Guest guest Posted February 21, 2000 Report Share Posted February 21, 2000 On Mon, 21 Feb 2000, WWW: Ram Prasad (Dasa) (?) wrote: > [Text 3030274 from COM] > > how many cows can a cowherd care for? > > how does krishna engage the bullocks? my understanding is that he goes > out every day with the cows (to pasture). i don't really recall reading > of scriptural distinction between ox and cow. in other words, does > krishna care for the cows or the oxen? what are the cowherd girls' roles > in caring for the oxen? how does the ideal society work? > > i am very disheartened to read the peta article on the slaughter of > india's cows. mentioning it to another devotee, he commented: > > "indira gandhi said it best: 'the hindus complain about cow slaughter yet > they perpetuate it by selling their cows.' what to speak of the rest of > india, even in vrindavan, one can see bulls being led out of vrindavan on > a daily basis." > > what is worship of govardhana hill if not a celebration of the cow > economy (which has been described on this conference as untenable)? are > we as a society allowing our cows (our real "bread and butter," as > krishna said of govardhana) to be led to slaughter? the sin of killing > cows is so great that when krishna killed the bull demon (aristasura i > believe), radharani would have nothing to do with him until he bathed in > all the holy rivers. krishna summoned all the holy rivers to that spot > and purified himself. still unsatisfied, radharani and other gopis > created radha-kunda to purify krishna of his sin. > > according to the nectar of instruction (wherein the term vegan appears in > the first verse), radha-kunda is the most sacred part of the most sacred > part of the most sacred part of this world. i'm sure some of my > conclusions are faulty, and i look forward to creating and hearing more > discussion on the validity of a cow protection economy--final jump: > purification of the sin of killing cows is the most excellent result of > Krishna consciousness. Widespread cow protection will never be possible in India or in ISKCON until the leaders of society realize that cow abuse is a natural by-product of materialistist social and economic arrangements. As long as leaders of India and leaders of ISKCON continue in their assumptions that all that is required for cow protection to take place is just proper sentiment -- they are in maya. This idea of adjusting sentiment to attain spiritual advancement is one of the fundamental attractions of the sahajiya school. When we in ISKCON inadvertently give support to such ideas, we should not be surprised when devotees leave ISKCON and join some other group, in which they purportedly will recieve their rasa lila identification. Sahajiya philosophy and cow abuse are two different manifestations of the same problem: a failure to recognize that spiritual progress comes not by changing our sentiment but by engaging our material nature in such a way that it will lead to a conversion of our material consciousness into spiritual consciousness. That is what true varnasrama is about. And that is a central message of the Bhagavad-gita. Arjuna had the nature of a ksatriya. Krsna did not tell Arjuna to imagine his pastimes with the gopis. Rather, Krsna told Arjuna to take up his arrows and kill the leaders of government who were inimical to Krsna. When Arjuna used his material nature to engage in that very practical task under the direction of Krsna, he immediately came to the spiritual platform, elevated beyond his material nature. A simpler analogy. I have a car, which is material. I can say that I am "transcendental" to my material car, and sit at home and imagine that I am a gopi. Or, I can acknowledge that even though my car is material, I can use its nature (the ability to travel fast) to take me to a temple and chant Hare Krsna with the devotees. If I use my car's material nature in that way, I will actually come to the spiritual platform. But, all this leads back to the problem that cow abuse is a product of a material culture. As long as we pretend that we are too "transcendental" to examine the nature of our material culture and see where its problems lie, it will never be possible to establish widespread cow protection -- either in India or in ISKCON. Our material culture is capitalism. Capitalism means maximizing sense gratification. One of the ultimate means of maximizing sense gratification is cow slaughter. Thus cow slaughter is an ultimate emblem of capitalism. Even sociologists and economists acknowledge the Golden Arches of the McDonald Hamburger-worship temples to be markers indicating the conquest of capitalism. Capitalism means no protection for the small farmer. The less profitable farmer will eventually be wiped out. By-words to rationalize the extermination of the small farmer are "comparative advantage,economy of scale," and "excess capacity." When the farmer who sells his cows to slaughter becomes more profitable than his neighbor, who feeds and cares for his elderly cows and oxen, then the cow slaughtering farmer will wipe out the cow protecting farmer. This is a very natural fact of capitalism. One important fact of attempting cow protection is that it should point out to us the evils of our present system, and inspire us to try to overcome those evils. Really, these are problems which should be addressed by the brahmanas and ksatriyas (if we had any ksatriyas) of our society. They are problems which require good brains to be educated and analyze the problem. But as long as those brains are wasted contemplating how to increase the gross domestic product, or conversely, how many gopis can dance on the head of a pin -- then it will never be possible to have widespread cow protection in India or in ISKCON. ********************************* What is the solution to all this? Certainly we cannot change a whole country or even the whole of ISKCON overnight. Srila Prabhupada gives us a very clear hint: (March 1974) "Establish a small unit of ideal community." On one hand, every community should study Srila Prabhupada's instructions on varnasrama. On the other hand, we should focus our efforts to produce a small model of the non-capitalistic varnasrama community which Srila Prabhupada proposes in his instructions to us. Once we have the education and social structure in place in that small community, then that example will be so attractive that more people will join us. "Practically attract, practically attract. By your practical example, they will be attracted." Not by training them how to adjust their sentiment. The reason cow protection cannot be practiced in ISKCON or in India is because it is not a sentimental thing. It starts with practical action. We are lazy. We prefer to think that we are transcendental to practical action: Let me go count how many gopis can dance on the head of a pin. Let me not waste my time by reading Srila Prabhupada's instructions on varnasrama. your servant, Hare Krsna dasi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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