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Just wondering is animal sacrifice is clearly written in devotion instructions in religious texts for Mansa Devi ? They seem to kill many many goats for her :(

Sucks, MansaDevi is one of my faves, I really connected to her stories and mythology in a huge way.

The guys carrying out Mansa goat sacrifice post pics and videos online of themselves walking in slo-mo brandishing swords like they’re in a Tarantino movie or something. It’s there a lot on social media.

I love Kamakhya Devi so much and there is lot of animal sacrifice at her temples too. Didn’t know that before.

I love all the MahaVidya so much too and especially Chinnmasta, the non-dual imagery and symbolism of her is so wonderful to me, I love her so much. However I haven’t been able to read the Shakti goddess sadhana info properly yet, do Tantriks have animal sacrifice for Chinnmastika and for MahaVidya puja in general also ?

I’ve read the translated pashu-bali parts of texts as per Shakta Kali puja, though I still think the Arthur Avalon stance of animal imagery as meant to be taken figuratively is the accurate interpretation, like sacrifice your anger and sacrifice your mental ignorance ways, not an actual buffalo or goat or bird (poor things)

I’m doing all kinds of weird little vegan puja rituals due to being vegan which I have no idea how this will work out, we’ll see haha

But yeah for people more well-read in Shakta faith, the animal sacrifice instructions, they are there in texts for all these goddesses ? Written clearly as part of the necessary sadhana rituals in each case ?

I will be modifying all my sadhana personally, read extensively about using pumpkins, eggplants and things as alternatives for modifications and sounds good to me.

I realize this sounds kinda judgmental and I don’t mean it that way, pashu-bali is the one thing I’ve been really struggling to wrap my head around in starting down the path of doing bhakti of Devi.

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    Not all goddesses require pashubali. However, the practice of offering bali to Manasa is peculiar to Hindus hailing from Noakhali & Chattagram(Chittagong) in East Bengal. I read somewhere in a memoir that some Hindus hailing from Barishal would conduct bali even on Sarasvati puja.
    – অনু
    Commented Aug 26, 2022 at 2:48
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    There are various such customs peculiar to specific communities in specific regions. For example, Bengali Hindus avoid using any musical instrument (even the bell) while worshipping Devi Lakshmi. South Indian Hindus don't object to marrying one's maternal cousin on the grounds that this doesn't violates the ban on marrying within one's own gotra but North Indian Hindus disagree.
    – অনু
    Commented Aug 26, 2022 at 2:52
  • @AnubrataBit Thx for the info ! Yeah it’s hard to see that stuff. I became vegan environmentalist type many years ago so now as a new Shakta convert, when I see pashu-bali I feel like I’m going to lose it. Can’t handle it. I didn’t realize it was region specific, that makes sense. I really love bhakti of Devi aside from sacrifice.
    – user28094
    Commented Aug 26, 2022 at 3:38
  • My old post. Not ok w/ animal sacrifice ever 😭
    – veganenvironmentalist
    Commented Jan 15, 2023 at 14:50

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i mean you do realise that in vedas too its said killing animals for the sole purpose of sacrifice or vedic ritual is not a sin and is valid. Infact its said its both beneficial for us and the animals being sacrificed since the animals gains a higher and better birth after being sacrificed in the name of the goddess/ritual.

but they also state there are 3 kinds of sacrifices : tamasic , rajasic and sattwik where killing of animals comes under tamasic and is suited for people who eat meat or are of that nature who would kill animals or are comfortable in that. otherwise you can also worship the goddess using anything else but in some tantric traditions some goddeses always require animal sacrifices.

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  • can you share the Vedic reference as to the classification of tamasic , rajasic and sattwik killing?
    – Sanatana Dhara
    Commented Aug 14, 2023 at 17:36
  • @SanatanaDhara i dont remember exactly where it is but its found in the srimad devi bhagavata purana where i read it , its somewhere in the first 200 pages of that text.
    – Deepanshu Molasi
    Commented Aug 22, 2023 at 12:44

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