Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.17.3. Role of a Cow in Human Society
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Sweden · 2013
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Chanting and verse invocation
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtya naraṁ caiva narottamam. Devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ tato jayam udīrayet. Devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ tato jayam udīrayet.
Naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu nityaṁ Bhagavaty uttama-śloke bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī. Bhagavaty uttama-śloke bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī. Bhagavaty uttama-śloke bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī.
So today Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto One, Chapter Seventeen, Punishment and Reward of Kali, text number three. and reward of Kali Text number three Gam
gāṁ ca dharma-dughāṁ dīnāṁ bṛśaṁ śūdra-padāhatām vivatsām aśru-vadanāṁ kṣamāṁ kṣamavatīṁ muhuḥ
brisham shouldrapadam, visham shouldam, brisham shouldrapadam, samsudrapadam, vivatsam ashruvadanam, vivatsamma sruva, vastamma shuva, ksamamamamyava samich chatim, chating, ksamamyava sami chatim, chating, gamcha dharma dukkam dinam, brishamsudrapadam, viṣādinīṁ vivatsām aśru-vadanaṁ Samamy wasamichatiam, gamcha dharma-dugdhāṁ dīnāṁ ca dīnāṁ bhṛśam Sudrapadam, Visham Sudrapadam, Vivsam Asruva, Vadam, Ksamaam Y samicha samichadeen next
aṁśena rājñā ca ramyā. samīcchatīṁ gāñca dharma-dugdha-dīnāṁ bhṛśam aśru-padām. Ca dharma-dugdhāṁ ca dharma-dugdha-dīnāṁ, gāñca dharma-dugdha-dīnāṁ aśru-padāṁ viṣādinīm, vivatsām aśru-vadanaṁ kṣāmāṁ vā samīcchatīm. Gām:
The cow, who is dharma-dughā, beneficial because one can draw religion from her. Beneficial because one can draw religion from her. Beneficial because one can draw religion from her. Now rendered poor. Bhṛśam — distressed.
Distressed. Śūdra. The lower caste. The lower caste. Padahatamadahatam. Beaten on the legs Vivatsa without any calf Ashruvadanam Ashradanam with tears in her eyes.
Yavasam Grass Ichhatim as if desiring to have some grass to eat. Translation by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
although the cow is beneficial because one can draw religious principles from her, she was now rendered poor and coless. Her legs were being beaten by Shudra. There were tears in her eyes, and she was distressed and weak.
Distressed condition of cows in Kali
She was hankering after some grass in the field. Poor port. The next symptom of the age of Kali is the distressed condition of the cow. Milking the cow means drawing the principles of religion in a liquid form.
The great rishis and munis would only live on milk. Śukadeva Gosvāmī would go to a householder while he was milking a cow and he would simply take a little quantity of it for substance.
Even fifty years ago, no one would deprive a sādhu of a quart or two of milk, and every householder would give milk like water.
For Sanatanist, a follower of the Vedic principle, it is the duty of every householder to have cows and bulls as household paraphernalia, not only for drinking milk but also for deriving religious principles.
The Sanatanist worship cows on religious principles and respect brāhmaṇas. The cow's milk is required for the sacrificial fire and by performing sacrifices the householder can be happy. The cow's
calf not only is beautiful to look at, but also gives satisfaction to the cow and so she delivers as much milk
as possible, but in the Kali Yuga the cows are separated from the cows as early as possible for the purpose which may not be mentioned in these pages of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
The cow stands with tears in her eyes. The Shudra milkman draws milk from the cow artificially, and when there is no milk, the cow is sent to be slaughtered.
These greatly sinful acts are responsible for all the troubles in present society. People do not know that what they are doing in the name of economic development.
The influence of Kali will keep them in the darkness of ignorance. Despite all endeavors for peace and prosperity, they must try to see the cows and the bulls happy in all respects.
Interesting statement despite all endeavors for peace and prosperity, they must try to see the cows and bulls happy in all respects. Foolish people do not know how one earns happiness by making the cows and bulls happy.
But it is a fact by law, by the law of nature. Let us take it from the authority of Srimad Bhagavatam and adopt the principles for the total happiness of humanity.
Srila Prabada Kija Gamcha Dharma Dukdam dinam brisham shudra padhahatam viatsam ashruvadanam Samam Yavasam Ichatim.
Although the cow is beneficial because one can draw religious principles from her, she was now rendered poor and cultless.
Her legs were being bitten by a shudra, there were tears in her eyes, and she was distressed and weak. She was hankering after some grass in the field.
Relationship between cow protection and happiness
Swami Dinamini Namaste Saraswati Devi Gurawani Pracharini Nirvisha Sunyavadi Paschatya Desha Tarinim Vanchakalpatarubya Shakripa Sindhu Bevacha Patitanam Pavane Biovishnavyona Jai Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhunitananda Sriadwaita Buddha Srivasa Gaura Bhakta Brinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Ram Ram Rama Hare Hare. Ajanu Lambita Bujokanakavatu Sankirtanaika Pitaroka Malayakshavishwambarod Vijayava Ruyu Gudharmapala Vande Jagat Priya Karovarunavatara Yun tahishya Mamma Vachimamamprasuptam Sanji Vayataki La Shakti Darah Swadamna Anyamschahastacharana Shravanatva Gadim Pranannamo Bhagavate Purushay dummy so
shipuprapada ants his purport by saying let us take it from the authority of Shimad Bhagavatam, this law of nature, and adopt the principles for the total happiness of humanity.
