Why cow is sacred to hindus

[sarinmall]

If you come to India and you haven’t seen cows roaming across the roads/Streets, then you haven’t seen india yet.
If you come to India and you haven’t seen Indian hindus offering food (grass) to cows or worshipping cows, then your trip to India is incomplete.
All Indians and many non-Indians know that cow is sacred to Hinduism. But if you ask why, then nobody will be able to give you all the reasons. Everyone will say a point or two but there are many more reasons why cow is considered as sacred to Hinduism. Let us see some of the major ones.

http://www.mallstuffs.com/Blogs/BlogDetails.aspx?BlogId=51&BlogType=Spiritual&Topic=Why

Edited by SF Staff

[knightofalbion]

Cows are such beautiful, gentle creatures.

'The best thing about being a vegan is being able to look a cow in the eye and not feel ashamed'...

[Lodewijkp]

it's digusting how the western world treat these animals.. these animals have feelings and social behaviours as well - just like dogs and humans .

[knightofalbion]

Well said!

[Podshell]

http://www.prabhupada.org.uk/sanat/index.htm

[storymaker]

Hare Krishna!

Dear Sarinmall,

Wonderful piece of much discussed subject, nice post, thanks!

After reading your post it only came to my mind that Krishna is the cow-herder alright but we are all his cows and we are all sacred. Only if we could hear his flute while grazing during this life-time !

A little deep into Krishna and we come to know that all his acts were symbolic and they had a much bigger and comprehensive meaning. He shall eternally remain our herder as cow-slaughtering will remain and continue for ever. After all, His own set Divine Game has to go on and on. It's good, it's all good that he is always around all of us. And why see only the slaughtering act, what about the suffering of cows ? He only does it all, again soothes it all by playing his flute to us. Wonderful Lila !

Hare krishna! Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna!

Love,

SM

[sarinmall]

Thanks all of you for your appreciation and special thanks to storymaker for expressing his lateral thinking..

[storymaker]

Hare krishna!

Thanks, dear Sarinmall, for your kind words.

Love,

SM

[Podshell]

Wish I could do something practical regards cow protection, perhaps try to get some land locally to keep a cow or two on.

[kumarjitghoshal]

just thought to add this in this wonderful post :hug2:

According to modern lab Science :
Table - Chemical contents of cow urine and cure of diseases as per them

1. Nitrogen N2 ,NH2 Removes blood abnormalities and toxins, Natural stimulant of urinary track, activates kidneys and it is diuretic.
2. Sulphur S Supports motion in large intestines. Cleanses blood.
3. Ammonia NH3 Stabilise bile, mucous and air of body. Stabilises blood formation.
4. Copper Cu Controls built up of unwanted fats
5. Iron Fe Maintains balance and helps in production of red blood cells & haemoglobin. Stabilises working power.
6. Urea CO(NH2)2 Affects urine formation and removal. Germicidal.
7. Uric Acid C5H4N4O3 Removes heart swelling or inflammation. It is diuretic therefore destroys toxins.
8. Phosphate P Helps in removing stones from urinary track.
9. Sodium Na Purifies blood. Antacid
10. Potassium K Cures hereditary rheumatism. Increases appetite. Removes muscular weakness and laziness.
11. Manganese Mn Germicidal, stops growth of germs, protects decay due to gangrene.
12. Carbolic acid HCOOH Germicidal, stops growth of germs and decay due to gangrene
13. Calcium Ca Blood purifier, bone strengthener, germicidal
14. Salt NaCl Decreases acidic contents of blood, germicidal
15. Vitamins A,B,C,D,E Vitamin B is active ingredient for energetic life and saves from nervousness and thirst, strengthens bones and reproductive ingredient for energetic life and saves from nervousness and thirst, strengthens bones and reproductive power.
16. Other Minerals Increase immunity
17. Lactose C6H12O6 Gives satisfaction., strengths heart, removes thirst and nervousness.
18. Enzymes Make healthy digestive juices, increase immunity
19. Water (H2O) . It is life giver. Maintains fluidity of blood, maintains body temperature
20. Hipuric acid CgNgNox . Removes toxins through urine
21. Creatinin C4HgN2O2 Germicide
22. Aurum Hydroxide AuOH It is germicidal and increases immunity power. AuOH is highly antibiotic and anti-toxic.


