what are the scriptural grounds for the 4 regulative principles?
Philosophy · asked by user [] · 2007-08-18 · 1 answers
such a vedic verse or the origins of it.
user [38] · 2007-08-18
(will appear on our site)claim: ISKCON follows a rather austere version of Vaisnavism (i.e. four regs).
answer: Not at all. These prescriptions of dharma sastras apply to all dvijas (twice-born), or at least to brahmanas (Vaisnavas included). Few examples:
Manu smriti 7.50: "Drinking, dice, women, and hunting, these four (which have been enumerated) in succession, he must know to be the most pernicious in the set that springs from love of pleasure."
Visnu smriti 3.50 lists the same four sins.
Manu smriti 10.63: "Abstention from injuring (creatures), veracity, abstention from unlawfully appropriating (the goods of others), purity, and control of the organs, Manu has declared to be the summary of the law for the four castes."
Visnu smriti 22.77: "If the lower part of his body, below the navel, or one of his fore-arms, has been defiled by one of the impure excretions of the body, or by one of the spirituous liquors or of the intoxicating drinks (hereafter mentioned), he is purified by cleansing the limb in question with earth and water."
82: "Distilled from sugar, or from the blossoms of the Madhuka (Madhvi wine), or from flour: these three kinds of spirituous liquor have to be discerned; as one, so are all: none of them must be tasted by the twice-born."
83: "Again, distilled from the blossoms of the Madhuka tree (Madhuka wine), from molasses, from the fruits of the Tanka (or Kapittha tree), of the jujube tree, of the Khargura tree, or of the breadfruit tree, from wine-grapes, from Madhuka blossoms (Madhvika wine), Maireya, and the sap of the cocoanut tree:
84: "These ten intoxicating drinks are unclean for a Brahmana; but a Kshatriya and a Vaisya commit no wrong in touching (or drinking) them."
23.1: "What has been defiled by the impure excretions of the body, by spirits, or by intoxicating drinks, is impure in the highest degree."
35.1: "Killing a Brahmana, drinking spirituous liquor, stealing the gold of a Brahmana, and sexual connection with a Gurus wife are high crimes."
Bhagavata Purana (Srimad Bhagavatam) 1.17.38: "Suta Gosvami said: Maharaja Pariksit, thus being petitioned by the personality of Kali, gave him permission to reside in places where gambling, drinking, prostitution and animal slaughter were performed."
See also BG 16.1-3, 18.42, SB 1.16.26-30, 3.25.21, 5.5.24, 11.5.11.
http://www.veda.harekrsna.cz/library/Fourregs.zip
The Four Principles of Freedom (Satyaraja das)