He gives this beautiful purport for the ultimate benefit of the humanity and he makes this uh not very obvious connection between the happiness of the cows and the happiness of the human beings.
He says it's a subtle law of nature and nobody can cancel this law. If the cows are not happy, people will not be happy no matter what they do. And he stresses it so much that it's practically impossible to stress more.
He says it's a duty of every householder to keep cows. Not just some backward householders who live in Almig or some backward people who live in some village.
He says it's a duty of every householder to do something for the cow protection because without this principle maintained in the human society people will not be happy including us. I'm saying it first and foremost approaching or addressing myself.
Śrīla Prabhupāda was extremely uncompromising in this regard because he knew this is the law of nature. Unless you do something, not just preach, but do something substantial in this regard, there will be no happiness.
At least not total happiness. He gives a very interesting expression, total happiness. Total happiness means happiness in all regards. We may be sometimes little happy, you know.
Sometimes we happen to chant a little bit and we become little happy about this. But ultimately there will be disturbances in a human society.
We are doomed, and disturbances will increase and increase and increase and increase and increase and we see it, we see it.
This whole chain reaction which is there in a human society according to Śrīla Prabhupāda is based on this very simple principle that people are not respecting cows and bulls.
The cow represent earth and the bulls represent religion,
Cow protection as core Vedic culture
and basically, everything is derived from this. All the troubles of human society is a result of this simple fact. We see no culture in the world which gives so much stress in the cows. But very culture.
And very culture basically means protection of the cows. It's nothing else. Sometimes you know we all big proponents of Vedic culture will say you
know so many things about Vedic culture, astrology, Jyotisha, Vedic culture, yoga Vedic culture. This is not Vedic culture. This is just some rinky tinky little embellishment of Vedic culture.
Vedic culture is the protection of the cows. This is Vediculture. In a society, in a culture where the cows and bulls are protected, then everything else follows from this.
Śrīla Prabhupāda says and uh in fact this purport says that Dharma-dugdha, that the cow gives not just the milk. The cow gives dharma. Cow gives the facility for human beings to perform dharma.
And if cows are not protected then people drink Parma milk. Oh whatever milk is there. Even Gomastan, I guess it's not very authorized according to the Vedic principles. There is no question of people following Dharma.
There is no question of people having mind in the mode of goodness. Śrīla Prabhupāda was very, very emphatic about this thing. He said that that the milk is liquid dharma.
And if you drink real milk milk which is obtained from the cow who is protected?
Who is not under the verge of total desperation because she knows that as soon as she stops giving milk, she will be slaughtered mercilessly. If you drink this milk, then your mind will be different.
Everyone, every devotee is struggling trying to chant Hare Krishna mantra. The mind is wandering all over the universe. We're ready to be concentrated on anything else but Krishna in Krishna's holy name. Why?
Because the mind is made in a certain way and there is so much raja-samas there. And we cannot do anything about it. Unless the food is pure.
It is said very clearly in Chandogya Upanishad, then when the food is pure, then the mind becomes pure. And when the mind becomes pure, all the problems are solved.
And when the food is not pure, the mind is impure, how you can be happy. Śrīla Prabhupāda makes this very simple point that happiness comes from the mind. Happiness is not something external.
Happiness is not coming even from the stimulation of the senses. Happiness is coming from the happy mind, and happy mind is a result of pure food and there is no pure food in Kali Yuga unfortunately.
Sometimes we proudly say that you know eating grains is
Degradation of grains through chemical fertilizers
sāttvik food. It's not sāttvik. There is no sattvik grains in Kali Yuga. Because all these grains are obtained from the fields through the fertilizers. What kind of sattva it is? It's total rajas.
This green revolution which took place uh some thirty years back or whatever years back, you know, uh it basically destroyed uh the remnants of Dharma in a human society because all this green revolution is coming from the fields with fertilizers and fertilizers means shortcut and shortcut means
tamo-guṇa and rajo-guṇa. Shortcut means basically you know you're trying to to get something in a quick way. And rajas.
So the very idea behind this so-called green revolution, which is coming through chemical fertilizers is Rajasic. And the chemical fertilizers, they have so much, you know, rajas and tamas inside.
And we're eating not grains, we're eating fertilizers. Nothing else. It's actually one of the symptoms of Kali Yuga.
In Mahābhārata, Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi is explaining in Vana Parva to Pandavas, the symptoms of Kali Yuga, and he says uh he gives a very interesting description. Different symptoms he lists, so many of them, horrible symptoms.
