From all perspectives, a Cow is worth protecting for human beings. All the four main goals of man (purushaarth) Dharm (righteousness), Arth (prosperity), Kaam (desires) and Moksh (liberation) can be accomplished through the cow.
In the present times, due to the predominance of material wealth, a cow is extremely useful. By rearing cows, cow milk, clarified butter, cow-dung and other wealth can be increased. Our Country, where there is predominance of agriculture "krushi-pradhaan" the extent to which the cows and bulls are important, the other animals are not.
Farming can also be done with buffaloes, but the amount of work a bull can do, the buffalo cannot. A buffalo is strong, but it cannot tolerate intense heat. When the Sun is hot, the buffalo sticks out its tongue, whereas the bulls continue to work tirelessly.
This is because the buffalo does not have strength of purity, whereas, the bull has strength that is pure. The requirements of a bull are lesser than those of buffalo. Similarly a camel can also be used in farming, but camels are even less in numbers than the buffalo, and they are expensive. Every farmer cannot afford to buy a camel.
Nowadays, due to young, healthy and good bulls getting killed, they too have become expensive, than too they are not as expensive as the camel. Here if people kept cows then bulls will be born and you will not need to go and buy them. The bulls from foreign cows are not useful in farms, because they do not have a hump on their back, the yoke "jua" cannot be placed on their back.
Cow is very pure. Even the air that touches her body is pure. The urine and dung of the cow are also pure. The homes that are smeared with cow-dung are protected from plague, cholera and other deadly diseases. Besides this during war, houses that are smeared with cow-dung are not affected so much by bombs, compared to cement homes.
Cow-dung has immense powers to absorb the poisons. In Kashi some person died from snake bite poisoning. People took his body to the banks of Gangaji to perform his last rites. An ascetic (sadhu) was living there. He asked what happened to this person. People informed that he died of snake bite poisoning.
The sadhu said he is not dead, go quickly and get cow-dung. The cow-dung was brought. The sadhu smeared his entire body with cow-dung. All over he applied a layer of cow-dung. After about half hour once again applied a second layer of cow-dung. Soon after, the person was able to start breathing and he was saved.
For getting rid of heart related diseases, cow-dung is very useful. Drinking the urine of a young calf, about 11 to 22 gms, all stomach problems can be cured. One saint was complaining about asthama, he benefited immensely from taking cow-urine. Nowadays from cow-dung and urine of cow, many medicines are being made.
Even gas is being made from cow-dung. The gas is used in cooking stoves. The foods and grains that are produced from cow-dung in the farms are also very pure. The soil that is fertilized with cow urine and cow-dung is far superior to the soil fertilized with chemical fertilizers.
One time a farmer who had grape farms, experimented and shared that with cow-dung fertilizer, the bunch of grapes is far thicker and each grape size is bigger than with foreign chemical fertilizers. After application of imported chemical fertilizers, in a few years the soil becomes barren, in other words, it loses its growing potential.
However with cow-dung and urine, the fertility of the land continues to remain as-is. In foreign countries due to chemical fertilizers, much land has been spoilt. To correct this problem, many of them are importing cow-dung from India, and many ship loads of cow-dung are regularly departing to foreign lands.
The cows of our country are amiable and pure, thus their milk is also pure. Drinking cow' milk, the intellect becomes sharp and one's nature becomes calm and amiable. The foreign cows produce more milk, but those cows have a very angry nature, therefore drinking their milk man's nature becomes angry.
The buffalo produces lot more milk, but the milk is not pure and one does not get pure strength from it. The horses of the military men were given cow's milk at one time, which lead to those horses running very fast. One time for testing purposes the soldiers gave a few horses cow's milk and the other buffalo milk.
The horses that drank the buffalo milk became fat and huge, but when it came time to cross the river then those horses sat down in the water. The buffaloes generally sit and wade in the water and this very same nature came in the horses as well. The camel's milk is also there, but that milk is not used for making curd (yoghurt) and butter. Camel's milk is "taamsi" (demonaic), and the kind that causes catastrophy.
In all the religious events, cow is important. Jaat karma, chuda karma, upanayan etc and all the sixteen sanskaars, the cow, the cow's milk, her "ghee" (clarified butter), cow-dung, etc have a special association. Sacrificial fires are performed using cow's ghee.
For purification of the place, a layer of cow-dung is spread. Kheer (cow's milk, with rice boiled to thickness) is prepared as an offering for those who have died. To be saved from hell, cows are donated. In religious sacrifices "panchagavya" (five products made of cow). The following five are used in panchagavya - milk, ghee, curd, urine, dung.
The yagyas (in sacrificial fire), ghee made of cow is used for the fulfillment of desires. Cow was predominant in the functioning of the Raghu dynasty. The cow's milk and ghee hold a very important place in all items made for nourishment, vigor and strength.
By serving a cow without any selfishness, one attains liberation. By serving the cow, the inner-senses become purified. Shri Krishn had also enacted His divine play without wearing any shoes while tending the cows, therefore He was called by the name "Gopal" (Cowherd, a protector of mother earth).
In ancient times, the sages that used to live in the forests used to keep cows with them. With the cow's milk, ghee their intellect used to be very sharp, extra-ordinary, whereby they used to keep creating huge literary works and holy books.
Nowadays there are very few that can even understand these works. Due to cow's milk and ghee, they had great longevity. Therefore cow's ghee has also been given the name of "Aayu" (long life span). Many great kings used to go to these sages for advice in ruling their kingdom.
History and voluminous works dealing with ancient India are filled with tales of those that had sacrificed their lives for the protection of cows. It is a very sad thing that today in our country, due to the greed for money, daily thousands of cows are being killed!
If killing of cows continues like this then one time the cow succession will come to an end. When there will be no more cows, then what will be the condition? What difficulties will be faced - one simply cannot even estimate and conjecture.
When cows will all be dead, then there will not be any more cow-dung and cow-dung fertilizer due to which the land will no longer be fertile. When the land will lose its fertility, how will farming take place? By lack of farming, how will food (grains) and clothes (cotton) are obtained? For the sustenance of the body, it will be difficult for people to get food, water and clothing.
When there will be no more cows and their milk, ghee, dung etc., the citizens will suffer enormously. Due to the lack of cows, the country will become dependent and weak. At present too, the main reason for droughts, famines, starvation, quarrels and strives is the killing of cows. Therefore applying your full strength, in all conditions protects the cows. It is our eternal duty to stop them from going to slaughter houses.
For the protection of the cow's brothers and sister should want that they should rear cows; keep them in their farms. Only drink the milk and eat the ghee of cows, not of buffaloes. Use the gas that comes from cow-dung in your homes.
Open cow shelters only with the objective of protecting the cows, not with the objective of producing milk. As many grazing places that are there for cows, one must protect them, and make government release these grazing pastures.
Oppose the government laws around cow slaughter and appeal and insist that for the protection of the country, immediately and entirely, stop the killing of cows, in all possible ways, in the entire country.
Narayan! Narayan !! Narayan !!!
From "Sanjivani Sudha" in Hindi - Excerpts from Sadhak Sanjivani by Swami Ramsukhdasji
