Question: Why did Krsna pick the cow to be holy? Srila Guru Maharaj: Well, it is like, if we ask somebody why he chose the friends he does. ‘So I like you sir, but I don’t like the friends you keep’, then actually that person might not choose to like you. So, as to why Krsna chose the cow? - because we consider He is the supreme controller so He can make any one, any way, He likes to. So as it happens, He has chosen the cow to be his dear most associate and devotee. That, of course nobody can say why He has done that. But if you like, a few other reasons as to why, we can logically understand some of the good qualities of a cow and why they should not be slaughtered and eaten. You see more than any other animal, of course we can say, there are many reasons. The cow is the animal which gives us the most wonderful food, namely milk. According to the Vedic scriptures, we have seven mothers, including our own mother and this mother earth. And one of the mothers is also our cow. Because right from the very childhood we are taking cow’s milk. Actually cow’s milk is not the same as any other animals milk. You see, maybe every mammal feeds their child milk, but that is not really milk that we can take and get any benefit, although some take goat milk and lama milk and so many things. Actually cow’s milk is special because it is perfect food. It is the perfect food. By taking cow’s milk, ones spiritual capacity to understand transcendental knowledge becomes awakened. And the cow simply eats grass. It eats simply the grass that is abundant everywhere and it produces milk which is the priceless gift. You see, a cow doesn’t hurt anyone, except maybe in some defences it might use its horn, but basically a cow is a very peace loving animal. So the cow is giving such wonderful food stuff milk and what are we giving, we are giving a bunch of grass, which is available anywhere, cheap, nobody pays for grass. Of course if you irrigate it, everything nowadays in commercial way, you may put some investment, but the actual grass as it stands is available for anyone, free. And the cow, especially according to the Vedic culture, even I have visited a cultural exhibit of American history and in ancient America they were using the bullocks, the oxen to pull carts across the prairies. So they are bringing home the grains, they are like our father. So according to the Vedic understanding, it is just like we would not kill our father and mother for eating them, similarly how can we kill the bull or the cow for our tongues’ sense gratification? You see, that is the terrible sin or bad reaction because the cow is doing no one harm. Now the other thing is that if the cow leads her normal life, it is described in the Vedas that of all the animals a cow is the last animal birth. In fact someone who is a cow, whens he dies and again takes birth then next birth is the human birth. But they have to serve their term as a cow for the full life and die by natural death. That means when we kill a cow we are depriving that cow the chance of getting human birth, we are disrupting the whole laws of material nature. If that cow is left alone and to die a natural death, the next birth she would become a human being. Not only an ordinary human being, but a human being with best and good qualities expected of any human. So by being a cow, that is a great opportunity. But a cow can’t go back to God, can’t understand what the self is. That only a human can become a great yogi, can have a real understanding of the truth. But that is last animal birth. So what you are doing here is completely disrupting the nature again and again. Until you allow the cow to lead her full life, she can’t get out of that. She has got like a prison sentence to serve, so many years as a cow. When she finishes, then she can become a human. So all these things combined, the cow is the least animal anyone should ever try to create any problem for. It’s very bad reaction for that. It is said if one has to eat meat, then he should eat some chicken, or some this bird or some useless animal. But by killing an animal you also suffer some reaction. But it is not so grave. Actually best food is not to eat any kind of animal food, except in the form of milk, cheese, butter. Best thing is to eat vegetarian food which is offered to Krsna in love. Take that as Prasad. That is the food of the yogis. That is real human food because there is no karma, there is no reaction tied up in that. Krsna absolves all reactions from pulling the plant out. He absolves all the reactions and he makes it purified food. So in that way the cow, some people worship the cow because she is our mother giving our milk, some people worship because she is the favourite animal of Krsna. Krsna used to have spiritual cows and He used to play with them. So for various reasons people respect the cow. Some people do because they realise that this cow is going to be in the last birth, she is going to become a human being. It is said that if the cows are happy then the whole people become happy. Because the cows are such peaceful animals, if they get happy, they have some mystic power though, they have some mystic power that if all the cows in a country are happy they make that whole country very prosperous. And whenever the cows are harassed, that country all the time will have various kinds of forest fires, earth quakes, wars and different problems.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 18:36:40 +0000
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