Holy Cow!

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Holy Cow!

by: Jayasri Radha

 

Contributed by: Jayasri Radha on 10/19/2006

 

HOLY COW!

 

The Vedic Viewpoint and Other Spiritual Perspectives

 

Why is it that in India they consider cows holy?

 

According to the ancient Vedic literature which originated in India from

time immemorial, cows are sacred because they are Gods favorite

animal. In fact He named the spiritual world after cows (Go-Loka or Land

of the cows.) Cows are to be considered like your mother. Why?

Because they give you nourishing milk to make all kinds of wonderful

food preparations from, such as yogurt, curd, cream, butter, butter milk

etc. All she needs is a little grass to produce all of this for us. It is

considered a great sin to cut her throat after she is unable to give her

milk. Actually there are seven mothers according to Vedic Culture: Our

birth mother, the wife of the Brahman or priest, the wife of the teacher,

the wife of the King or president, the nurse or nanny, Mother Cow, and

Mother Earth. All of these mothers should be given respect because

they are very dear to God. The Ox or male cow is like our father who

enjoys to work by plowing the land which will give us sustenance

through the crops we plant and harvest. Lets respect and love our

Mother and Father cow and let them live. Don't eat them. Don't let them

suffer in slaughter houses which are only open because we keep them

open due to our lack of discrimination of what we eat.

..

Plants and milk are sanctioned by God to be eaten for our sustenance.

All the preparations from the cow's milk should be offered with love and

devotion to God, as should all of your food except dead animals.

Animals are forbidden to offer or eat, especially cows. It is said that one

will come back to reap the Karma for eating or killing any animal.

Though if one kills a cow they will have to take birth as many times as

there are hairs on the body of the cow and be killed. The Bibles Old

Testament in Isaiah proclaims "To slew an ox is as if to slew a man."

An ox is a male cow and slew means kill, so the point is clear. Yes,

Jesus takes away the sins of those who believe in him, but believing

means following his instructions. Such as- "Go and sin no more"

and "Thou shalt not kill". (That includes animals). If you ask many

intelligent Christians such as the Christian Essenes and the Seventh

Day Adventists they agree. When the Bible said "God gave man

dominion over the animals", that did not mean to kill and eat them, it

means to care and protect them. But man tends to exploit everything

God gives him, that is his sin. We shouldn't use the pure son of God as

a tool to exploit nature that is demoniac.

 

It is stated in the Vedas that as long there is animal slaughter there will

be war and famine. A very simple solution- stop killing cows and

innocent animals and there will not be war or starvation. The karma has

to come around some how for all that animal slaughter. If you are

starving and there is nothing else to eat then it is allowed to eat dead

carcasses but not otherwise. Actually you can eat cows, you just have

to wait until they die, then it is not a sin. But a pure person would not

want to eat that.

 

Lord Buddha proclaimed nonviolence which included refraining from

killing or eating animals, as did- Lord Jesus Christ, St. Francis,

Mahatma Gandhi, Srila Prabhupada, and all the pure saints. So if you

are followers of any of the above and you eat meat-well you figure it out.

 

So many people say they would not kill an animal. Even many meat

eaters hate hunters. They say "I could never shoot an animal, that is

terrible." Yet they have no problem with supporting the killing of animals

by eating them. They just want to close their eyes to the truth. The truth

is any person involved in the killing, cutting up, cooking, selling or eating

of that animal is completely responsible for the death of that anima,

according to the Vedic knowledge. That is why in ancient scriptures it

was said if you are addicted to meat you must kill and prepare the

animal all yourself as not to implicate others in the sin, though you will

still get the karma for that. And animal sacrifice is forbidden in this age

because no one is pure enough to perform the ritual (NO ONE). There is

no such thing a kosher meat that is a lie and cheating. Besides this

there is no way to separate all of the blood from the meat which is

proclaimed must be done by the Jewish tradition. Even the Jewish say

they know it is better to be vegetarian.

 

Hamburgers do not grow on trees as some fast food restaurants want

you to believe. Go to a slaughter house and see the so called "Happy

meal" you are eating. - That is brain washing. We have allowed society

to dictate what is to eat instead of our conscience. Now we have no

conscience. If we are actually conscious of what we are eating then we

would not want to put such disgusting things such as slaughtered cows

or other animals into our mouth.

 

The presence of the soul is determined by the life within the body which

includes plants, animals, insects, or anything that has life. The soul is

you and your body is matter or material. The soul is just evolving

through different species of life until it reaches the human form and

receives the opportunity to realize their true identity. As long as a living

entity has life there is a soul present and when the living entity has died

that means the soul has left the body. Just because a soul is in a body

that is ignorant such as an animal, does not mean it should be killed for

our sense gratification.

 

If you want to change the world stop eating cows and other innocent

animals and this can help the world one person and one animal at a

time. We should do everything we can to stop this abominable behavior

or we are actually less than the animals because we were given the

intelligence to be able to understand what is the soul. Understand that

we are all related spiritually including the animals. Just refrain from

eating slaughtered animal bodies and tell others why they should not

eat them. That will eventually stop unnecessary killing all together. Holy

Cow is that all we have to do?

 

By Jayasri Radha

 

Most of this information is from the teachings of A.C. Bhaktivedanta

Swami Prabhupada. He is a saint and spiritual master of the Vedic

Knowledge in a pure disciplic succession which dates all the way back

to the appearance of Lord Krishna over 5,000 years ago.

 

Come join the festival Govardhana-puja where Lord Krishna lifts the

mountain Govardhana for seven days and seven nights while he protects

the cows and the whole village of Vrindavan from the torrential rain sent

by Indra. Free vegetarian feast. Fun for the children too. 1400 Cherry

St., Denver - Sunday, Oct., 22 at 6:00 pm

 

For more information go to

www.stephen-knapp.com

www.essene.org

http://denver.yourhub.com/LONGMONT/Stories/Faith/General-

Faith/Story~139707.aspx