Gopastami

[Guest guest]

Gopastami:

 

On this day lord Sri Krishna became a qualified cowherd. Before this day, he

was a keeper of the calves.

 

The Killing of Dhenukasura:

 

"Thus Sri Krishna, along with His elder brother Balarama, passed the

childhood age known as kaumara and stepped into the age of pauganda, from

the sixth year up to the tenth. At that time, all the cowherd men conferred

and agreed to give those boys who had passed their fifth year charge of the

cows in the pasturing ground. Given charge of the cows, Krishna and Balarama

traversed Vrindavana, purifying the land with Their lotus footprints."

 

In His honour, and thinking of Him one should worship the cows with ten

upacharas, with the mantra "om gave namah" etc. In some places they dress a

small boy as Krishna to invoke stronger remembrance of the pastime.

 

One can anoint or "paint" the horns with turmeric and put sindura on their

foreheads, and hand marks on to their bodies. One should then feed them

fresh sweet grasses and circumambulate them.

 

Pranama (obeisances):

 

om namo gobhyah srimatibhyah saurabheyibhya eva ca

namo brahma sutabhyas ca pavitrabhyo namo namah

 

 

 

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Lord Krsna, as the teacher of human society, personally showed by His acts

that the mercantile community, or the vaiçyas, should herd cows and bulls

and thus give protection to the valuable animals. According to sm?ti

regulation, the cow is the mother and the bull the father of the human

being. The cow is the mother because just as one sucks the breast of one’s

mother, human society takes cow’s milk. Similarly, the bull is the father of

human society because the father earns for the children just as the bull

tills the ground to produce food grains. Human society will kill its spirit

of life by killing the father and the mother. It is mentioned herein that

the beautiful cows and bulls were of various checkered colors—red, black,

green, yellow, ash, etc. And because of their colors and healthy smiling

features, the atmosphere was enlivening. (A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Prabhupada. Srimad Bhagavatam 3:2:29. purport.)

pita-mata mari’ khao——eba kon dharma

kon bale kara tumi e-mata vikarma

SYNONYMS

pita-mata—father and mother; mari’—killing; khao—you eat; eba—this; kon—what

kind of; dharma—religion; kon bale—on what strength; kara—do; tumi—you;

e-mata—such; vikarma—sinful activities.

TRANSLATION

“Since the bull and cow are your father and mother, how can you kill and eat

them? What kind of religious principle is this? On what strength are you so

daring that you commit such sinful activities?”

PURPORT

Everyone can understand that we drink the milk of cows and take the help of

bulls in producing agricultural products. Therefore, since our real father

gives us food grains and our mother gives us milk with which to live, the

cow and bull are considered our father and mother. According to Vedic

civilization, there are seven mothers, of which the cow is one. Therefore

Cré Caitanya Mah?prabhu challenged the Muslim Kazi, “What kind of religious

principle do you follow by killing your father and mother to eat them?” In

any civilized human society, no one would dare kill his father and mother

for the purpose of eating them. Therefore Cré Caitanya Mah?prabhu challenged

the system of Muslim religion as patricide and matricide. In the Christian

religion also, a principal commandment is “Thou shalt not kill.”

Nevertheless, Christians violate this rule; they are very expert in killing

and in opening slaughterhouses. In our K??ëa consciousness movement, our

first provision is that no one should be allowed to eat any kind of flesh.

It does not matter whether it is cows’ flesh or goats’ flesh, but we

especially stress the prohibition against cows’ flesh because according to

ç?stra the cow is our mother. (A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Sri

Chaitanya Charitamrta Adi-lila 17:154. text and purport).

 

"According to the Vedic social system, as soon as one takes birth he becomes

indebted to so many persons. We are indebted to the ??is, or great sages,

because we derive knowledge from their transcendental writings, such as the

Crémad-Bh?gavatam, compiled by Créla Vy?sadeva. The authors of the scripture

know past, present, and future, and we are urged to take advantage of such

invaluable knowledge. Thus we are indebted to the sages.

We are also indebted to the demigods, for they manage the affairs of the

universe, supplying it with every essential—sunshine from the sun-god,

Sürya; moonshine from the moon-god, Candra; air from V?yu; and so on. Each

element is controlled by a particular demigod.

We are also indebted to ordinary living entities from whom we take service.

