Dr. Jai Maharaj posted:
>
> Sacred Cow, Divine Mother
>
> Hinduism Today
> http://www.hinduismtoday.com
> April, May, June, 2004
>
> -From the Vedas
>
> Sacred Cow, Divine Mother
>
> Cow protection: a scriptural edict, a lynch-pin for dharma
>
> The protection of the bovine species is prescribed by Hindu
> scripture. Orthodox Hindus are adamant that the nurture of cows lies
> at the core of Hindu dharma, representing symbolically and in real,
> earthly terms the Hindu reverence for the Divine in all life. Read
> more about why the cow is sacred in this issue's article on Ten
> Questions. At a time when the human species is wreaking havoc on
> nature and the environment, cow protection takes on new meaning as a
> dramatic headline issue. We present here key scriptural verses from
> the Rig Veda and the cogent thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi on the subject
> of goseva, caring for the cow, "the mother of Cosmic Forces."
>
> Rig Veda: She is like the mother of the cosmic Forces, the daughter
> of the cosmic Matter, the sister of cosmic Energy, the centre of the
> ambrosia. I address to men of wisdom -- kill not her, the sinless
> inviolate cow.
>
> The divine cow, herself is skilled in eloquence, gives speech to
> others, who comes surrounded by every kind of utterance, who helps me
> for my worship of the divine forces, it is only the fool that
> abandons her.
>
> May cows come and bring us good fortune; let them stay in our
> cowsheds and be content in our company. May many colored cows bring
> here prolific milk for offerings to the resplendent Lord at many
> dawns.
>
> The resplendent Lord bestows affluence on the devotee who offers
> worship and oblations. He takes not what belongs to the worshiper and
> gives him more; thereby increasing his wealth more and ever-more, he
> places the devotee in fortified positions, free from danger.
>
> Let not the cows run away from us, let no thief carry them away; let
> no hostile weapon fall upon them. May the master of the cattle be
> long possessed of them, with the milk products of which he makes
> offerings and with which he serves the godly men.
>
> Let not the cows fall a victim to the arrogant, dustspurning war-
> horse. Let them not fall into the hands of a butcher or his shop. Let
> the cattle of the man, the householder, move about freely and graze
> without fear.
>
> May the cows be our affluence; may the resplendent Lord grant us
> cattle; may the cows yield food (milk and butter) of the first
> libation. These cows, O men, are sacred as the Lord resplendent
> Himself -- the Lord whose blessings we crave for, with head and heart.
>
> O cows, you strengthen even the worn-out and fatigued and make the
> unlovely beautiful to look on. Your lowing is auspicious, and makes
> my dwelling prosperous. Great is the abundance that is attributed to
> you in our religious ceremony.
>
> May you, O cows, have many calves grazing upon good pastures and
> drinking pure water at accessible ponds. May no thief be your master.
> May no beast of prey assail you and may the dart of vital Lord never
> fall on you.
>
> O resplendent Lord, a showerer of virility as you are, may we have by
> your blessings the sturdy bulls for insemination and let us have
> plenty of nourishment for the cows.
>
> Rig veda viii, 102, 15-16; vi , 28, 1-8 Translation by Swami Satya
> Prakash Sarasvati and Satyakam Vidyalanka
>
> Mahatma Gandhi: "The central fact of Hinduism is cow protection. Cow
> protection to me is one of the most wonderful phenomena in human
> evolution. It takes the human being beyond this species. The cow
> means the entire sub-human world. Man through the cow is enjoined to
> realize his identity with all that lives. Why the cow was selected
> for apotheosis is obvious to me. The cow was in India the best
> companion. She was the giver of plenty. Not only did she give milk,
> but she also made agriculture possible
>
> "Cow protection is the gift of Hinduism to the world. And Hinduism
> will live so long as there are Hindus to protect the cow. Hindus will
> be judged not by their tilaks, not by the correct chanting of
> mantras, not by their pilgrimages, not by their most punctilious
> observances of caste rules, but their ability to protect the cow.
>
> "I would not kill a human being to protect a cow, as I will not kill
> a cow to save a human life, be it ever so precious. My religion
> teaches me that I should by personal conduct instill into the minds
> of those who might hold different views the conviction that cow-
> killing is a sin and that, therefore, it ought to be abandoned. My
> ambition is no less than to see the principle of cow protection
> established throughout the world. But that requires that I should set
> my own house thoroughly in order first.
>
> "Cow protection to me is not mere protection of the cow. It means
> protection of all that lives and is helpless and weak in the world.
>
> "The cow is a poem of pity. One reads pity in the gentle animal. She
> is the mother to millions of Indian mankind. Protection of the cow
> means protection of the whole dumb creation of God. The ancient seer,
> whoever he was, began with the cow. The appeal of the lower order of
> creation is all the more forcible because it is speechless. The cow
> is the purest type of sub-human life. She pleads on behalf of the
> whole of the sub-human species for justice to it at the hands of man,
> the first among all that lives. She seems to speak to us through her
> eyes: 'You are not appointed over us to kill us and eat our flesh or
> otherwise ill-treat us, but to be our friend and guardian.' I worship
> it and I shall defend its worship against the whole world.
>
> "Mother cow is in many ways better than the mother who gave us birth.
> Our mother gives us milk for a couple of years and then expects us to
> serve her when we grow up. Mother cow expects from us nothing but
> grass and grain. Our mother often falls ill and expects service from
> us. Mother cow rarely falls ill.
>
> "The reader will observe that behind the foregoing requirements lies
> one thing, and that is ahimsa (noninjury), otherwise known as
> universal compassion. If that supreme thing is realized, everything
> else becomes easy. Where there is ahimsa, there is infinite patience,
> inner calm, discrimination, self-sacrifice and true knowledge."
>
> Excerpts from The Mind Of Mahatma Gandhi, compiled by R. K. Prabhu &
> U. R. Rao http://www.mkgandhi.org/momgbook/
>
> http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules...hp?itemid=1321
>
> More at:
>
> Hinduism Today
> http://www.hinduismtoday.com