But one of the symptoms is very relevant for the modern society, you know, is as that the food will be deprived of its smell and taste. And it's already there. You know, you go to any And
then uh what is said that the grains will be totally useless. You know the grains in Sanskrit and this is actually one of the creations
in the Ṣaṭ-skandha of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there are ten different creations, and one of the creations is the creation of Oshadis. And Oshadi literally means the medicine.
But in Sanskrit oshadi uh again literally means the grains. Oshadi is a certain sort of a plant which by giving the seeds dies itself.
So all the power of the living power of the prana of this particular plant goes into the grains. And therefore the grains are so nourishing. But initially, the the grains would have medicinal effects.
The people who would eat these grains would become totally healthy. They would never get cancer or anything else.
You know, the cancer is just result of these fertilizers or all these crazy things which we are constantly eating. You know there there is no need for any other medicines if you eat proper grains.
If the grains are proper, if they are properly grown in a m in a proper way, then you will get all the all the strengths.
I heard one lecture then uh the by one Indian traditional Indian, he said even thirty years back there was the grains were totally different than now.
Because of the taste and because of the medicinal qualities and the brand was even uh the the the species was different n mm but now it's all uh you know practically instinct uh extinct because uh they don't yield so much.
The the proper original indigenous so called uh indigenous uh in India uh grains they are m much more healthy than uh all the varieties which are grown now because they're just you know, they they're practically useless.
And the grains which we eat are useless. And everything is useless and therefore we're useless. You know the our mind is rendered useless by the useless food which you eat.
And therefore so much rajas and tamas is there and we can't do anything, we can't overcome this rajas and tamas.
You know, so many years thirty years we chant and you know it's you it's just sixteen rounds of Nama Parada every day. Very good. With with all the uh unclear consequences. And uh th because again, Dharma Dugdam.
This milk is not just food. It's dharma. It's liquid dharma. Śrīla Prabhupāda says he's so emphatic about this. This is dharma. You will be able to perform dharma, to be dharmic, and to be happy ultimately.
If you do it properly, starting with the simple things. And uh and practically nobody is doing this.
Pitfalls of shortcuts in modern agriculture
This cow protection is the most unfortunate instruction of Śrīla Prabhupāda which is practically uh unfulfilled for the most part. Nobody is doing this because again, you know, who will do it?
Prabhupāda once uh he he was touring through New Vṛndāvana, New Vṛndāvana farm. And he was shown different aspects of this and the devotees were very proud and ultimately he came to a place where they showed him proudly
a couple of tractors. And Prabhupāda said, what is this? They said, Prabhupāda, it's tractors to plow the fields. He said it means you will ultimately kill the bulls. There is no other way. Why? Again, shortcut.
You know, who who will do this oxen plowing? This is just it's so backwards. It's so uh impractical. It's absolutely impractical i at present. You know nobody is doing it even in India nowadays. Hardly anyone is doing it.
But all these tractors they destroy the land and uh ultimately renders the food which is produced by this land also totally useless.
What Prabhupāda says it's a subtle law, but it's a it's extremely important law for the total happiness of humanity. But nobody will do it because nobody wants total happiness. Everyone wants shortcut happiness.
And shortcut happiness is beautifully explained in Bhagavad-gītā. Krishna says that what does this shortcut happiness mean? Shortcut happiness means you have nectar now and you will have poison a little later.
And not so much later.
Because this is the nature of rajo-guṇa. Rajo-guṇa means, you know, you you get something quick, but you will suffer at the end. And then the horrible nature of Sattva Gun is that it just tastes like poison in the beginning.
And you just don't want to take this poison. And who cares about what happened later? Yeah, it will turn into nectar, but you know who believes it? Nobody believes it. It it tastes bitter now. Why should I take it?
I want sweet. I want something sweet. And that's that's the principle, that's actually Rājasic principle upon which we're based. Our lives are based on this stupid principle. And we're doing this again and again and again.
So I mean again Vedic culture means this. The essence of Vedic culture means this and therefore Krishna is glorified. Prabhupada quotes this verse, he mentions this verse.
Namo brahmaṇeyu devāya go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca jagat-hitāya kṛṣṇāya govindāya namo namaḥ Who is Krishna? Who is God? The God is one who likes Brahmanas and cows. And when we if we want to please God, we are supposed
to like what He likes, not what we like. Pleasing somebody means to do something which He likes not what I like. And he likes brāhmaṇas and cows.
And Prabhupāda in one Purport, in an amazing Purport, in 10th Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he says, among these two, brāhmaṇas and cows, Krishna is more concerned about cows than the Brahmanas.
He says, Prabhupada says, Krishna is much more concerned about the comfort of the cows than the comfort of the Brahmanas.
In other words, you can neglect brāhmaṇas, forget about this anyway in Kali Yuga there is no brāhmaṇas. But at least take care of the cows. Do something for the cows.
This do something please save them from this unbearable sufferings which are going on on a daily basis, do something little, whatever little you can do.
Auspiciousness of dust from returning cows
Prabhupada says this and to stress this even more, you know there are so many stories in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which shows how Kṛṣṇa loves the cows. What Vrindavan is? Vrindavan is the place of cows.
