TODAY GOVATSA DWADASI

THE SACRED COW IN SANATHAN DHARMA: UNDERSTANDING ITS SYMBOLISM AND IMPORTANCE

By ASHWIN TRIKAMJEE.

THE cow occupies a very important place in Sanathan Dharma. The act of Gau Daan (gifting of a cow) is an ancient ritual which followers of Sanathan Dharma have been engaging in for centuries.

The word Gau commonly means cow. However, the word Gau also has other meanings.

Its other meanings are: source of food, symbol of life and senses. Our Sanathan scriptures abound with verses that emphasise the importance of the cow and Gau Daan.

In the Rig Veda, we are reminded that: “One who deprives others of milk by slaughtering cows, O King, if such a wrongdoer does not cease by other means, then you should not hesitate to cut off his head.”

In the Ramcharitmanas, we read that God appears in embodied form for the welfare of cows. The cow is an object of reverence and adoration. The cow is a surrogate mother. Science has declared that cow milk is the closest thing to a mother’s milk.

In the Mahabharata, Bhishma Pitamaha, as he lay on his bed of arrows at Kurukshetra, says: “The gift of a cow is truly regarded as a superior gift. Cows rescue the whole world from calamity by yielding milk. If one gives even one cow and a calf to an appropriate person at the right time, one is sure to see that cow approachs one in heaven in the form of a river of sacred water capable of granting the fruition of every wish.”

In Chapter 10 and Verse 28 of the Bhagavad Gita, Shri Krishna says that he is Kama Dhenu (a wish-yielding cow) amongst the cows. Non-violence and ahimsa, the primary basis of vegetarianism, have long been central to the religious traditions of Hindu Dharma.

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (2008), in his book Dancing with Siva, says: “Hindus teach vegetarianism as a way to live with a minimum of hurt to other beings, for to consume meat, fish, fowl or eggs is to participate indirectly in acts of cruelty and violence against the animal kingdom.”

In the Mahabharata, for instance, the great warrior Bhishma explains to Yudhishtira that the meat of animals is like the flesh of one’s son and that the foolish person who eats meat must be considered the vilest of human beings.

In the ancient Rig Veda, we read: “O vegetable, be succulent, wholesome, strengthening; and thus, body, be fully grown.”

The Yajur Veda summarily dictates: “Do not injure the beings living on the earth, in the air and the water.”

The beautiful Thirukural, a widely read 2 000-year-old masterpiece of ethics, speaks of conscience: “When a person realises that meat is the butchered flesh of another creature, he must abstain from eating it.”

Hindu scriptures unambiguously support ahimsa, vegetarianism, and respect for cows.