principles and began this way to moral discipline and non-violence, the two preliminary stages. to all progress in the realization of God. In this way he would lure atheists, for if they refused to believe in God, they had absolute faith in him, which was nothing less than a manifestation of God. The unbelievers therefore believed in God, in the form of Buddha. Such was his mercy: he made the unbelievers believe in him.

Before Buddha, the dominant trait in society was the slaughter of animals, under the pretext of Vedic sacrifices. When the approach of the Vedas is not accomplished through the authorized disciplic succession, the spirits are easily led astray by the flowery language that conveys this immense knowledge. From such unfortunate spirits, the Lord affirms that they will necessarily fool themselves, because they do not receive the knowledge of the Vedas from the purely spiritual sources of disciplic succession. Indeed, they do not see beyond ritual sacrifices. All the knowledge contained in the Vedas is destined to raise us gradually to the Supreme Lord. All Vedic texts are centered on the knowledge of the Supreme Lord, the distinct soul, the universal order, and the links between these various objects. When we know these connections, we begin to act accordingly, and the purpose of existence, which is to return to God, then reaches the world most easily. But unfortunately, people who possess false erudition on the Vedas are fascinated by ceremonies alone, or rites, purificatories, and their spiritual progress is thus hindered.

Buddha has come to lead to theism all those ungodly, astray by atheism. This is why he first wanted to put an end to their habit of slaughtering animals. Animal killers are actually danger elements on the way back to God. There are two types: those who slaughter the animals properly speaking, but also those who have abandoned their spiritual identity, since the soul is sometimes called “the animal”, or the living being. Maharaja Pariksit asserted that only animal killers will never be able to taste the sublime message of the Supreme Lord. Therefore, if men want to learn the way to return to God, they must first and foremost put an end to all animal slaughter, in one and the other of its forms. It is absurd to believe that the slaughter of animals in no way hinders spiritual realization. With the age of Kali appeared a large number of so-called spiritual masters propagating this dangerous idea and thereby encouraging, under the guise of Vedic law, the slaughter of animals. The question has already been raised in a conversation between Sri Caitanya and Maulana Chand Kadi Shaheb: the recommended animal sacrifices in the Vedas have nothing to do with the slaughter of innocent animals in slaughterhouses. But because the demoniacs, or false scholars of the Vedas, insisted so strongly on this aspect of animal sacrifice, Buddha could only pretend to deny the authority of the sacred texts. It acts in this way only in order to snatch men from this vice to kill animals, and also to protect the poor animals from the massacre reserved for them by their “elders”, so eager - in words - of fraternity, of universal peace, justice and equality. Where is justice when we allow innocent animals to be killed?