When Uddhava came to Vrindavan, when he arrived. He arrived in Vrindavan in this particular time when the cows are coming back from the pastures. And this is a very auspicious time.
In Sanskrit it's called Godhuli Samaya or Dhu or Goraja Samaya whatever. It's it's interesting. I I was shocked. I was studying some some branch of astrology, Muhurta,
astrological thing and um you know there is different considerations of auspicious times.
When you know a particular time was auspicious for particular things. But then it is said, you know, if you want to, you know, and there is always some problems.
If if you take the astrological situation, there is no perfect Muhurta whatsoever. You know, there is always this or that or something is there. It it's just you go crazy trying to find some very auspicious time.
It's just impossible because there's no auspicious uh time in this world.
But then it is said if you want total protection from all this inauspiciousness which are there in the stars, just do this ceremony at the time when the cows are coming back from the pastures, then the the dust from the cows will protect you from all the inauspicious influences.
You know if you want the perfect muhurta do it when the cows are coming back and there is so much dust there then you know all the stars are rendered uh totally uh useless.
And there is no inauspicious influence because it cannot just uh penetrate this auspicious dust coming from the cows. Usually, previously, in the previous I was surprised myself when I heard this.
My teacher told me I said that usually previously now uh all the marriages in India are done in Akshaya Tritiya.
If you go now, you know on the thirteenth of may there will be you know marriages after marriages you will go crazy because everyone will try to get married on this supposedly auspicious day.
But before that all the marriages were done during the time when cows would come from the pastures. Not on this day, but uh when the cows would would raise some some dust which would protect you completely.
And when Uddhava came to Vrindavan there was so much dust. Then the inhabitants of Vrindavan didn't even see Udava and his glowing chariot. So much dust was there. Only a little later they they saw him.
Sorry yeah that was Uddhava yeah right they didn't see Uddhava because because there was so much dust and uh when Krishna you
know it's again and again and again if we re-read the tenth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we'll see how Krishna would love cows. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we'll see how Krishna would love cows.
Bilvamangala Thakura has a funny funny verse in Krishna Karnamrita, in the second part I believe it's maybe not so authorized, but still it's a very beautiful verse.
It is said that Krishna when the sacrificial Brahmanas are chanting the mantras with the perfect rhythm and perfect pronunciation. Krishna stands there unmoved. He is not he is not really ready to run there.
He just basically he doesn't care. But when the cows are moving, Krishna is just is running behind them.
In other words, the mooing of the cows is much more dear to the heart of Krishna than all this, you know, Vedic mantras pronounced perfectly by the brāhmaṇas.
And then he says, he says, when the Brahma, Lord Brahma, is praying to Krishna. Krishna stands there and he just keeps silence.
It is written in the fourteenth chapter of uh of Tenth Canto that Brahma was beautiful, beautiful, beautiful verses which we are supposed to memorize.
He was, you know, making this, you know, beautiful verses amazing versus with so much philosophy. Krishna was not moved.
But then he says: when Krishna hears how the cows are mooing, he starts mooing like a little calf in response to this.
The cows you know the Krishna doesn't care about prayers of Brahmā, but when the cows start mooing, he just says, moo, like a little calf. Because he likes. He likes cows.
And he says at the end of this verse, he says the you know this is all to show that Krishna only loves cows. Krishna loves cows. He doesn't love anything else.
Hypocrisy in contemporary cow protection
Again, if if we want to please Krishna, we have to do at least something about it. At least in India people a little bit conscious about this fact.
I was just in in Bombay and in Bombay there was one poor lady who would come and she would bring uh in one corner and she would bring um two cows with her and she would sit and she would bring some grass with her and she would make some cow laddus from something, you know, something, some food which cows would like. And people would come and buy these ladders just to feed these cows.
They they do at least little gesture of kind of cow protection.
And and this this lady w probably she's very prosperous and she lives by because people give this ten rupees donation for for couple of balls of this lado and give to cow. It's a hypocrisy actually.
Really it's a hypocrisy. Even in India it has become a big hypocritical show. People yeah they they they're ready to part with ten rupees in in Mumbai to protect the cause.
This is this is the extent uh they ready to sacrifice uh their comforts uh to protect the cause. But it's it's it's hipp it's it's definitely better than what people are doing the West. By far better.
But it's totally hypocritical because, you know, I was told in India again, that India now is second in the world biggest exporter of cow meat. And the Prime Minister of India proudly said that we want to become first.
And he's supposed to belong to, you know, such religion, which is a part of it's it's it's not a such religion, it's a Vedic religion. And that's uh it's a part of you know kind of greater Vedic culture.
He's supposed to protect the Hindu Dharma, the Sikhs are supposed to be the protectors of Vedic Dharma. That's what he says. We will become the first one, the first exporters of cow meat.
Even though according to Indian Constitution, the Indian Constitution is not as bad as as the Constitution of other countries.
It is said that the all the inhabitants of this land, including animals, should be protected by this constitution.
