Barbaric treatment of cows in India

[Guest guest]

Thankyou, Rama Prasad for expressing concern of this disgusting abuse, and

Hare Krsna for describing some root causes.

 

 

>>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.

 

But If we judge our advancement in terms of materialistic advancement, then

we go that path ourselves.

We can manage to spend x millions on breathtaking temples around India,

but is it mainly to enhance our false prestige, or to only glorify Krsna? If

it was to please Krsna that was foremost on the minds of our leaders, then

WHY can't the leaders give this crisis a second thought: this is not just

slaughter, this is prolonged torture preceding it. Narada Muni could not

stand it, why should we tolerate? Why should it be left to smaller,

non-devotee groups like PETA to give a damn? When we have the inspired words

of Narada that it is by far more sinful to torture an animal to death than

to kill it outright? That by far the most sinful of animal slaughter is cow

slaughter? Or is only the non-devotee "demons" who listen to the voice of

conscience which is the supersoul guiding from within, and do all in their

power to stop the age of Kali?

But since it is the Age of Quarrel and HYPOCRISY it is not surprising that

so-called non-devotees will do more to curtail demoniac activity, than the

"I am perfect, powerful and happy, so much success I have today..."-type of

"devotee".

We prefer to condemn them as "humanitarian", but was Narada humanitarian

with Mrgrari's victims, was Pariksit humanitarian with Kali's victim, was

the reformed Mrgrari humanitarian with even the ants?

Hare Krsna dasi, if you value varnasrama as the solution, you are correct if

it goes more than designation and becomes an OBLIGATION TO DUTY. . It will

mean that those who are ksatriyas will become like death personified to

those who heartlessly abuse innocent animals. It means that they are guided

by a sense of right and wrong, by conscience, and are totally intolerant of

cruelty.

I hope I'm wrong and PETA is getting baraged by offers to help from devotees

and temple leaders. I hope those Government officers with whom we are

friendly enough to invite to our ceremonies, are being brought to task by

our leaders for allowing this to go on- We should not just flatter them to

win their support and enhance our prestige, but we should put on pressure

through our enormous following in India, that this is intolerable.

Real ksatriyas feel responsible for all living things in their kingdom, not

just their family members. Think of Sibi and Rantideva.

You are right about the root cause being sentimentality towards cow

protection and the crying need for at least one example how it works.

However such a program will take years (some say generations). Even without

it, though we should not be callous to the plight of these cows, and nor

should we become discouraged. We can take it as an opportunity to stop it

with solutions that will last. Such as educating the people of India with

books like "Dung is Gold Mine" which show them that they lose out terribly

even in a material sense, by selling their old cows and bullocks. We can

take it as an opportunity to replace their

sentimentality-to-cow-protection-but-real-faith-in-aping-the-west, with

real-faith-in-cow-protection-and-disregard-for-the-west. We can through

pressure on the government and people of India, that it is in their best

interest to stop this malpractice and that we will not tolerate it even if

they disagree, that there will be ramifications- loss of votes- that we will

join forces with PETA and so on.

Or we can meditate on Krsna's pastimes with the gopis and let the cows go to

hell, literally. Personally, if we don't give a damn, I hardly think we're

qualified?

 

ys, niscala

 

 

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

 

 

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