Why we have to respect to Cow....?

[msrhprasad]

Dear Sasirekha,

well, if the above process continue for few weeks (every Friday) will the unfavorable percentage reduce? is there any color or only white cow, what about block or red(brown) color cows...
white color is more effective than other color cows?
to pleasing planets eg. for sun - wheat...which is better way I mean 1 1/4kg donate to Brahmin with some amount or the same quantity feeding to Cow?
pl. share your views

[Astrology Forums]

[msrhprasad]

is there process should be followed when we donate e.g wheat or rice or other seeds...
because simply they take it from us with amount...no other mantras... then how can we expect result?

price list as follow, in many temples,
For Moon - 11/2 kg rice,white cloth,silver in moon shape and donation RS.116/-
for other planets the same procedure...
but SATURN 1kg Til, 11/2kg til oil, block cloth,jaggery and Rs.500.00

[OMkaar]

everyone says about what is written in scriptures, books or told by some ancient rishi..
but does hindu wisdom blindly follow a book or saint without logical questioning ?

why cow is sacred ? why cow meat is not consumed as food  but goat or hen are eaten

[Virinchi]

The basic question is not about respecting cow, worshipping its rear or drinking its urine.
Its all about cow meat.
Sanatana dharma does not order you to follow a book or set of rules blindly. You will not be punished or thrown away or even killed for not going to a temple or not observing fast on ekadasi.
Basic idea is to question and extract logical answers.
Most of the scriptures are guru-sishya or siva-parvati conversation and questions keep coming until all are not answered.

Initial days even priests, rishis (read brahmins) were served meat but later they stopped as it was not required for their work. Also same rule was applied for traders, business communities as they have less physical work.
Others continued to eat meat as their work was more physical.

Then evolved the idea of not destroying a life completely for our food. If you take vegetavble or fruit from a plant/tree, its life is not finished.
The plant/tree still lives and gives more veg/fruits. The same idea applies to cow milk.
But when you want to eat chicken or goat meat, you have to end its life !
So the definition of vegetarian was defined on this principle. (does your food end a life or not).

Cow is a pet animal. It emotionally connects to the humans, especially to the family which feeds it.
That is why it lets only that family member to milk it regularly. One has to gain its trust to extract milk.
When a family member is sick or dies, you can observe what cow does. It cries and does not eat. It behaves like your family member.
Same is the case with your pet dog. They connect to their owners and families.

Meat or any food, when consumed tries to mix with human system. Any food has to mix and form a part of our own flesh. We get allergies when certain foods do not mix with our system.
Hen or goat do not connect to humans at that level, even is raised at home.
So their meat mixes with us after some struggle.
But pet animals are like family. Will you kill a family member and eat ?
Their meat struggles to mix with human system and this replusion causes diseases. This is what Ravana wrote about in his book 'Kumara Tantram' that beaf consumption leads to 93 types of diseases.
That is why Indians avoid meat of cow, dog etc.
Infact dog meat is avoided by most in the west too as its a pet animal.

Next thought came among vegetarians.
Plucking a veg/fruit from branches is okay but what about roots like carrot,onion,beetroot,ginger, potato ?
If you pluck these, life of that plant ends as you need to uproot them.
So jains and few hindus started avoiding any veg that is produced under the surface of earth, without sunrays contact.

cow dung, cow urine etc as medicine is another concept. Cow is the only animal which is useful to humans while alive and even after death. (skin, hoof are used and body buried in fileds).
All this is about desi cows with a hump which produce light yellow color milk. (not jersey cows)

[vhk]

Every animal is just animal, every meat is just meat. People might not eat their cow/hen/pig/camel... but will buy same meat at shops as beef/pork/chicken/camel.... might be because they grew affection towards that particular animal because it was with them , but you will find people who do not do grow affection because they know some day they will eat it.

 It is true what Virinchi sir said " in the past everyone ate meat"   because it  includes bhuddist, bhramins , and so on...... . but I am not sure about how the facts were gathered by the author in that book 


 Vegetarianism and stopping meat eating was not heard decades ago at this level in India or west. But everything should have a reason why it started. In the past situation in India it might be the Brahmin's  strategy to kill Buddhism and establish Brahminism because Buddhism was much popular, So they stopped eating meat to be unique from Buddhism ,  I read this point from the book "The Untouchables".

In the present situation we hear a lot about the word "vegan" in the west. western people want to stop eating meat because it needs a lot of land for cattle farms and grazing grounds. To meet the meat demand they might move into overgrazing which leads to deforestation, land slides,...deserts like Sahara. Secondly, the amount of methane that comes from these huge number of cows is good enough to contribute global warming. Situation is so serious that people started making plant based chicken burger, chicken nuggets...for example company like "impossible foods ".

Politics in developing countries or third world nations play a major role in most of the sensitive issues, because they always want a new topic to make use of or take advantage . So guys respect every animal equally and also eat whatever you like and live the present life because we do not know if after life exists.

[Nivedita]

Pet animals are not meant for eating because of multiple reasons, which include emotions between you and them. You don’t eat your pet dog just by saying its also animal. That is what was tried to convey in that post.

[Astrology Forums]

[Virinchi]

For humans, an animal is an animal and for animal, a human is also animal.
But there is something called evolution, where we started from hunting, eating raw meat till cooking and following a diet.
Spiritually also we progressed a lot (not everyone though). If you still think all animals are meant for eating, you need to talk only with people of your evolution level.
Cow (Indian cow with hump, not jersey) is highly evolved animal, which is only one step below human.
Get a cow, feed and milk it daily and after few weeks you will understand difference.
Similar reason with your pet dog. You wont raise it for few years and then suddenly kill and eat it one day.
You will love both pets but will respect only cow, not dog. This difference can be experienced only after spending days with cow