It is it is written there in the constitution, nobody follows it, because this is Kali Yuga, because this is what Prabhupada says here in the purport, this is the symptom of Kali Yuga. And the hypocrisy becomes rampant in uh in this
age, everyone is hypocritical. Starting with us. We are hypocritical. Because we're not doing anything else. We give nice lectures. That's exactly what I'm doing now. Give good lectures about it. Yeah right. Very good.
What are we doing about it? And this is a very very unfortunate actually very unfortunate situation in the whole society. Krishna likes the cows so much. It's actually I was in uh Sri Rangam.
And in Sri Rangam and they they perform a very interesting kind of mangalarity for Anganath. For Mangalarity they bring first they bring some sacred elephant with water from Kaveri, big silver vessels to do
a abhishek for Ranganath. And then the first the first somebody whom Ranganath should see is the is the little cow. And they bring a cow.
And the cow, they not only bring cow in the temple, this is, you know, this is actually the sign of auspiciousness. If if somebody sees first thing in the morning a cow, the whole day will be very auspicious.
So they bring the cow and they put cow, uh, the back of the cow towards Ranganath, because the back of the cow, place where the cow dung is coming from, is the most auspicious part of the whole cow, you know.
So they show the cow because this is the place where Lakshmi lives. The goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune, lives at the back of the cow.
So they show to Ranganath this back of the cow and Ranganath becomes very happy. You know, he likes cows. He's he's he actually likes cows.
Krishna playing with cow dung
When Krishna there is a very interesting story. When Krishna was a small child, he was always, you know, when Krishna was a small child, he spent most of his early childhood years just in a cow dung.
You know, it it was his favorite playground, just to be totally completely smeared with cow dung. You know, now most of the children spend their childhood time in computer.
But this is the most unhygienic place you can be. Just be in front of the computer. Eat all the pollution which is there from the computer. Krishna knows, you know, he's he's there.
He just, and what he would do, it is described that he would take the, you know, the he would make, when he's just little child, little baby, He would make a big, big balls of cow dung, and he would come to Balaram and he would smear Balaram with this. Very lovingly.
In a very loving manner. He would just smear Balarama. Here you are. You know, this is this is our religion. This is what God is doing. You know, and even Mother Yashoda was sometimes shocked when she saw this.
She said, Krishna, you know, she would say to him, Krishna, it seems like in uh in your past incarnation, last time you were a boar. You know, because boars, they like some dung.
And Krishna would say, yes, I was a boar, and my... Yes, it's true. Yes, Mother, what can I do? I still have some habits of boar. I like cow dung.
And that's what Krishna would do. That's how Krishna would spend his his life, his his child. And he, that's, that's what Prabhupāda says here in the purport, which is as if written by his blood, you know.
is actually his compassion is there in this purport. He says everyone is unhappy and you will never become happy unless you try to do something for the protection.
Whatever little you can do, at least try to do something for this, because unless
you do it, if you are so hardhearted that you, if you rendered so hardhearted that you don't have compassion for this condition of the cows which are very prominent in Kali-yuga. Happiness will never come to you by the law of nature. And nobody will be able to cancel this law of nature.
I just listened to Śivarāma Swami's lecture, and in this connection he said that it's a duty of every, basically, of every householder: if he cannot do something for the cow by his hands, at least he can give some little money for the cow protection, because at least some heroic people are doing something for this, which is
very, you know, unrājasic, you know, to work with the bulls and the cows and try to help them. So that's the subtle law, and Prabhupāda, he basically
calls upon us, and he says, please take the authority of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam for this. If you believe Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, this is what Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is trying to teach us.
Srimad Bhagavatam is trying to teach us this story. Is there in the very beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam about the śūdra who is torturing the cow and a bull as the most prominent sign of Kali Yuga?
And we can have we can only have protection from the evils of Kali Yuga if we do something contrary to this.
The real religion, the real dharma will come to our heart; the real understanding will come to our heart only if this
particular principle is maintained by us, and nobody else will do it. If we don't do it nobody else will do it, especially in the West. At least in the East in uh in India at least.
There are some people who are trying to do this. I was also there is one Swamiji. He has huge goshala. He's and I think two hundred thousand cows or something like this.
And he is a great proponent of cows and cow protection and
he's you know he's producing all kinds of medicines from cows and trying to you know propagate how important it is, how the cow protection is actually is a foundation for a happy life. So he himself eats.
He was a a he's w was quite sick person uh when he came to this and he experienced himself the benefits of cow protection. He's very healthy, he's quite old now. He's eighty years old or something like this.
I was told that his diet is listen, please listen and take it very closely to heart. His diet is he only eats a particular chapati's made of a particular kind of grain oats but this grain is obtained from the cow dung.
The cows are fed with this oats.
And then when the cow dung comes out from the rear end of the cow where the mother Lakshmi resides eternally, you know, this cow dung is you know washed and uh those grains of the oats which are not digested by the cows being ground into the flour and from this, you know, and he eats it and he's uh totally completely healthy.
He says this is the healthiest diet which you can imagine. It may sound weird, it it probably sounds very weird to us. Who will do it? But this is the grace of the cow. Cow is not an ordinary animal. It's a it's a gift.