According to Ayurveda -

1.Cow urine has amazing germicidal power to kill varieties of germs. All germ generated diseases are thus destroyed.
2.According to Ayurveda the cause of all diseases is the imbalance in three faults (tri-dosas) i.e. mucous, bile and air. Cow urine balances the tri-dosas, thus diseases are cured.
3.Cow urine corrects functioning of liver. So, liver makes healthy pure blood. It gives disease resistance power to the body.
4.There are some micronutrients in our body, which give life strength.
5.Cow urine contains many minerals especially Copper, gold salts, etc. It compensates for bodily mineral deficiency. Presence of gold salts protects body against diseases.
6.Mental tension hurts nervous system. Cow urine is called medhya and hradya, which means it, gives strength to brain and heart.
7.Excessive use of any medicine leaves some residue in our body. This residue causes diseases. Cow urine destroys the poisonous effects of residues and makes body disease free.
8.By acting against the voice of soul (immoral & sinful action), the heart and mind become narrow minded. Due to this the functioning of body is effected and causes diseases. Cow urine provides mode of goodness. Thus helps us to perform correct activities by mind. Thus protects from diseases.
9.In scriptures some diseases are said to be due to sinful actions performed in previous lives which we have to bear. Ganga resides in cow urine. Ganga is destroyer of sins, thus cow urine destroys such previous sins and so diseases are cured.
10.The diseases caused by entrance of ghosts in body are cured by intake of cow urine. The Master of ghosts is Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva holds Ganga on his head. Ganga is in cow urine also. Thus by taking cow urine, the ghosts get to see Ganga over their master's head. So they are calmed and become peaceful. So they do not trouble the body. Thus, diseases caused by entrance of ghosts are also destroyed.
11.By regularly taking cow urine before sickness, we get so much immunity that any attack of diseases is repulsed.
12.Cow urine being miraculous poison destroyer, destroys the disease caused by poison (Toxin). Extremely dangerous chemicals are purified by cow urine. Cow urine provides immunity power by increasing resistance power against diseases in human body. It is anti toxin.
13."Sarve rogaah hi mandagnau" All diseases begin with mandagni (Low fire i.e. digestive capacity). If fire is strong, diseases won't occur. Cow urine keeps the fire strong.
Chemical description of cow urine as per modern concepts
and cure of diseases accordingly (as stated above in modern lab scientific research)

[kumarjitghoshal]

Milk from grass-fed cows more healthy - from "TRUTH"

Reuter reports from New York- (vide The Times of India- 31st May, 2010) as follows:
If milk does the heart good, it might do the heart better if it comes from dairy cows grazed on grass instead of on feedlots, according to a
new study.
Earlier experiments have shown that cows on a diet of fresh grass produce milk with five times as much of an unsaturated fat called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) than do cows fed on processed grains. Studies in animals have
suggested that CLAs can protect the heart, and help in weight loss.

Read the rest here: http://www.naturalhealingtoolsnews.com/2010_05_01_archive.html


The latest findings of the Hannia Campos team of the Harvard School of Public Health are fully in conformity with the high values attributed to cow’s milk in Ayurveda. It is also a matter of pleasure that the Western world is awakening to the importance of grazing the cows and of feeding them with fresh grass regularly for the yield of better quality milk.

Find more information about this in a recent "Truth" magazine article.

edited by SF staff

[LucidMoob]

Keep in mind though that in order for us to drink milk a baby calf has to be stolen from its mother! A cow doesn't need to be milked, and when it does it is because it has a baby to feed, therefore the farming industry steals the baby so that humans can drink the milk instead. I wouldn't want anybody to steal the baby of a human, and I wouldn't want the same done to a cow or any other animal for that matter. I believe it to be discrimination that its OK for us to do this to cows but not to humans!

