SB 1.17.3 – Associating with Cows Automatically Elevates One to the Mode of Goodness

Giriraj Swami: He wanted us to have self-sufficient farm communities where we would grow the food we need to eat, and also protect the cows. We have a bit of a beginning here; it is not a full-fledged self-sufficient farm community but they are growing a lot of vegetables, fruits, flowers, and keeping some cows. So for the occasion I thought to read a verse and purport about the importance of cows. This is from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Chapter Seventeen, Text Seven and the context is that King Parīkṣit who is a very noble and righteous King was touring his kingdom and he found a low-class person beating a cow. And as a God-conscious leader or Krishna conscious leader, he immediately intervened to protect the cow and also to punish the miscreant whose name was Kali. And so this chapter is called “The Punishment and Reward of Kali.” So Text Three; please repeat.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

So again, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto One, Chapter Seventeen

TEXT 3

gāṁ ca dharma-dughāṁ dīnāṁ
bhṛśaṁ śūdra-padāhatām
vivatsām āśru-vadanāṁ
kṣāmāṁ yavasam icchatīm

TRANSLATION

Although the cow is beneficial because one can draw religious principles from her, she was now rendered poor and calfless. Her legs were being beaten by a śūdra. There were tears in her eyes, and she was distressed and weak. She was hankering after some grass in the field.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The next symptom of the Age of Kali is the distressed condition of the cow. Milking the cow means drawing the principles of religion in a liquid form. The great ṛṣis and munis would live only on milk. Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī would go to a householder while he was milking a cow, and he would simply take a little quantity of it for subsistence. Even fifty years ago, no one would deprive a sadhu

COMMENT

Means a holy man or a saintly person. Speaking of cows; since the cows come, we have various farm communities in America and around the world, but one of the farm communities in America is called Gītā-nagarī. It is in Pennsylvania. And when Srila Prabhupada visited there, he said that just by associating with the cows one is automatically elevated to the mode of goodness. So there are three modes of material nature; the mode of ignorance – tamo-guṇa, the mode of passion – rajo-guṇa, and the mode of goodness – sattva-guna. And the two lower modes passion and ignorance, keep the living entity bound in the material world where the living entity suffers the threefold miseries of life.

There are three kinds of miseries that every one of us in the material world is subjected to; adhyātmika, that means miseries caused by our minds and body; ādibhautika, miseries caused by other living entities and ādidaivika, miseries caused by acts of nature. And we are all suffering from one or more of these miseries at every moment practically. And the purpose of human life is to realize our eternal relationship with God and become free from the repeated cycle of birth and death, and go back home back to Godhead. And one can do so by rising to the mode of goodness or cultivating the mode of goodness from which one can transcend. And Srila Prabhupada said that just by associating with the cows, one will automatically come to the mode of goodness. It was very auspicious.

So coming back to the purport.

PURPORT (continued)

Even fifty years ago, no one would deprive a sadhu of a quart or two of milk, and every householder would give milk like water.

COMMENT

Just like now, if someone is thirsty and wants some water we wouldn’t think twice about giving them some water because it is so plentiful and so cheap. But back then because the Sanātanist, and I will explain what that is, but you could say the followers of Vedic civilization kept cows, and so they always had a plentiful supply of milk that they would give to sadhus like water.

PURPORT (continued)

Even fifty years ago, no one would deprive a sadhu of a quart or two of milk, and every householder would give milk like water. For a Sanātanist (a follower of Vedic principles).

COMMENT

So a Sanatanist is someone who follows sanātana-dharma and the word dharma is usually translated as duty or religion and it is derived from the Sanskrit root “dhar” which means characteristic. The characteristic of a thing that cannot be separated from the thing. So in that sense we could say the dharma of sugar is to be sweet; if it is not sweet it is not sugar. The dharma of chili is to be hot; if it is not hot it is not chili. So what is the dharma of the living entity? What is the natural characteristic of the living entity that cannot be separated from it? And that is the rendering of service. If we analyze the activities of every living entity, we will find that they are always engaged in rendering service. They cannot avoid it. It is their dharma; it is their natural characteristic.

So the question is, to whom or to what shall we render service so that we will be satisfied, and the answer is God, Krishna. And Lord Chaitanya who is Krishna Himself, who came five hundred years ago in the guise of a devotee to show us by His example how to be devotees. So Lord Chaitanya said jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’, that the eternal constitutional position of the living entity is that he is the eternal servant of Krishna. So Sanatana means eternal; so sanātana-dharma means eternal religion—eternal occupation, and that is to render service to God, to Krishna. So here Srila Prabhupada uses the term Sanātanist, which means one who follows sanātana-dharma. So,

PURPORT (continued)

For a Sanātanist (a follower of Vedic principles) it is the duty of every householder to have cows and bulls as household paraphernalia, not only for drinking milk, but also for deriving religious principles.