It's a gift of Krishna to humanity which we kill in Kali Yuga. And this is it's worse than suicide. It's much worse than suicide. It's actually it's it's much worse because we're we're killing the ability for
Impending societal collapse and natural living
bhakti within our hearts by by doing this by kind of promoting this or neglecting this important part of Prabhupāda's mission. So what I wanted to say is that uh at least in India somebody is doing this.
People are a little more conscious about this. In the West nobody will do it. Nobody will take it seriously. And it basically means that the whole society will collapse. It will collapse.
There is no I mean it's just only a question when because the whole thing is so so sickly artificial the whole thing is so completely totally artificial. It will collapse.
And Prabhupāda says when it will collapse, people will come to us and will see what it means to live a natural life. Where they will come? They will come to New Rajadam in Hungary.
You know it will be quite a crowded place because this is the only place where something is being done. In a real sense. Nowhere else. Nowhere else.
Oh maybe omnik, I don't know if if it's still going on and to which extent it goes on. It's difficult. It's very difficult.
In the present economic setup it's extremely difficult, but it's the only thing which ultimately will give you the proper understanding of very culture and the proper uh living in the society.
Again, I'm addressing mostly myself. I am not addressing anyone else. I was just I was practically in tears when I read this poor port by Prabhupada because I realized that I'm not doing anything about it.
We're just trying to do something else. Whereas this is an important thing. And we conveniently neglect this even though it's the beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
The duty of any leader in the society is to follow the footsteps of Maharaja Pariksit. That's the only way to protect us from the evil potent influences of Kali Yuga. There is no other way.
Otherwise we will remain helpless victims of this evil age. We will remain.
Of course I I mean you know we're not doing that bad. At least and we can console ourselves in this regard, but still we are not doing that good too either.
We are not saying. Therefore Prabhupāda says this for the total happiness of humanity, we have to understand this subtle law of nature, and he says that this greatly sinful acts are responsible for all the troubles in the presence of everything else. If we want to stop all the troubles, this is the root.
If we want still to promote all the troubles this is again the course of action.
Simplicity as a core Vaisnava quality
This is a you know amazing purport which is not very much perhaps emphasized and I'm very grateful to Śrīla Prabhupāda for again bringing our attention to this particular topic.
And the the last thing which I want to say, which I I wanted to say I just forgot, but I thought I will still say it, why Krishna likes cows, even modern Brahmanas.
Why he likes Brahmanas and cows and cows modern Brahmanas? Because cows are totally completely simple and not crooked. And Krishna is also very simple. Krishna is a simple God. He is not very complicated God.
Not a revengeful God of some other religions. He's a very simple hearted god. He's from a village. Village people are very supposed to be at least simple because they they live simple life and this simplicity
has a quality of, sāraḻya is supposed to be the main quality of a vaiṣṇava too. If we want to serve Krishna, we have to adopt the same kind of quality.
Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda would say that vaiṣṇavatā means Saralata. Simplicity.
You want to be vaiṣṇava means not crooked, not clever, not thinking something and how to get something and just simple like cows. Cows are very simple.
You know, they just come to you and just poke their nose in you and ask for their protection. This is what makes Krishna the greatest lover of the cows.
He loves cows because of this very important quality of the cows and uh uh he will not love anyone else who doesn't manifest this quality.
When Krishna came to Hastināpura, Duryodhana made a very very crooked plan. He wanted to please Krishna.
He cooked a nice feast and he put some dancing girls in front of Krishna because he and there was some kirtan going on. People were telling me Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare.
And Duryodhana had this plan, you know, I will please Krishna. And he will do whatever I like. Right? Sometimes we also have this plan. Let me do something for Krishna. Let me give him nice prasadam. Give him nice prasadam.
Kirtan was there, everything was there. The ladies were doing the things, you know and dancing. And Krishna looked at this and he just smiled with some disgust. He didn't even want to get into this.
He just he and he immediately understood the plan, the crooked plan. He just smiled. He said, You think you are crooked? You think you are the most clever? I will show you who is the most clever. And where where did he go?
He went to this simple heart of Vidura and there this simple wife of Vidura would become so totally completely emotional that she would start giving him some banana peels.
And when Vidura came he saw this horrible picture, his wife is sitting there and feeding Krishna from her hand with banana peels.
Because she was so nervous, you know, Krishna came and she didn't have anything, just few bananas, and
she was giving him some banana peels. But because of her nervousness, she would throw the bananas outside and would give him some peel, banana peel. And Krishna was eating. And Vidura became horrified, his eyes became big.
And he wanted to stop this nonsense. And Krishna said, don't spoil my lunch. I'm eating the most delicious food because it's given from the simple heart, from a very uncomplicated heart. This is what Krishna wants.
That's why he likes cows, loves cows, and that's what he expects from us. Not some kind of crooked plot which we may generate from our fertile Kali Yuga brain, how we will please him.
We will only please him by doing what he wants us to do. Anyway, please forgive me for all my offences and for my impudent attempt to talk in front of all of you. Uh thank you very much. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam kī jaya!