For example, we take milk from the cow. According to Vedic understanding,

the cow is considered one of our mothers because we drink her milk, just as

at birth we drink our mother’s milk. The Srimad-Bhagavatam lists seven

mothers: our own mother, the wife of our teacher or spiritual master, the

wife of a brahmana, the wife of the king, the nurse, the cow, and the earth.

We are indebted to all seven of these mothers, and also to our father,

brothers, friends, relatives, and forefathers."(A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Prabhupada. Second Chance book - chapter 17 "The Moment of Truth")

 

"Similarly, this Bhagavad-gita is the essence of all Vedic literature, just

like milk is the essence of the blood. Blood... The milk is nothing, but it

is cow’s blood transformed. Just like mother’s milk. The mother’s milk,

wherefrom it comes? It comes from the blood, but transformed in such a way

that it becomes nutritious to the child, tasteful to the child. Similarly,

cow’s milk also, a most nutritious and valuable food. So it is compared that

this Bhagavad-gét? is the milk of the cow of Vedic literature. And the

milkman is K??ëa Himself. And the drinker of the milk is..., we are, Arjuna,

through Arjuna. So these things are there." (A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Prabhupada. 3rd June 1968. Bhagavad Gita lecture. Montreal.)

 

"Personified dharma, he’s inquiring from the cow. He’s addressing cow,

amba. Amba means mother. So cow is our mother. Why mother? Because from

practical point of view, we drink milk. So how mother... How cow is not

mother? She’s mother. We are taking her milk. There are seven mothers

according to Vedic civilization:

 

Real mother, from whose womb we have come to this world, real mother,

atma-mata. Then guroù patné, wife of the teacher or spiritual master, guroù

patné. Brahmani, the wife of a brahmana. atma-mata guroh patné brahmani

raja-patnika, and the wife of the king, or the queen. She’s also mother.

Dhenu, the cow. Cow is also mother. And dh?tré means nurse. Nurse is also

mother. Tath? p?thvé, and the earth, the earth is also our mother. That we

say in country, in the country which we take birth, we say deça-m?t?k?. In

Sanskrit it is called deça-m?t?k?. That is also mother. Mother land, mother

language. So this... So many mothers we have got, out of which, cow is also

mother. Therefore she’s addressed as amba. Amba means mother. Still in

Gujarat province, they call amba. And in U.P., United States, er, United

Province, in India, they also call amba, or in a broken language they call

amma. Still... That is from very long time, mother is... Amba-devé. There is

a... From Amba-devé, there is a big temple of Mother Durga, Kali, in Bombay.

So this Amba-devé was pronounced by the Englishmens as Bamba-devé, and from

Bamba-devé it has come to “Bombay.” Actually, there is a big temple of Amba

in Bombay. From that name, instead of Amba, they have become Bamba. Just

like from Sindhu, they have called, they have designated the inhabitants of

Sindhu-deça as “Hindu.” The Muhammadans, they pronounce s as h. So from

“Sindhu,” it has come to “Hindu.” Otherwise, this “Hindu” name is not

mentioned in any Vedic literature. It is given by the... This name is given

by the other foreigners. Especially the Arabian countries, they used to call

this nation, Bh?rata-var?a...

Actually, Hindu is not a religion. Hindu is a name given by the foreigners.

The religion is, of India, varë?çrama-dharma, following the institution of

four varëas and four ?çramas. That is varë... Or san?tana-dharma.

San?tana-dharma means eternal, eternal religion. Religion of human being is

one. That is called san?tana. A living entity is described as san?tana.

Mamaiv?àço jéva-bhüto jéva-loke san?tanaù. In the Bhagavad-gét? you’ll find

san?tanaù, and K??ëa is also addressed in the Eleventh Chapter as san?tanas

tvam. And there is another place, or spiritual world, which is also called

san?tana. In the Bhagavad-gét? you’ll find, paras tasm?t tu bh?vo ’nyo

’vyakto ’vyakt?t san?tanaù. So this san?tana term is very important. The

living entity is san?tana and God is san?tana and the spiritual world is

san?tana, and the process by which your lost relationship with God

established and you go back to home back to Godhead, that is called

san?tana-dharma. San?tana-dharma. That is our eternal relationship with

God." (A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. 15th January 1974. Srimad

Bhagavatam lecture SB 1:16:19. Hawaii).