arguments, so many theories, many of which may appear based on reason and practicality. But we should know clearly that all such thoughts or ideas when not based on guru, sadhu and sastra, are but mental speculations meant to destroy the world.

This is all explained in the essential teachings of the Bhagavad-gita. People who think in this way are constantly changing their policies and introducing new laws. We should therefore know the basic laws as presented in the sastra and explained further by our various acaryas. Government leaders are enacting policies trying to establish and determine when it is acceptable to end life in the womb due to various factors as you mention above. The fact remains that from the moment of conception, the embryo
within the womb is indicating the presence of a spirit soul and no one has any right to terminate pregnancy or do an abortion based on such reasoning. I hope this is a bit more clear.

Question

>I am studying in the military environment. I learned how to secure my country against threats. In training and perhaps someday in the event of war, I would definitely faced with the choice to kill. For example in jungle survival training, we even trained to kill animals. How Vedas and our Parampara respond to this case Guru Maharaj?

Answer

***    In every society there must be the ksatriya element. We also accept and recognize this and that is actually part of varnasrama dharma, what we call ksatriya dharma. The basic principles of ksatriya dharma in a Vedic environment is based on acceptance or rejection of the principles of dharma. Wars and hence killing can and must be done based on the acceptance or non acceptance of the principles of dharma.

Some times this does become complex and as we see in the case of the Mahabharata history, even among devotee Vaisnavas, because Bhismadeva and Drona were serving in the court of the Kauravas, when the war became inevitable, although they were devotee of Krishna and friends of Arjuna, due to social alliance and duty for the Kauravas, they had to fight against the Pandavas, they had to fight against Krishna Himself.

So war and fighting is present and authorized when based on principles of dharma. That is a very deep and involved science and can only be properly understood and applied under the guidance and direction of qualified brahmanas. The great personalities like Vidura, Drona and Bhismadeva have giving many moral instructions in this respect and we should learn these as well. One important book I have beens studying recently and from which I have compiled a course call “DHARMA SHASTRI” is based largely on the book called “Kautiliya Arthashastra”.

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