Krishna Katha: Rediscovering the Holy Cow

Series: Krishna Katha

Episode 2: Rediscovering the Holy Cow

When we look at the rural economy of the world, the first thing we can observe is significance of animals in sustaining such economy be it agrarian or dairy. Considering this fact, cow is critical to the survival of farming based economy of India, where bulls not only tilted the land since ages but cows serve as an alternate source of income through dairy products and also meeting the fuel requirements of the household and neighbourhood.

In ancient times, i.e. before the advent of Islam in Bharat, whenever there was an invasion, the attackers used to claim the livestock of the region they invaded. Also on losing wars livestock were offered as compensation in addition to precious metals and gems. This clearly indicates the importance of livestock especially cow. So when the Bharatiya social heads put ban on beef, i.e. killing of cows, it was not only on the ground of religion, but also to protect the livestock of a kingdom.

Now coming to the modern world, the farmers have tractors so they don’t need bulls. But don’t they need the free bio-fuel generated from the cows? Non-conventional forms of energy are coming up to compete with fuel energy and bio-fuel produced from cow dung can play an important role in this aspect. Also there is cow urine which has been patented for several diseases like diabetes and is already in use by various pharma companies across the globe. Not detailing the enormous market of dairy products which can be conveniently accessed with the availability of processing and preservation units.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has dubbed beef as a 'climate harmful meat' due to its carbon footprint. World health Organization (WHO) has also marked read meat such as beef as a probable reason for cancer.

As a Bharatiya it is our duty to make people aware about the harmful consequences of beef eating, not to enforce Hindu rituals on others, but to protect the health, economy and environment.

Krishna Katha: Cow, the Spirit the World Once Loved

Series: Krishna Katha

Episode 1: Cow, the Spirit the World Once Loved

Hindus from North to South are only agreed on one point, viz. on not eating beef.

—Swami Vivekananda

Beef has been a taboo in India for ages to the extent that riots can happen on the issue of beef. The matter lies in the holiness of cow which is worshipped as Gaw-Mata (Mother Cow) in Bharatiya civilization. But is it only Bharat which promotes the holiness of cows? If we dig into the history of the ancient history of the civilized world such as Greece and Mesopotamia, we would be surprised to observe similar practice of bull worship.

Since the Palaeolithic period bull in the form of ‘Aurochs’ is being worshipped as they were thought to have magical qualities. Aurochs was worshipped in the Iron Age in Anatolia and the Near East. Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh depicts a key character Gugalana as the sacred Bull of Heaven, the murder of which by Gilgamesh was considered as defiance of the gods. Bulls were a central theme in the religion of Minoan civilization of Crete which is often equated to Plato’s Atlantis. The Indo-European culture of Sacred Bull remembered by the Indo-European race in Aegean basin, they worshipped their tradition beliefs on many occasions in the form of "ox-eyed" Hera with her high-priestess in cow form Io and Zeus taking form of bull in his Phoenician adventure. Dionysus, the Greek god of harvest and fertility was strongly linked to the bull. Our former neighbour Iran, during the prevalence of its Zoroastrian tradition, have several mythologies related to cow. One of these is One of these is Gavaevodata (uniquely created cow), one of Ahura Mazda's six primordial material creations that becomes the mythological progenitor of all beneficent animal life. Yet another mythological bovine is that of the unnamed creature in the Cow's Lament, an allegorical hymn attributed to Zoroaster himself. Our Parsee brothers who still follow the Zoroastrian tradition can further explore the spiritual importance imparted on cow in Zend Avesta.

However, it was with the rise of Moses as the saviour of the Hebrews, bull lost its sacred position when Moses insulted the Golden Calf made by Aaron as stated in the Torah and Bible. But even in some Christian traditions, in the Nativity scenes at Christmas time, many show a bull or an ox near the baby Jesus, lying in a manger. Traditional songs of Christmas often tell of the bull and the donkey warming the infant with their breath. In the pre-Islamic Middle East which followed the Mesopotamian culture the bull’s horns represented the crescent moon. The crescent moon of Islam is hence nothing else but the horn of bull which they consider divine though mercilessly killing the same bull thus showing defiance to their ideology of divinity i.e. Allah.

