Why did God command us not to kill any living being?

By commanding us “Thou shalt not kill,” God asks us not to take the life of any living being: human, animal, or plant, for in all these bodies resides a soul. There is no justification for taking anyone’s life.

In truth, through this command, Lord Krishna, God, the Supreme Person, wants us to understand that in all material bodies—those of celestial beings, those of all human beings without exception, those of all terrestrial and aquatic animals, and those of all plants, from blades of grass to tall trees—in all these material bodies resides an individual spiritual soul distinct from God, as well as Lord Krishna himself, in his form as Supreme Soul, who dwells beside it.

In truth, it is according to its desires and karma that a particular body is granted to a spiritual soul.

Now, if God forbids killing anyone—human, animal, or plant—it is so as not to disturb an incarnated soul, and above all, not to interrupt its evolutionary journey, nor to prevent it from continuing its spiritual development.

Indeed, souls incarnated in plant bodies, and those also incarnated in animal bodies, automatically and naturally continue their spiritual evolution until they acquire a human body.

To kill any being, human, animal, or plant, is to brutally interrupt an individual existence, that of an innocent spiritual soul which, like us, has come to incarnate in order to learn true spiritual knowledge, which will allow it to achieve spiritual realization, to seek God, and finally to be able to go to Him. To deny it this basic and fundamental right is criminal.

It is time for human beings to regain their senses and understand all the risks they incur by killing an innocent living being.

This is why we must order the permanent closure of all centers of death, such as slaughterhouses, industrial fisheries, fish farms and aquaculture facilities, and all other breeding centers that produce animals for slaughter. We must also prohibit the breeding of any animals destined for slaughter, and finally, ban the consumption of meat, fish, and eggs.