Addressing vegan perspectives on milk
Are there any questions? On the one side there was everyone's duty to do something served to the car.
And there' thes other side more and more discussed now that how to indirectly support by boycotting producer This is I you know the vagans are doing this, yes. They are trying to boycott the milk.
And that's that's probably a good thing to do in one sense.
But the negative part of this kind of instruction is that the positive results of milk and milk consumption are not emphasized enough and some people some people just do it because of purely health reason, because there is so much demonic propaganda that that milk is not healthy, that cow milk is not healthy.
Of course the pasteurized milk or whatever milk is there is probably not healthy, that's true.
Or whatever, you know, all this all this milk which is which is being n neglected even by bacteria because you know you you keep it for two months and it's just very fresh. Keep it open for two months no problem.
Even bacteria can digest this kind of milk so so this this milk is probably not healthy that's true but but
because of this uh vegan propaganda many people have a very perverted idea of what the healthy diet is uh so I I would say that it's uh much less uh advisable or effective than to propagate the importance of the cows in a very direct way how the cows uh that without the proper care of the cows.
And it's actually, you know, Prabhupāda explains here the whole chain reaction which uh which starts from neglecting this and m very few people will be able to track down the evils of the society to this point.
Many people will find some other cause of it, which is little remote from the original cause. But the original cause is described here in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Why it is so important?
You know, because you know the very beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, this original cause of all the problems of Kali Yuga is uh is graphically depicted by this symbolic story. I mean symbolic or real story. Both sides are there. And uh one one has to be really quite deep in his understanding to understand that this is the cause, the root cause of the problems.
We can see some other causes which are there which kind of obvious but that it comes or boils down to this I doubt that anyone is genius enough to really trying to solve the economical problems to come to this particular point so deep.
Understanding simplicity and straightforwardness
But Prabhupāda is very clear about it because Bhāgavatam is so clear, this this is the message of Bhāgavatam for the humanity at large. Yeah.
I know that uh, but uh simplicity, it's very much collective disposity uh basically like seminal uh can you please explain like from vaiṣṇava perspective what does it mean the simplicity or honestly?
Yeah, simplicity means simplicity means saralatā.
Śaral means you're very simple, means you whatever you say, whatever you is there, you know, you say it in a very sincere way and of course you know that some other rules are there but still you know somebody like uh it it's it's quite a difficult quality actually to live with because people are very diplomatic nowadays.
And it may not be that bad we have to be diplomatic to a certain extent, but diplomatic but not duplicitous.
Like simplicity means we feel some pain and it's our duty to express our pain to the person who caused this pain. Usually people don't do this because of the diplomatic upbringing and the culture which is there.
They would prefer to somehow or other to swallow this pain without saying this, but the pain remains there it destroys them from within and it creates some kind of you know diplomatic more emphasizes more this diplomatic kind of things.
And uh people don't appreciate this simplicity too, you know, sometimes. W when when we are straightforward people don't appreciate this. So basically it's uh straightforwardness.
Straight means we're very straight in our thinking, in our expression, in our dealing with people.
And uh it's one of the explanation of uh the word Arjuna. Why Arjuna is so much glorified in Mahābhārata and he is the single most prominent devotee in the whole of Mahābhārata.
Because Arjuna means from the from the root uh verbal root rij rij means straight riju
There is also verse in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which glorifies this this this quality, another another synonym of Sanskrit synonym ṛju. Ṛju means straight, very honest.
And we we see Arjuna, you know, he felt this pain inside and just comes to Krishna and he da he doesn't try to kind of put a big show I am a great hero here you know I'll just do it.
No, no, he's just in front of everyone. You know, millions of people are there.
Arjuna is the most glorious warrior who's supposed to be, you know, everyone that looks at him, he's just there and says, I'm so weak, Krishna. One has to be very bold to say this in front of everyone.
You know, I can't I can't fight, you know. Everyone is looking and you know. And even Krishna says to him, Arjuna, get to your senses, you know, what are you doing? You're supposed to be a hero.
So that that's a that's a that's a quality. And when we see the when we study the first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, we can see that Arjuna is very straightforward. And therefore Krishna teaches Bhagavad-gītā to him.
And at the same time, as a kind of background for this, we can see that how Duryodhana is plotting. He says something, and Prabhupada explained this very carefully.
He says something to Dronacharya, actually, meaning not Dronācārya, you know, he wants to stimulate Dronācārya, you know, he has this thing and at the same time he actually wants indirectly to address Bhīṣma that Bhīṣma should do this and
you know all these plots are going on in his head and Prabhupada says this is a Raja, this is rājanīti, you know, he's showing how the rājanīti is. And uh Arjuna is also raja. He's also king. But he's very undiplomatic.
He says Krishna, no, no, I will not fight. You do whatever you like, but take my chariot. You know, you became a driver of my chariot, so take me far away from this. Well let's go do some bhajan together.
So that's that's what it is. He's he's exactly like a like a big cow. It's interesting y, you know, if you go to Gosal and try to feed cows. Uh cows uh they're very straightforward. They want to eat so they come.