The Thesis on Intolerance - The PhD in Dramatics

In the recent times, non-NDA forces have made it their regular affairs to brand India as an intolerant nation to the extent of comparing it with ISIS.

Yes, I am referring to India because it is us Indians who have elected this government and hence we are responsible for every act of it. We have elected this government knowing its RSS background and 2002 allegations against the current Prime Minister (though these have been nullified in the court of law). We made a conscious choice. And we did it because we knew the propaganda against Sangh Parivar and BJP may not be the same as it is painted often.

I remember, when I was a child, the communists of Bengal equated RSS with terrorists after 1992 Babri incident. So as more than 1/3 of the country stands by the same RSS backed BJP, should the non-NDA forces mark 1/3 of the country as terrorists? Logic says Yes! In that case it is time, every person who voted for NDA should now taking this anti-intolerance movement as personal attack for being marked as intolerant, terrorists etc. 

Having said that, there is a need to understand what is being branded as intolerance. An incident such as Dadri was the result of lack of education which instead of attributing to the present Central Govt., should raise questions against the Congress party which ruled the country for 60 long years and the current State Govt of Samajwadi Party. As far the killings of the intellectuals are concerned, we should question - are they done by BJP or Sangh Parivaar? Had such hate crimes never happened in Congress regime? Has the Govt. at the Centre created barriers for investigative agencies or police to take their course of actions? If not why NDA is being criminalized?

Regarding Award-wapsi, there has never been such a good drama as this one and Bollywood film-makers may take inspiration from these episodes being played by scientists, authors etc. who mostly got their awards during Congress regime. Of course they are proving their loyalty or probably just frustrated that NDA regime is focusing on talents who have proven to be more productive. 

We Indians probably we don't know the meaning of intolerance. When women are raped in the middle of the road for not being converted to Islam, that is intolerance. When children are imbibed with terrorist mindset in madrasas and then sent cross-border to murder people, that is intolerance. When some people perform acts such as refusal to prasad, killing cows, etc just to insult religious sentiments of majority people in the same country, that is intolerance. When people are murdered for ethnic cleansing, that is intolerance. Such intolerance cannot be seen among the majority Indians at least.

Uniform Civil Code, abolition of madrasas and promotion of general school education, controlling polygamy, restricting birth of more than two children to a married couple, these are all necessities for people being forced to live by religious extremism and bias. Ban on Beef has been promoted by UN report as well which was published in the western media (refer to Guardian). Also there is an old saying, when in Rome, be like a Roman. As veteran Bollywood scriptwriter Salim Khan rightly articulated - I’d like to ask any Muslim if they’d like to live in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran or Iraq? They’d surely answer in the negative. If this is the only country you want to live in, because you feel at home, then respect this nation, respect its culture, live in harmony.

It is not surprising some of the very educated media representatives do not like to discuss these, of course understanding the fact, the media terrorism has its roots in being relatives of Congress leaders, former administrators, anti-national elements. As educated citizens of India, as we chose a visionary leader after many decades, we should also make conscious decision of banning such media terrorists in our homes. They are no better than listening to the nuisance of Hafiz Saeed or ISI agents of Pakistani channels.

As for the non-NDA political parties, they have already shown how much they are devoid of ethics and honesty by shaking hands among each other for Delhi and Bihar elections. Their immorality need not be rationalized as it is out in the open, hence I do not feel the need to write about this issue. 

In the conclusion, just touching upon a trivial issue to show the irrelevance and senselessness of  this anti-intolerance movement against NDA, I tweeted SRK on listening to his controversial interview a very simple question - what about secularism among Muslims and whether he will accept if his children become Islamic apostates. He is yet to reply.  Of course I being a common Indian, a Bollywood personality is not answerable to me but before making such callous statement about intolerance Mr. Shahrukh Khan should also prepare himself for two-way communication rather making arbitrary statements only because he is popular. The same SRK in his film Mein Hu Naa portrayed in a fictitious plot, some ex-Indian armymen as terrorists while showing Pakistanis as friend. Wow! that's awesome that man could not find any other profile for villains but ex-armymen ............... and then he says nobody cannot question his patriotism. Mr. Shahrukh Khan should know with such attitude his patriotic intentions can always be questioned by any Indian who has rational mind. To his callous statement we have every right to say - were you coached by the co-star of your new movie Raees?

Vande Mataram !