By-HG Hrimati Devi Dasi (ACBSP)

namo brahmaṇya-devāya

go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca

jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya

govindāya namo namaḥ

“My Lord, You are the well-wisher of the Cows and the brahmanas, and You are the well-wisher of the entire human society and world.” (Visnu Purana 1.19.65)

We talk so much about cow protection, but what does cow protection actually mean?

What does Go Raksha actually mean?

“Cow protection means just like Bhagavan, Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is tending the cows. He is going, taking the cows personally from His royal palace going to the forest whole day, working there. Is it not, cowherd boy? And taken some little fruit, mother, whatever mother has given. They are playing that.So this is cow protection, not that ‘Somebody will give money and we shall keep some third class cows and feed there and become cow protector.’ That is not cow protection.”

“We must tend the cows very nicely so that they give us sufficient milk. And with that milk we shall live.”

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Class 1.16.19

So, what does it mean to “tend the cows very nicely?”

First of all, we must learn what does a cow need to live a healthy life. This is not very difficult to know.

Cows need good feed, like organic fresh green grass, according to season and some preventive medical care. Cows need shelter from all harsh weather conditions — hot, cold or stormy. Cows also need to be groomed and kept clean and given facility to graze and socialize with other cows.

Cows and bulls that are lovingly kept like this in a clean environment will stay healthy and will give us back their love a hundred folds, in the form of all the 5 products of a cow, like milk, butter, yoghurt, go ark, etc., transportation on a bullock cart, and bull power in the agricultural sector.

“Protection of Cows is the single most important principle towards saving the whole world from both moral and spiritual degradation. Simply by protection of cows all the wonderful benefits of religiosity and piety will be automatically achieved without any separate endeavour.

The scriptures describe Go Seva and Go Raksha as a highly reverential duty that can be done by a man to please Lord Krishna and bring auspiciousness and harmony in the society!

“Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the prime protector of brahminical culture and the Cows. Without knowing and respecting these pleasing personalities, one cannot realise the science of God, and without this knowledge, any welfare activities or humanitarian propaganda cannot be successful.”

SB 4.21.38 purport.

Most healthy herds of cows produce calves in a 50 percent gender ratio of half male and half female calves.

The biggest problem faced today by cow protectors and Goshalas world wide is finding a befitting role for the bull calves born in the herd. This is not because bulls don’t want to work, it is rather because not many of us want to work with them. Too much dependence on the tractor has put us out of tune with nature.

As the use of tractors in agriculture has rendered bulls useless, they are now being sold to butchers or ending up in the streets to fend for themselves. This is one of the biggest challenges for cow protection. Hence training and employing bulls constitute the most important and urgent 50% of cow protection.

Srila Prabhupada said, “If you don’t use the bulls, you will kill them.”

“Now you have got motor car, motor-tractor, you don’t want the bullocks; therefore kill them. How you can utilize them? Therefore you must have a slaughterhouse to kill them. And as soon as you kill them, then you will have to eat them.”

SB Lecture dated May 27, 1972, Los Angeles

Cows and bulls together provide all the required nutrients, ingredients, and services that the earth requires to produce food grains. This clearly indicates that mother cow and mother earth have a special relation, they need each other to flourish!

Today, we have divorced cows and bulls from agriculture and this special bond between the cows and land has been broken. This unnatural practice is the main reason for increased costs of farming. The farmers are forced to take loans for seeds, fertilizers, tilling, and transportation, which ultimately lead them to higher debts.

For this reason, some farmers quit farming, and some even take their own life.

It is hard not to see a connection between bulls being slaughtered and farmers committing suicide. All over the globe, bulls are cruelly slaughtered for their meat. Even in India where bulls are revered by a majority of the population, they are transported to far off lands to be killed.

Such atrocious practices are pushing us more and more towards our complete dependence on fossil fuels and to be at the mercy of large business corporations to feed the world.

Today scientists, intellectuals, and politicians the world over are forced to re-examine our modern model of development. Is it sustainable? Can it solve world hunger? Will it end poverty? Will it ensure the survival of all species, not just humans?

Cow rearing and cow protection is the foundation for any sustainable and civilized culture and the need of the hour.

Since the bond between bulls, the farmer and agriculture is missing today, it has become pertinent for us at Sri Mayapur Goshala to remind the world that bulls should not be simply deemed as useless and consequently killed, which is simply a result of our failure in understanding their importance in the welfare of the society.

Srila Prabhupada emphasized self-sufficiency for Mayapur, particularly in agriculture. The cow and her male progeny are the foundation of agriculture. Therefore in Sri Mayapur Goshala, training and employing bullocks for agricultural activities, and offering the milk from our cows to the temple constitutes our worship to Sri Sri Radha Madhava.

The cow and bull together provide us with all ingredients and services required for us to grow our food and our sustenance, and the sustenance of the earth is dependent on them. Their dung and urine are best components for fertilizing the land, and they are also the most eco-friendly tillers of the land.

Even though Krishna conscious Vaishnava principles consider all life forms as sacred, it places great emphasis on the life of cows and bulls as invaluable to the society. Our symbiotic relationship with cows and bulls is based on mutual co-existence.