Once upon a time it was seen as normal for men to have the vote and women not to, now we see that as discrimination, and it is! Once upon a time it was seen as normal to segregate African Americans or the natives in America, now we see that as discrimination, and it is! At the present moment in time we see it as normal to rape, enslave, steal baby animals, and murder animals for personal and financial gain, hopefully at some point soon the collective conciousness will realise the discrimination involved in this and put an end to it as well! Personally I think it is part of our evolution to do so!

(fair enough, people living off the grid or in areas where the is little choice but to eat animals or drink their milk fair enough I understand that and I would do the same for survival I think, but for people living in a modern high tech society with supermarkets I see no excuse not to END THE SUFFERING DONE TO ENSLAVED ANIMALS!)

My little vegan rant over!

(I mean no offence to anybody, just a morning rant)

[kumarjitghoshal]

Yes ... many thinks Cow milk is only for the calf ....as human milk is only for human baby :smile:. Infact , i used think this way many years ago ....then as you know everything changes :) ... my opinion and point of view changed due to some facts ..... telling you LucidMoob's Avatar :smile:.

I have tried to search a little bit and found out In India we have some species of Cows that gives 60 liter to 80 Liter of Milk , such as Ahiwal , Kankre , Tharpalkar , AmritMahal , Rathi ... are such species ... mostly common Cows give no less than 15 to 20 liters .
Now the milk needed by the Calf is only about 1/10 of its body weight .....Say the weight of the Baby is about 10 kilo at birth ... only 1 liter of milk will be consumed by the calf.... generally a calf can eat mostly 1.5 to 2 liter of milk when becomes birth weight of 20 kg ....well mostly it stays between 10 to 14 kg. IF you force fed the baby .... it will suffer from diarrhea .... so if the mother cow produce at least 15 liter of milk (say a bad variety) .... the calf will consume 1.5 liter of milk !!.....

What you can do here ...either force feed the calf ....or let the milk be as it is.

IF you force fed the baby it will be sick .... if you still force fed ....it might die of Diarrhea , after all a newborn is a new born , nothing can be forced, so you must let it eat as it wish.
If you do the second option ..i.e. to let the milk as it is in the mammary gland ... the milk will dry out slowly and the protein will be there forming hard knot and a pathological condition may rise called "mastitis" , well it happens to human mothers too .... some of Human mother produce too much milk or they never breast feed the baby for so many reasons ....
there not only arise such condition but also there is higher number of Mammary gland tumor due to not feeding or not milking the excess milk ...... same for cows ..... but the occurrence will increase if you don't milk the cow because genetically they produce much more milk than Human Mother.As for most human mothers dry up the breast milk as the baby stops nurshing .... a few cow's milk drys up without any complication ..... mostly found ... Galactorrhoes (involuntary lactation for cows , that is wastage of nectar ) , very painful Mastitis (inflammation of the breast)...

Infection (development of bacteria in coagulated milk protein) .... Tumor and lastly Cancer in few cases.
IF you had a cow in Home ...you would know ...if we don't milk for a day .... next day She will call you for it .... if you skip milking for several days .... she will scream out of pain.... hope animal lovers will not like this too , especially when you can do something about it.
Now if you milk and throw it milk away :) ...a good amount of calcium (125mg/100gm) is wasted (ignoring all other good stuff).
Suppose the calf dies after birth as also happens in case of Human ..... those who are too strict of ethical and moral ground ...will not milk the cow .... and eventually they will do harm in an effort to do good to the cow.

Hindu Shastra says .... Gau Mata have four Quadrants of Mammary gland .... one quadrant for the baby and rest three human can have , its bad to Milk from the baby's part .... religious Hindu don't do that , common people consider it as sin.... its a balance System for the Baby cow male or female ..... for the mother to survive without unwanted complications and lastly, without throwing the milk , Human can have it as it carries most resemblance with Human Mother milk than other animals.