Slaughtering cows is barbaric and offensive to India

By*Anuradha Dutt
Op-Ed
The Pioneer
http://www.dailypioneer.com
Monday, January 16, 2012

'Liberals' have condemned the anti cow-slaughter laws adopted by some
States. In doing so, they ignore the sensitivities of the majority
population

The enactment of Cow Slaughter Prohibition (Amendment) Act, 2010 in
Madhya Pradesh has elicited some vitriolic reactions, with one writer
dwelling on the attractions of a beef steak. A similar diatribe in a
Muslim nation, extolling the flavour of pork, would have been
sufficient to get the police and clerics on the scribe's trail. But
India happens to be a secular democracy, with the Constitutional
directive to ban cow slaughter being flouted with impunity by West
Bengal, Kerala and the North-East.

The fact that most people in Hindu-majority India shun beef, and that
the 1857 Mutiny against the British rule was triggered by the use of
cow and pig lard on cartridges, seems to be of little concern to
political parties that pander to minority sentiments or, more likely,
beef, leather and exporters' cartels. The irony is that even Jammu &
Kashmir, battered by Islamist terror, has a strong anti-cow slaughter
Act, enforced in 1896 by the erstwhile Dogra monarchy.

In the present instance, disturbed by the provisions for a seven-year
jail term for a lapse and minimum fine of Rs 5,000, beef lobbyists
have been quoting from the scriptures, like the Biblical Devil, to
justify their stand. The onset of economic liberalisation was marked
by a slew of supposedly scholarly features on the consumption of
beef, especially as ritual food, by Hindus in Vedic and subsequent
times.

But that the interpretation of Sanskrit verses is geared towards
demolishing traditional beliefs is evident from the following
excerpts. Mahabharat, for instance, states in praise of cows: "Cows
are the prestige of beings -- they are givers of all good. Cows were
and will be the health-givers. Cows are the root of wealth and
prosperity. Nothing that is given to the cows or is with them is
lost. Cows are food itself. They give food and ghee and milk for the
sacrifice. Oblations and offerings are inherent in the cow. Verily,
cows are the very result of the sacrifice, and the yagyas are
inherent in them."

How easy would it be to twist the phrase, 'Cows are food itself', out
of context to imply that ancient people routinely consumed beef.
Besides cows' utility as milch animals, in farming, with dung and
remains fertilising fields, and the use of panchgavya -- five
products of milk, ghee, butter (and curd), dung and urine -- in
Ayurvedic medicine and the first three as sacrificial offerings, they
have sanctity in Indic metaphysics. The Shree Krishna avatar and his
profound association with cows underline this belief.

Preceding this, Atharv Ved says: "The cow, in the form of the
universe, may fulfill our desires." The exalted position accorded to
cows in the Vedas is denoted by the use of the term Dhenu (cow) for
Aditi, mother of the gods, while the gods are referred to as gojaat
(kin of the cows). 'Aghnya' is the word commonly used for cows in the
Vedas, denoting that they should not be injured. These earliest
available Sanskrit texts recount that the deity Indra freed the cows
from the mountain and made them available to humans, though not for
meat. The fire in which meat is roasted is not to be used for yagyas,
with a phrase in Rg Ved stating: "I am taking away the fire far from
the place of roasting."

A verse in Yajur Ved abjures all violence: "Protect and rear the
animals: do not hit the cow; do not hit the goats; nor the sheep; nor
any other creature; nor two-legged animals; nor the one-legged; one
should not injure any living being."

Panchatantr which is a set of popular fables, aver: "If one can go to
heaven by cutting down trees, killing animals and letting of blood of
injured beings -- who will go to hell then?"

About ritual sacrifice, Mahabharat says: "It is said that in the
olden age, crops used to take the place of animals; and pious men,
seeking heaven, used to perform their sacrifices with these only."
Eight chapters of Anushasan Parva of Mahabharat concern the cow.
Bheeshm, quoting from the Shrutis, says: "The cow is my mother; the
bullock is the father; heaven is my shelter; and by this in the world
arises my prestige."

Further, he says: "The sacrifice becomes fruitful by her. She is the
embryo of nectar and the prestige of the world. On earth, she is
prosperity, birth-giving. All prosperity is due to the cow. This is
the real truth."

Devout Hindus, and especially the business class since millennia,
have rendered service to cows by providing for the upkeep of cattle,
even old, useless ones that are saved from slaughter houses. Some
Islamic rulers, respecting such sentiments, also banned cow
slaughter, which, however, was sanctioned by the British on a mass
scale, for obtaining beef, leather and lard. Mechanised means of
butchering facilitated the decimation of cattle and other creatures.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnis...-to-india.html

More at:
http://www.dailypioneer.com

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti

-----

About the terrorist Goon Squad:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
As everyone knows, a goon is a bully or thug who terrorizes or tries
to do away with opposition.

"Myself, Mallu. Yourself?" (V. Bhattathiri) >
tries his best to be a bully -- telling others what and when to post,
where to post and where not to post, deliberately publishing lies
about others, stalking and abusing them with hate speech -- but fails
miserably. He is really stressed out, and like his lap dog Prem
Thomas (who currently posts as "P. Rajah" >, and issues
*death threats* to people), is priming himself for conditions such as
stroke and heart disease. Others in the Goon Squad include
Dayashankar M. Joshi "DMJoshi" > who displays
unquestioning obedience to Goon Squad thugs, and the instigator who
posts as "Bholu" >
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