Recently, while going on a business trip, I started talking to my driver since it was a long drive. He happened to be a local native. It all started with me sharing my driving experiences in Fiji and New Zealand. We spoke about the road conditions, speed limits in Fiji and then my visits to New Zealand, Australia, USA and India with the road conditions there, speed limits, highways, foods etc.He asked me if I was a vegetarian and I said yes, we don't take meat, fish, eggs, and even onion or garlic. He knew I was a Hare Krishna devotee but looked very surprised knowing my diet. We than ended up talking about cows. I told him, when we are born, all of us drink the cow's milk at any given point in our lives which means the cow is our mother, as we are taught from the Vedic literatures and yet people kill and eat its meat. He happened to be a cow meat eater himself as well. I continued; there are so many things the cows can provide us which the people here in Fiji don't even know of. Just by keeping cows, maintaining a goshala, people can earn millions of dollars from the cows being alive for the normal span of its life. Even after the cows natural death its skin can be used for making Mrdanga's (musical instrument). There are a lot of products we can make from the cow's milk, urine and cow dung. He was very stunned, so I started explaining in detail. 1. MilkFrom milk we can make paneer, cream, ghee, yogurt, butter, cheese, ice cream, buttermilk, skim milk, lassi etc. He never heard about lassi, so I told him, it was a very delicious drink, and how we have a member in New Zealand who is known for his paneer and lassi factory in Auckland and is called "The Paneer King". While once in New Zealand, I drove 2 1/2 hours just to buy 1 crate of lassi from his factory as I really loved it as I tasted it the year before during the cart festival where he was give it out for free in Mission Bay. I explained to him the benefits of cow's milk, saying that it is a good source of protein and calcium, as well as nutrients. Cow's milk has everything our body need so why kill it for little meat. Meat you can eat from a cow maybe for a few weeks, but milk it can supply for so many years. You spend say $650.00 or so to buy a cow to kill and eat meat, but if you save the same cow it will earn for you thousands of dollars by giving milk which you can use to make so many different products and supply to the supermarkets, resorts etc. It is simple mathematics, I said to him. 2. Cow UrineCow urine is so powerful that it can cure many diseases like gastritis, arthritis, leprosy, fever, peptic ulcer, liver problems, and even cancer. He looked very shocked that humans can consume cow urine but ofcourse it has to be processed. I told him whilst in India; I used to drink cow urine as well. I even brought a bottle with me to Fiji last year but I was so foolish that didn't realize on the bottle it was written in Hindi and customs wouldn't have known but declared it for clearance where they took it saying cow urine is not allowed. People here are such great fools that they don't know the real value of cow urine. Apart from medication, cow urine is used in cosmetics like skin products, perfumes, shampoo, fertilizers etc. 3. Cow DungCow dung is a good fertilizer as it protects the plants from pests and diseases. It is used for cooking as it is a good fuel. People in India cover their houses with it in the villages, which keeps the house cool in hot weather and warm in cold weather I told him. They use it as paint on the walls inside the houses as well. They spread it all over their compounds as we do with cement. Cement is so expensive to buy but cow dung is free of charge from the cows. There are so many things made from cow dung, like soap, toothpaste, shaving creams, shampoo, incense sticks, etc, but here in Fiji we have no clue what the cow is worth including the leading Dairy factories here. He was hearing all this for the very first time as all he knew is that cow is only for food. I said why kill the cow if it can give us so much in return if we provide them protection. Let it live and die its natural death and if you really want to eat its meat, you can do so after its natural death. (This is a quote by Srila Prabhupada in one of His conversations). Even though India is the source of Vedic culture, it is the world's second highest cow meat exporter. People have become so downgraded and nobody is doing anything about it. Yet there are organizations like ISKCON who are trying very hard to protect cows by keeping farm communities in India and several other countries. I told him about Ramesh Babaji's goshala in Vraj who has more than 50,000 cows and employs 1000 people to work and look after the cows there. To run a slaughter house, you only need 2-3 people but to maintain a goshala as big so many people get employment. So the cow does not only give so many wonderful things but employment as well. If you have plenty cows, you will need veterinarians, accountants, managers, other office staffs, cowherd men, carpenters, farmers, drivers and so many other people to run a goshala. There is so much vacant land full of greenery in Fiji which is underutilized and if someone with enough money could invest in cow protection here will create a great opportunities and fortune for him and others.The cows can also help the agriculture industry as it will give birth to many bulls who can work on the farms. Why do we need tractors when bulls can do so much more in return. To have a tractor you have to buy so much fuel, repair issues, breakdowns, change of parts etc, but cows and bulls survive only on grass. Men are deviating from God given things and changing over to technology. We keep cats and dogs at home which just eat and sleeps whole day. When people talk about Animal rights, they only know cats and dogs but other animals for them are either for food, zoo or to remain in jungles. That is the situation of the whole world. He really appreciated everything I told him and I pray to Krishna that at least he stops eating cow meat. Finally, I said; Oh my God, I know so much about cows. Wish I had enough money to purchase enough land and start up a goshala myself.I also pray that someone gets inspired from this article and invests in Fiji for Cow Protection. May Lord Krishna protect the cows that he so dearly loved!Yours in service,Nityananda DasISKCON Suva, Fiji Islands
Hare Krishna dear Prabhuji.Please accept my humble obeisances.. Very inspiring article. We should all join hands and do something for cow protection.. Some may have money , some may have time, some mayhave skills, while some may have land,.. If we can all unitedly do something...then we can contribute to a large extent in protecting our mother. 🙏
Your detail about Cow is excellent, cow is non other than our mother, there are many children’s who lost biological mother at early stage while giving birth, it’s mother cow who’s milk keep the child alive until the child is able to eat other food than milk.
We all human being should be great full to cow unconditionally.
My prayer is to Lord is protect Cow and give knowledge to human to understand important of cows, who are eating cow meat. 😢
Hare Krishna Prabhu. Wonderful wonderful words from a devotees' mouth. I am really thrilled with your words..I will canvass about this more in the Muslim community so that if they change, there will be major changes that we can expect in the days ahead. Hare Krishna..
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Please accept my humble obeisance 🙏🏾
Your detail about Cow is excellent, cow is non other than our mother, there are many children’s who lost biological mother at early stage while giving birth, it’s mother cow who’s milk keep the child alive until the child is able to eat other food than milk.
We all human being should be great full to cow unconditionally.
My prayer is to Lord is protect Cow and give knowledge to human to understand important of cows, who are eating cow meat. 😢