For Indians there is almost no calcium rich source for the vegan , and calcium is mostly used mineral in the body .... Milk , Ghee , Makhan , Card , Lassi , Sweets ,Khir , Paneer , to name a few...and many more foods are only from Gau mata's milk! .... if Vegeterians stop taking milks means they are starving for calcium.Now for Hundus , it is better
to drink milk than eating Beef for Calcium. Those who are non veg , gets calcium from any animal meat product.Calcium is the most basic and most important mineral that body needs in large amount.

IT has Said in Shartras (Scriptures) one must first fed the babies when it stops then go to collect the rest.There was no Dairy Industry like today that forcefully pulled out the milk without feeding the baby ... That home was not home if there was no Cow .....


I have seen in my child days my grandmother used to fed the cow with her hand .... The family resides in a home collectively called as "Grihastha" this sanskrit term for Family says There is no Grihastha without Gau (cow) .... A cow (gou Mata was one of the family member) once was very ill in my home ....we sent it to my Uncle's place for better treatment 10 kilometer away from our native Village ..... She was seriously ill ..... but the next day in the morning my uncle called us and said Mongala (her name ,means Blissfull) escaped in the midnight ..she was crying all day since my father left her there..... 10 kilometer was not a joke ...where to search ! ... still we tried whole day .... next day in the morning we heard her shouting from a far ..... my grand mother ran to her .... Mongala came all the way from my Uncles Place .... i was wondering how powerful was her memory!..... got no Idea how she came ..... her illness was worse than before ..... in the evening
she sat beside my Grandmother and died in her lap ...... IF you never have a Gau Mata as your family member you will never know cows are not like other animals ..... they are no Wild Cows .... they always prefer to stay with Human.Yes can have wild Buffello varities .... but not any cow species.


When i was a kid , elders of the family introduced me to the cow whos milk i used to consume ..... and it was my duty to give her a some of green leafs as much was possible with my own little hands . When she was milked by my grand mother ...someday my mother , it was my habit to stand there holding a Bamboo piller of the straw made roof ..... the day i wasnot there , may be was playing somewhere else .... she used to call me..... those ,who never have a cow in their home ...never know they are even more compassonate than human are ..... they are only made of love .... When such cows used to get older , shastra says to protect it as we do for the elders of the family till she dies.

Now , personally i don't drink cow milk atall ..... because neither i can keep a cow in a city ... nor i can drink the milk of dairy Industries that treats cows as slaves ......

but sure , when i go to my native village ....i drink and eat many products of cow milk :smile:.

By the way ...if you time , someday ...come to Benaras , India ....you will be happy to see the cows are roaming freely in one of the most ancient living city of the world (http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/eco-tourism/photos/12-oldest-continuously-inhabited-cities/varanasi-india )...
... none enslaved them ...rather people offer foods ... draws Sindoor (vermilion) tilak on their forehead as a sign of divine virtue and the city is literally flooded with Cow Milk :smile:

[LucidMoob]

A very informative post Kumarjitghoshal, some great info in there. I agree with what you say, when cows and other animals are kept locally and personally and treated with the dignity and respect they deserve, it can be a produce a productive and worthy relationship for both parties. Free roaming cows without shackles and locals making offering...sounds like a beautiful place Kumarjitghoshal. :smile:

I am happy to hear that you do not partake in the corporate dairy industry. I would drink milk from the cows you talk about, but cannot from cows enslaved in the dairy industry. I live in the countryside and I do remember seeing a pregnant cow many times over the course of a couple of months, then one day me and my partner went down to see her and she had given birth, but was crying out for her baby which the farmer had stolen because she was a dairy cow, the crying lasted for a couple days and the noise was haunting. Cows are such loving and gentle animals. We wouldn't walk up to a mother in hospital and steal her newly born baby, there would be national uproar, but yet it happens everyday to cows, surely that's discrimination isn't it? well it is in my eyes, it's called Speciesism!

