Let us not kill human beings, animals, or plants. Let us not make animals suffer, but let us protect them, and let us not eat their flesh, for they have a soul. Plants also have a soul.

Did not God command: “You shall not kill”?

And “He who lives by the sword shall perish by the sword”?

In truth, it is not the gross material body that is of great importance, but the soul. Each of us is a spiritual soul incarnated in a specific material body according to our spiritual progress and our karma. Thus, one soul can reincarnate in a human fleshly body, and another in an animal or even a plant body.

It is the interest of the soul that must be sought, not that of the body. It is the needs of the soul that must be satisfied, not those of the body.

This is why God commands, “Thou shalt not kill,” for this command concerns the embodied soul, whose life must not be taken at any cost.

Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, forbids disturbing the spiritual progress of a soul, hindering the spiritual progress of a soul, or interrupting the spiritual evolution of a soul, regardless of the material body in which it resides.

Those driven by hatred and vengeance, those demonic miscreants in the service of Satan who, having turned their backs on God and rejected His divine laws, have decided to shed innocent blood, will suffer the same fate life after life, and will have to suffer from it even now.

I address them and say: Obey Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and do not take anyone's life, for there is no justification for taking anyone's life. Whoever takes the life of a human being or an animal will suffer the same fate in their next life, and life after life, in proportion to the number of lives taken. The suffering they will experience will be terrible. One can escape the justice of men, but that of God is impossible.

Let us not kill or cause suffering to land and aquatic animals, or eat their flesh, for they have a soul.

Similarly, let us not destroy plants, from a blade of grass to a large tree that shelters many animals, for they too have a soul.

Humans are still unaware that divine laws prevail over human laws, and that they suffer the consequences of their actions according to the law of action and reaction, or the law of cause and effect, and the law of karma.

The original holy scriptures say: All the animals we have killed and caused needlessly to suffer will kill us one after the other in our next life and in all our other lives.

Those who kill animals, cause them needlessly to suffer, and eat their flesh, as is the practice in slaughterhouses, will be killed in the same way in their next life and in many lives to come. There is no forgiveness for such an offense. Anyone who professionally kills thousands of animals so that people can buy and eat their meat must expect to be killed in a similar way in their next life and in many other lives.