Madan Gopal’s talk on Cow Protection

Krishna Cows

Namo Brahmne devaya

Go brahmane hitaya ca

Jagat hitaya krishnaya

Govindaya namo namah

 

While commenting on this verse, Srila Prabhupada once said Lord Krishna is saying who He takes care of specially. Namo brahmane devay which is not Brahman but it is parabrahma the Supreme Lord offering obeisances to him then ‘go brahman hitay ca’ so Krishna is giving first preference to the cow and for his welfare and then the Brahmanas and then jagat hitay Krishnay means all other living entities are taken care of , but in the above verse first Krishna has given importance to Cow and Brahmanas. Vedic culture instructs that ‘ma himsa sarva bhutani’ that means do not kill any living entity. We should not kill any living entity but especially importance is given to protect the cow.

The description of cow in scripture is Go Maata. The term mother has a great significance but why cow is called mother why not Bhens Maata why only Go Maata. In cow all together all 33 crores demigods reside, also in the back of cow and in the hump of cow there is sureketi nadi means vein is specially empowered to absorb the energy and vibrations from the sky, the sun, the moon, the star. It absorbs into the body of cow and passes it out further through cow products. The vedic cow’s dung has a pleasing fragrance, it is not repulsive to take into the hand. Like we have 84 lakh species on earth but out of that only cow dung is very pure and we can take it in our hand and it’s smell is not very repulsive. It is said that Laxmi Devi resides in the cow dung – this is mentioned in the scripture. The cow urine of vedic cow is always good in any state and it is always fresh. In cow urine Ganga devi resides. If we put Ganga water in bottle it will not spoil after one or two year. It will remain as it is; same way the cow urine is also never spoiled because Ganga Devi is in the cow urine and no other urine has this quality.

We should consider cow as our family member.

The act of cow protection has been specifically mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatam (10 canto, Ch 19 Text 2) Krishna personally had buffaloes and goats and he would take them for grazing along with the cows. When the cows went away from the group of cowherd boys, the buffalos and goats would also went away. Suddenly a forest fire occurred and Krishna protected them. Krishna is called as Govinda and Gopal; Krishna was maintaining all the species but cow protection was given importance. Again In Srimad Bhagavatam (10 canto Ch 6) in Krishna’s pastimes where Putana was killed by Krishna, all the gopis took baby Krishna and bathed him with cow urine and then tilak was applied on Krishna’s body by cow dung and ‘Go Raj’ (means the dust of the feet of the cow) The ‘Go Raj’ is that the dust that flies in the sky naturally when the cows walk or when they come back from grazing.

It is said that the cow absorbs all the energy of heavenly planets and these energies are transferred to the soil or the dust and when that energized dust rises in the sky and that is most auspicious and Krishna was bathed by this ‘Go Raj’.

The products of the cow are her blessings, we do not say product of Krishna we say ‘Krishna Prasad’ in the very same way, when referring to cow products we should not say ‘The Products’ but it is Mother Cow’s blessings on us. Without proper knowledge we cannot appreciate our Mother Cow. The cow gives her mercy or blessings in two forms – one is external and other is subtle. External blessings are like milk, curd, butter, cow urine, cow dung and subtle blessings are that cow has emotions and especially for human beings and can thus give right intelligence to us.

Why has the cow been called as ‘Go Mata’?

In this world we have so many species, but why do we call cow as Mother Cow. The main quality of mother is unconditional love for her child and her sacrifice to maintain her child. Mother Cow not only does she have love for her own offspring but she has love for all human beings and all living entities and therefore she is called as Mother Cow. She sacrifices her own health, but we are not appreciating her love.

This is a real life story of cow

A few years back, one man at age of 50 retired and took some money. He was a ‘Go Sevak’ means he was serving cows. He started staying near River Narmada in Bharuch. He had one small hut and he was doing his puja and dhyan (meditation). His children would send Rs 5000 every month. He did not want all the money so he would give money in charity. He never locked his hut. Everyday in the afternoon one cow would visit his hut. She would come every day at 12.00 pm in the afternoon. The man would cook his own food by himself and he would give ‘Go Grass’. ‘Go Grass’ does not mean the green grass but meal of cow including Roti, Sabji (vegetable) and other meal.

The vedic system is that first you have to offer the food to the Lord and after the Lord, immediately you have to offer the food to the cow and that is called ‘Go Grass’. So this person would offer food everyday at 12.00 pm – ‘Go Grass’ to the cow and this cow would exactly come at 12.00 pm in the afternoon. One day he kept his money under the bed but he had not counted the money and he went out for some work and when he returned he found that the money was less than the amount he had kept. He was not worried and he thought whatever the Lords desire is. Then, next day at 9.00 am the cow appeared on his doorstep. It seemed like the cow was pushing the man inside the door indicating that he should not go out. The man could not understand why. He had another door so he went there and tried to go out from that door but the cow reached that door again tried to block the door with her head. The man was surprised and thought maybe the cow needs some food. He went inside to get some fruit for her and noticed that a robber was trying to put his hand from the window to steal the money. This story shows that the cow understood his needs and tried to help or protect him. Some would say that this can be a co-incidence, but this cannot happen again and again and there are so many stories of cows like this. The milking of cow is called ‘Do-sthan’. Generally, all the other animals like dog, pig, cat, etc. the mother has glands as per their offspring quantity (like a dog has 6 or 8, two glands per child; like that all the mother animal has glands but cow has only one offspring but still she has four glands) This the Krishna’s arrangement that one or two glands for her offspring and two are for human being.

So we are discussing about the word ‘The Do-sthan’ means the two glands are for human being. She has the emotional relation like a mother and child with humans and therefore we call her as Mother Cow. It is not on some random selection that cow will be a mother.

When India became independent, all our leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru decided that the first law we will pass is that we will ban the cow slaughter house. Today approximately 50,000 cows are killed daily in India. In USA 1,00,000 cows are killed daily.

Why are cows killed?

Cows are not killed for the flesh – but it is for leather, blood, fats and bones. Devotees know that we should avoid leather but we are ignorant about the other three things. First we need to discuss about leather. Leather is more expensive and the seller gets more profit out of cow leather – if we use leather means indirectly we are supporting cow killing.

The slaughter industry is very big in India – There are 11 slaughter houses, nine are owned by government and two are owned by Muslims. Cow bones and fats are used in many cosmetics and daily consumable items. Cow blood is used in allopathic medicine, to raise iron, hemoglobin and minerals, especially for pregnant women. The actual cost of toothpaste is Rs. 2 but we very happily pay the cost of Rs. 70 for one tube of toothpaste. If we stop using such items, the killing of cow will decrease. Maximum we should try to avoid all cosmetic products, health and food products, which contain animal bone, powder, fats etc. We should try to use natural products.