Also on a side note, one of our vegan friends used to work at a milk factory (that's what turned her vegan). Her job was to inspect the milk that all the local farmer brought in everyday. What really turned her stomach was that the cows udders get really sore from the machinery that gets clamped on there everyday to suck out the milk. The udders end up getting swollen and puss starts to weep out...and ends up in the milk. Now my friends job as the inspector was to measure the amount of puss in the milk from each farmer...she was often disgusted, some farmers milk was refused regularly because their cows udders were in such bad condition that the milk was just full of puss. But she as the inspector had to allow milk through with a certain amount of puss in...which then gets sold in supermarkets etc! Also, cows in the dairy industry are often killed after 2-6 years of milking because they have been milked so much that their body is knackered! A non working cow or one that is milked like you mention above may live to 15-30 years old, as I'm sure you know!

I think schools should have a cow appreciation class every week...or better yet an animal appreciation class...but that's unrealistic isn't it...teaching love and compassion in schools, what's that good for? ...(humanity and mother earth perhaps). :wink:

[sups]

I think everyone is wavering away from the original question.
WHY IS THE COW HOLY IN INDIA(HINDUISM) not what are the benefits of cow milk.

In earlier days India was a very prosperous agricultural land- In those days the main animal used was the cow.The male/ bulls were used to plough fields, the females for milk and naturally milk products too.
The dung of cows was used in as a building material simialr to cement in modern days.Its urine (also dung i suppose) was/is used as an plant fertilizer

General population aways follows fear. Religion was the weapon used to protect this useful animal. Under the word "Religion(God) no questions would be raised, no one would dare to defy. So the wise old men(or women) decided to label this animal holy to save it from being slaughtered. And it is also true that this animal is not killed even when it is no longer purposeful to man as a sign of gratefulness for having served its whole life to nurture humans.

[Bluegreen]

It is said that the cow or Go in Sanskrit is a symbol related to the "milk and curds" of primordial matter.
Go also means earth, heaven and God.
Gopala another name for Krishna means the Tender of Cows.
Shiva also called Govampathi means Lord of Cows.
Go-loka: the heaven of Krishna.

In Scandinavian Cosmogony, Audumla is the cow, the nourisher but also astral light.

Depending on the era, the cow is also part of the Egyptian religion.

I think the cow was a religious symbol first and not a symbol made up to protect the animal.

[sups]

It is said that the cow or Go in Sanskrit is a symbol related to the "milk and curds" of primordial matter.
Go also means earth, heaven and God.
Gopala another name for Krishna means the Tender of Cows.
Shiva also called Govampathi means Lord of Cows.
Go-loka: the heaven of Krishna.

In Scandinavian Cosmogony, Audumla is the cow, the nourisher but also astral light.

Depending on the era, the cow is also part of the Egyptian religion.

I think the cow was a religious symbol first and not a symbol made up to protect the animal.

what came first the egg or the chicken?
the cow was and remains a useful animal whether in scandinavia or in egypt or in india.
In switzerland the cow is a more or less a national animal...
remember religion is manmade so are rites and rituals

[Bluegreen]

what came first the egg or the chicken?
the cow was and remains a useful animal whether in scandinavia or in egypt or in india.
In switzerland the cow is a more or less a national animal...
remember religion is manmade so are rites and rituals

LOL, I deleted the "what came first the egg or the chicken" from my post. :D

[Bluegreen]

what came first the egg or the chicken?
the cow was and remains a useful animal whether in scandinavia or in egypt or in india.
In switzerland the cow is a more or less a national animal...
remember religion is manmade so are rites and rituals

I have no argument with the fact that the cow is an important animal in many countries--even in Holland:D

What I question is whether the cow was declared holy in India in order to save the animal. http://theosophytrust.org/tlodocs/articlesSymbol.php?d=CowThe-1076.htm&p=52