COMMENT

Yesterday we visited one of our devotees who has a farm and cow sanctuary about an hour from Houston. It is very nice to see how happy the cows are.

PURPORT (continued)

For a Sanātanist (a follower of Vedic principles) it is the duty of every householder to have cows and bulls as household paraphernalia, not only for drinking milk, but also for deriving religious principles. The Sanātanist worships cows on religious principles and respects brāhmaṇas.

COMMENT

In the Vedic social system the brahmans are, you could say, the intelligent class; the teachers, priests, and Krishna is very fond of and attached to the cows and the brahmans. In fact, he is worshipped, by a mantra,

namo brahmaṇya-devāya
go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca
jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya
govindāya namo namaḥ

PURPORT (continued)

The Sanātanist worships cows on religious principles and respects brāhmaṇas. The cow’s milk is required for the sacrificial fire, and by performing sacrifices the householder can be happy.

COMMENT

So this is another point that one should perform sacrifices and an essential ingredient in the performance of sacrifices is pouring ghee, which is made from the milk of the cow, into the fire.

PURPORT (continued)

The cow’s milk is required for the sacrificial fire, and by performing sacrifices the householder can be happy. The cow’s calf not only is beautiful to look at, but also gives satisfaction to the cow, and so she delivers as much milk as possible. But in the Kali-yuga,

COMMENT

That is the present age of Kali, and Kali is that person who was beating the cow, and so this Kali-yuga is full of many bad qualities.

PURPORT (continued)

But in the Kali-yuga, the calves are separated from the cows as early as possible for purposes which may not be mentioned in these pages of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The cow stands with tears in her eyes, the śūdra milkman draws milk from the cow artificially, and when there is no milk the cow is sent to be slaughtered. These greatly sinful acts are responsible for all the troubles in present society. People do not know what they are doing in the name of economic development. The influence of Kali will keep them in the darkness of ignorance. Despite all endeavors for peace and prosperity, they must try to see the cows and the bulls happy in all respects. Foolish people do not know how one earns happiness by making the cows and bulls happy, but it is a fact by the law of nature. Let us take it from the authority of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and adopt the principles for the total happiness of humanity.

COMMENT

So we can see that the happiness of the human beings is intimately connected with the happiness of the cows and bulls and conversely, when the cows and bulls are in distress the human beings also are subjected to distressful situations.

Now towards the end of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there is an important verse spoken by Śukadeva Gosvami to Maharaja Parīkṣit, kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann, that this “kalo” means this age of Kali, doṣa means fault or bad qualities and nidhe means ocean. So kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann, this kali yoga is an ocean of faults, asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ, but still there is one great opportunity. kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya, by chanting the holy names of Krishna, kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet, one is liberated from all material association and achieves the supreme destination of going back home back to Godhead.

So even though Kali yuga is so bad and there are so many atrocities being committed in the name of economic development, but by chanting the holy names of the Lord, we can be freed from the ill-effects of Kali yuga and attain the supreme destination. So the essential process is kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya, to chant the holy names as we were doing. In kirtan there are two ways of chanting. One is called kirtan which is then out loud with musical instruments and the other is japa, which one chants loudly enough for oneself to hear, others may also hear but it is mainly a personal spiritual practice. And by the performance of the chanting of the holy names of the Lord, one is freed from all the ill-effects of Kali yuga and it changes the supreme destination. And therefore all of our programs feature the chanting of the holy names.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna Hare Hare; Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare Hare.

So thank you very much, and I think we have a few minutes if any of you want to ask questions or make any comments, share any reflections. If you do you can raise your hand. Yes.

Devotee: You said that all householders should keep cows [Unintelligible 00:26:34].

Giriraj Swami: That is what the purport says. Previously, society was more agrarian based and people had land and so Srila Prabhupada is saying that, with that land, you should keep cows and bulls. That is true. Yes.

Devotee: You mentioned that you could learn a lot of transcendence [Unintelligible 00:27:16] from cows. What are some of the things that we can learn about?

Giriraj Swami: What Srila Prabhupada was saying is that we derive the principles of religion from the milk of the cow, and he also said that the cow’s milk develops the finer tissues of the brain for spiritual understanding. But otherwise, we can learn from cows to be peaceful, to be satisfied. Srila Prabhupada said just by spending time with the cows, you automatically come to the mode of goodness. So they are in the mode of goodness and the mode of goodness is characterized by peacefulness, satisfaction.

Hare Krishna.