Blog

Yesterday, on 1st September news in Times of India caught my eyes -

A mob on Friday set ablaze over three dozen vehicles and severely damaged over 40 other vehicles after a mini-truck was found parked on the Jaipur-Delhi highway at Malpura village, near Dharuhera, with an alleged cargo of a large quantity of beef.

1st September was Aja Ekadashi and many of us were celebrating it by fasting, reading Gita or chanting or just visiting temples. We are still in the celebration mode of Janmashtami and on Tuesday we will be celebrating Krishna’s sixth day (Chhathi). How can any of us –Master or seeker, intelligent or not so intelligent, good writer or a mediocre one, rich or poor- celebrate Krishna’s birth without a thought for the cow?

How can we still be the largest exporter of beef? How can we justify being a spiritual country when we can’t stop cow slaughter for cow and spiritualism goes hand in hand in spiritualism.  All that is in our Vedas and other scriptures hold sentimental value for us and we hold it sacred. So why don’t the good and noble join hands in stopping cow slaughter even after independence? Why can’t our sentiments be respected?

Five divine Kamadhenus (wish cows), viz, Nanda, Subhadra, Surabhi, Sushila, Bahula emerged in samudra manthan. States and rivers are named after the cow-  Gauhati, Gorakhpur, Goa, Godhra, Gondiya, Godavari, Goverdhan, Gautam, Gomukh, Gokarna, Goyal, Gochar etc. They signify respect for the cow, and our abiding faith that the cow is Annapurna. The cow, according to the Vedas, provides four products for human use: (i) Godugdha (cow milk): As per Ayurveda, cow milk has fat, carbohydrates, minerals and Vitamin B, and even a capacity for body resistance to radiation and for regenerating brain cells. (ii) Goghrita (ghee): The best ghee, it is, as per Ayurveda useful in many disorders. In yajna, it improves the air's oxygen level. (iii) Gomutra (urine): Eight types of urine are used for medicinal purpose nowadays, among which cow urine is held to be the best. 

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev has said,  All of us at some point have sustained and nourished ourselves on cows’ milk, is it not? It became very sacred because it is a life nourisher and what should have gone to its own offspring, it allows us. Because it nourishes us in that way, it is like the number two mother in our life. Another reason is that the cow has very human kind of emotions. The cow is one animal which responds to your own grief and sorrow. When you are very miserable, the cow feels this and sheds tears for your pain. That is the reason why in India it was said you should not kill a cow because its emotions are close to that of a human being.

In Indian Express, Subramanian Swamy wrote, Our West-influenced intellectuals sneer at the mention of the cow. The same intellectuals first sneered at yoga. Now it is a fashion to do pranayama at cocktail parties. The arguments in the West for cow slaughter are no more uncontested. India has 150 million cows, each of them giving an average of less than 200 litres of milk per year. If they could be fed and looked after, they can give 11,000 litres, as Israeli cows do. That would provide milk for the whole world.

The milk we produce today is the cheapest in the world. With enhanced production we could become the world's largest exporter of milk and it could be India's biggest foreign exchange earner. In 2003, the National Commission on Cattle under Justice G. M. Lodha submitted its recommendations to the NDA government. The report called for stringent laws to protect the cow and its progeny in the interest of the rural economy, a constitutional requirement under Directive Principles of State Policy. 

During the First War of Independence in 1857, when Bahadur Shah `Zafar' was installed as emperor by the Hindus in Delhi for a brief period, his Hindu prime minister, on the emperor's proclamation, made cow killing a capital offence. In Maharaja Ranjit Singh's kingdom, the only crime that invited capital punishment was cow slaughter.

Americans are busy patenting cow urine. It has anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and antioxidant properties. Ancient Hindu wisdom on the medicinal properties of cow urine is borne out by two patents granted in the US for cow urine distillate (Patent numbers 6410059 and 6896907). Even China has granted the distillate a patent as a DNA protector. A global patent has been granted for cow urine, neem and garlic as a pest repellent and for fungicidal and growth promoting properties for different crops (WHO 2004/ 087618A1). A US patent has been granted for strains from Sahiwal cow milk for plant growth promoter phytopathogenic fungi controlling activity, abiotic stress tolerating capability, phosphatic solubilisation capability, etc.  CSIR has filed for a US patent for amrit pani, a mixture of cow dung, cow urine and jiggery, for soil health improvement properties.

Hasn't this already been written in Charaka Samhita, Sushrut, Vaghbhati and Nighantu, Ratnakar, etc? Any dietician's chart shows that beef with 22 per cent protein ranks below soya-bean (43), groundnut (31) and pulses (24 per cent). One kilogram of beef takes seven kg of crops and 7,000 kg of water to produce. 

The Indian desi cow’s reputation was spoilt due to false propaganda-  the 1928 Report of Royal Commission on Agriculture stated that low degraded local Indian cow breeds were useless and thus invasion of foreign breeds of cow began. Tests done by scientists of National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, Karnal have shown that the Indian cow and buffalo possesses a rich A2 allele gene, which provides better and healthier quality of milk than their foreign counterparts. In desi breeds of cows and buffalos, A2 allele gene is 100 per cent, while in foreign breeds, Holstein Friesian and Jersey, it is around 60 percent. 

Foreign breeds produce more milk than Desi cows, but due to A1 gene that milk is inferior and its long term usage can cause several health disorders like diabetic, obesity, cardiovascular diseases etc. Milk of Indian Desi Cows is mostly rich in Beta Carotene. Most dairies across India are now producing milk processed from Jersey cows. A breed of a wild animal named URUS/AUROCHS that was hunted for meat, was cross bred with various animals and with Desi cows of India and thus was born the Jersey. 

Please for God’s sake, for cow’ sake, for your own sake, join to stop cow slaughter. Let’s not say, ‘All this is God’s Plan’. Join together to save the cow or else the cry of cow will curse the entire land, the selfish politicians and the cowardly devotees. A seeker of God is one who is brave. Several varieties of Desi cows have become extinct because we denied her space in our home and love in our hearts. Open your hearts, open your voices please