And they kind of you know, they flock together. But they never you will never see that they will just kind of try to go or some other cows.
All the cows are there and everyone wants and everyone the tongue is there, you know, give me, give me. But you know, they are not envious in a sense.
They're not really against other cows, you know, they just live and let live and they're there. This is uh this is a quality which we are supposed to develop.
If somebody hurts us we have to tell him, you know, why do why do we do this? And perhaps he will understand this very quickly and you know, kind of come to this. W we shouldn't just pretend that nothing happened.
We should say this. Why not?
Unique characteristics of Vedic cows
In a very straight way. Yeah, they say that uh in the West there is no cows. That's a saving grace for the West because it's not really cows.
They s they what they call them is go-prāya. They're almost cows. They look like cows, but not exactly cows.
Because the lakshana which is given the definition of the cow which is given in Vedic literature is that cow has to have this this skin hanging from the neck. This is the real cow.
And if if it's long skin, that's the real cow. And the you know the Western cow they're very robust, they don't have anything hanging from the neck.
So uh they're not uh but still it's it's it's kind of similar species but it's not exactly
uh this the indigenous cows, they have certain lakṣaṇa, but the main lakṣaṇa, the the um because no one else there is no other animal which has this sign, has the you know skin hanging from the neck.
Therefore the definition of cow is that this is somebody who has this thing.
So therefore Vedic people, they say go-prāya and then they say, you know, they say that the medicinal qualities of urine and cow dunk they are much more prominent than indigenous species of Indian cows.
Because they also say, you know, people who study cows, they say that there is certain other lakṣaṇa, like the cows, the proper cows, they're supposed to have a certain wheel of the hairs uh on the back.
And through this particular wheel of the hair, it's a it's a sudden device through which the if I remember it correctly, uh don't quote me on this, the moonlight is coming to the body of the cow.
It's like little antenna on the back of the cow which absorbs the moonlight and this moonlight directly being absorbed by the body of the cow makes also very beneficial whatever comes through her system.
And there are some other things, you know there is some some sign of a sun there on the body of a cow, some sign of the moon through which uh it's it's being it's it's a very amazing creation of God. Specifically given to us for the benefit of humanity.
And what we do with it? Just kill it. Just kill it. I was told that there is some milk production. There is no cars which are coming there with the milk. It's just some I don't know.
They produce so called m milk products nowadays. It's not from the milk, it's God knows from what it is, from some chemicals. It's a very uh you know the cow and uh it's it's still very much misunderstood in the West.
Like they say that you know the cow cow butter is very bad for the for cholesterol. No. The real ghee, especially if it's the ghee which produced from yogurt from the churned yogurt.
It's the best medicine against cholesterol. If you take this ghee, whatever cholesterol you accumulated in your veins
uh will be digested and uh and uh dissolved mm by the proper ghee if you take the best medicine of it is ghee, but proper cow ghee and so many other diseases can be cured by by this because this is this is Krishna's special gift to us.
So it's not an excuse if we don't. No, it's not an excuse. It's not an excuse to inflict pains to to anyone. But it's it's just. it's a hypocrisy. It's uh when we try to inflict pain and justify it by some other means.
Perhaps the consequences are not as bad if we kill this cow, but probably severe enough to to make the whole humanity suffer. The way it suffers now.
Because the whole actually the whole economy, artificial economy which is the cause of immense suffering for everyone in the human society because everyone is suffering from this artificial economy is
a result of this simple thing of neglect of the cows and bulls. It's it was basically very logically derived from this thing that when when Western people started killing uh the cows and the bulls because
originally d you know the Vedi culture was there for sure. And some respect was there. But then when they started the whole civilization developed, the whole Kali-yuga civilization developed from this act.
And it's all very logical development derived from this.
said originally was the Vedic culture, especially country up here like north was very much, you know, everybody if you go, and I went, I think, in the north so that every house there, every family, villager there was a small house for cow, one or two cows. That's they survived in this way, and that's just two generations and, uh, the whole it's a dairy country, and it's the whole because like, you know, that we can't grow much grains there's not uh but cows we could have completely up there in the
north from Humus, you know. So they used to previously they used to since there's not much land they used to bring the cows up in the hills and the mountains in the summer.
And there were special ladies who they're like what's it divides and goes there especially ladies who just live in the cows the whole summer season up there making the cows walking freely and they made cheese and butter
and uh this culture was probably now totally extinct, but when I was in sankīrtana like 20 years ago, I met one of the last what is a special name. It's a name on speech specifically. And uh they were often single also.
So I met one of these, a... What is the special name? So like usual I ask, you know, what are you doing? And she said, I'm a buddha, that's the name. And I said,
Talking about being happy, you know, but so this is like meeting a... It's not like it's like a human being with other species. It should believe you know so happy. And you know and I and and I said people, yes.
It was no it was that simple. Cows and uh I was thinking yes. She's been whole... whole, like, 70 years old. When we take care of cows, we adopt their qualities. Anyway, thank you very much. Śrīla Prabhupādā ki...