Prabhupada: ...... According to Vedic civilization the cow is to be given special protection. Why it is recommended for the cow? It does not say of other animal. When animal killing is required according to Vedic civilization, those who are meat-eaters, they are allowed to kill some insignificant animal like deer, goat, pigs. It is for the animal eaters, not for all. But if one is bent upon... And there are persons, they want meat-eating. So for them these unimportant animals are recommended. But cow is very important animal. You get from its milk so many nutritious food. So apart from religious sentiment, from economic point of view, cow-killing is not good. And from moral point of view it is not good because you drink cow's milk, so cow is your mother. Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.16.22 -- Hawaii, January 18, 1974 Here we see Maharaja Pariksit, as soon as he saw that a cow was being attempted to be killed, immediately he took his sword..., "What are you, nonsense? You are killing my citizen." This is good government. This is good government. Why the cow is not national? He's also, she's also born in the land; so she's as important a national as you are. Krsna has given her the grass to eat. She's not interfere, interfering with your food. Why? What right you have got to kill? You have got your own food. The cow has got the grass for her food. You have got food grains. You have got... Cow is giving you milk, just to give her protection, that "You take my blood, turn into milk. Please do not kill me." So why these things are happening? Because there is rascal government. |
---|
Bhagavad-gita 1.12 -- London, July 13, 1973
Vaisya, they should engage themselves in agricultural production and giving protection to the cows, especially mentioned, go-raksya. Go-raksya, cow protection, is one of the items of state affairs. And now there is no cow protection. Poor cows, they deliver milk, and later on they become slaughtered. How much sinful the modern society is, and they still want peace and prosperity. That is not possible. The society must be divided -- brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra -- and they must execute their proper duty. And the vaisyas, they should give protection to the cows. And the sudras, they should work under the direction of the higher three divisions. In this way there will be nice management..
Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.46 -- Los Angeles, May 8, 1973
So the king's business is as soon as he sees one undesirable element, immediately he would kill him. That is real protection. Just like when Pariksit Maharaja was going on tour, he saw one black man was trying to kill a cow. Immediately saw, "Who are you? You are trying to kill cow in my kingdom? I shall kill you." He immediately took out his sword. This is king, that... Not that animals should not be given protection, only man should be given protection. No. Praja. Praja means one who taken birth in the kingdom. That is called praja. So animal is also American, man is also American, but there is no protection for the animal by the government. So that kind of government, rascal government, was not there. Equal right. Your country says equality given. Why not equality to the animals? That is defect. It is due to, I mean to say, absence of Krsna consciousness. A Krsna conscious person will not distinguish like that. For eating animal, they will philosophize that animal has no soul; therefore it can be killed. No. This is nonsense. Everyone has got soul.
Hare Krishna Festival Address -- San Diego, July 1, 1972, At Balboa Park Bowl
The idea is the Maharaja Pariksit was so pious that, that when he was touring in his kingdom all over the world, he found one man, one black man was trying to kill one cow. Immediately, Maharaja Pariksit took his sword and wanted to kill the man. He was Kali. So "Who are you, that you are killing cow in my kingdom?" So formerly, when the whole world was under the one king of the Pandavas, just like Pariksit Maharaja, there was equal protection for the animals and the man. Not that man should be given protection by law, and not the animals. The animals, they're also national. What is the meaning of "national"? One who is born in that land. Suppose you are American. You are born in this land of America; therefore you are American national. Why not the cats and the dogs and the cows? They are also national. So this is injustice, that to give protection to the human kind and to send the animals to the slaughterhouse. This, this inequality, discrimination between man and animal is due to lack of Krsna consciousness. When one becomes actually Krsna conscious, he does not make such distinction that a man should be given protection and the animal should be killed.
source : iscowp.org/cow-slaughter-quotes.html
Here is a nice video, watch it here if you really intrested, the video shows how a cow escapes from a people with death fear.
Watch the funny video of cow |
---|