Why are cows sacred to us?

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

I have been living in US for past few years and sometimes people

used to ask why we consider cows sacred. I used to say what I knew

but now I am in Europe and here my eating preferences become quite

apparent because I can't read the language and I have to ask people

if the food has meat or not and as a result I have to answer the

question about cows and Hinduism almost everyday. It is so strange

that no matter where I go I find people who know nothing about

Hinduism but they all know that we don't eat cows and they expect me

to applaud them for knowing such an " important " aspect of Hinduism.

It seems this is all they are taught in other countries about

Hinduism as it was also admitted by one of my American classmates.

Coming back to the point, since I was being asked this question so

often I decided to check some facts on the internet and I came

across the following article which didn't really come as a surprise

but its conclusion left me a bit uneasy because it meant that our

respect for cows is just an accident. The author even quotes Swamiji

in the article.

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/82/story_8229_1.html

Since this a sensitive topic I thought of asking the many insightful

and knowledgeable people on the group about what they think about it

because anywhere else this topic has a chance of bringing an

emotional response which I am not interested in.

I thank everybody who contributes to this topic in advance.

Love,

Siddharth Panwar

[Guest guest]

Dear Siddharth

As to why the cow is considered holy in India...Meditating on it we realize that as soon as we are weaned away from our own mother's milk we are fed on the cow's milk. From then on from our very cradle to the grave we consume milk in some form or another. Cakes, bread, cheese, cheese cake and a host of other items find the cow's milk an indispensible ingredient.

From the Cradle to the Grave! And not only that, milk is a universally consumed ingredient, all over the world, in the East and the West.In India the cow is also used for a host of other duties. Even its dung is used as fuel in poor countries. The Sages of yore must have pondered what right we humans have in using, exploiting this poor animal without a single 'mooo' from its lips and to that effect they made the masses realize that to use it as such without making it sacred is rather callous.

Tell your friends that there is no Diktat or Law in India that makes the cow holy. It is regarded so by the masses out of seeing the Truth. For if any soul so much as raises a stick against a cow on the road the pubic WILL be upon that hand that raised the stick. I have witnessed this myself.

 

[Guest guest]

This article

refers to Swami Vivekananda as such:

“Swami Vivekananda loved to puncture ostentatious piety by

declaring that his favorite section of the Vedas was the bit where five brahmanas used to sit down to feast and polish off a cow at

one sitting!” (Page 2)

 

Can anyone help

me with the reference as to where Swamiji makes such

a comment?

 

 

Prayers,

Vasanth.

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Our call is to young India.

It is the young who must be the builders of the new world—not those who

accept the competitive individualism, the capitalism or the materialistic

communism of the West as India's future ideal, not those who are enslaved to

old religious formulas and cannot believe in the acceptance and transformation

of life by the spirit, but all who are free in mind and heart to accept a

completer truth and labour for a greater ideal.

 

- Sri Aurobindo (June 7,1907).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ramakrishna [Ramakrishna ] On Behalf Of Siddharth

Saturday, April 01, 2006

5:38 AM

Ramakrishna

[sri Ramakrishna] Why are

cows sacred to us?

 

 

<snipped>

 

The author even quotes Swamiji in the article.

 

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/82/story_8229_1.html

 

 

 

<snipped>