“The cows have come and have brought us good fortune. In our stalls, contented, may they stay! May they bring forth calves for us, many-colored, giving milk for Indra each day. You make, O cows, the thin man sleek; to the unlovely you bring beauty. Rejoice our homestead with pleasant lowing. In our assemblies we laud your vigor.” Rig Veda (4.28.1;6)1
The ban of cow slaughter by the Indian central government has been enthusiastically welcomed by His Holiness Paramahamsa Nithyananda and His organizations worldwide, saying that this has been long overdue. He says, “Cows are sacred and protecting them in every way is the dharmic way. By instituting this ban on cow slaughter, the government has finally made a move to acknowledge the sentiments of billions of Hindus who worship cows as mother and God”.
The Vedic tradition has encouraged an Agrarian based civilization from time immemorial, and Cows have played a pivotal role in society. The Cow is revered as the most sacred animal to Hindus, a fact that is evidenced by the dedication of several hymns and rituals, reverentially addressing it as ‘GOMATA’ (divine mother cow) in all the sacred scriptures including Vedas and Puranas. ‘Gomatha’ is a symbolic representation of 33 crore Gods who are said to hold positions in various parts of a cow’s body. As a representation of the divine, all auspicious ceremonies and rituals involve the Cow and its produce. Everything from, milk, butter, ghee, curd, cheese, even the cow’s dung and urine are considered very sacred in Hindu Vedic tradition. Protection of Cows is a dharma that can be performed by people of all communities in the world. It is a dharma that can be carried out by people of all the four varnas and other communities.
In all Vedic rituals it is the practice to say “गोब्राह्मणेभ्यः शुभमस्तु नित्यम् “ – “Gobrahmanebhyah Subhamastu Nityam”- “May cows and brahmanas be always happy”. Here the cow is mentioned first. If the cow is comfortable, the entire world will be happy. It is because all people gain comfort from the cow, worship of cow has been accorded importance. It is to be noted that the cow has abundance of milk such that after satisfying the need of her calf, she is able to feed other people with milk. No other animal has this trait.
Irony is that we don’t realize that having cows is like sitting on a mini-oil mine. Here are the economies of promoting and maintaining a Goshala. First, understand Goshala. A goshala is an abode or sanctuary for cows, calves and oxen. Apart from providing sanctuary, the Goshala also maintains rescued cattle intended for slaughter from places such as meat houses/butchers.
Here is a run-down on the wealth obtainable from cows, not including milk and its by-products viz. Curds, butter (and ghee and buttermilk too), which many people consider to be the waste of the animal. Namely, cow dung (gobar) and cow urine (go mutra).
- Cow Urine
The Humble Gomutra There are 18 nutrients that earth and body require to be healthy. The only byproduct in the world to contain all these 18 nutrients is the humble cow’s urine or gomutra. Gomutra is used in certain rituals of Hindu traditions. It is also an important therapeutic remedy in Ayurveda and a product of purification in Vastu Shastra. Now, the gomutra is also gaining popularity as a cleansing and sanitising agent for hospitals and homes
- Cow Dung
The Supreme court justice of a 7 judge bench that heard the case on cow protection, remarked in it’s 51 page judgement that Cow dung is worth more than Kohinoor. Animal Husbandry, Gujarat State, has filed an affidavit, pg 34/51 point (viii) :
The value of dung is much more than even the famous “Kohinoor” diamond. An old bullock gives 5 tonnes of dung and 343 pounds of urine in a year which can help in the manufacture of 20 carts load of composted manure. This would be sufficient for manure need of 4 acres of land for crop production.
- Meat vs Cow Dung (pg 35./51)
Animal Husbandry, Gujarat State, has filed an affidavit, pg 35/51 point (ix)
The dung cake as well as meat of bullock are both commercial commodities. If one bullock is slaughtered for its meat (Slaughtering activity) can sustain the butcher’s trade for only a day. For the next day’s trade another bullock is to be slaughtered.
But if the bullock is not slaughtered, about 5000-6000 dung cakes can be made out of its dung per year, and by the sale of such dung cake one person can be sustained for the whole year. If a bullock survives even for five years after becoming otherwise useless it can provide employment to a person for five years whereas to a butcher, bullock can provide employment only for a day or two.
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- Shri J.S. Parikh , pg. 30, (iv) mentions, it is estimated that bull or bullock at every stage of life supplies 3,500 kgs of dung and 2,000 litres of urine and whereas this quantity of dung can supply 5,000 cubic feet of biogas, 80 M. T. of organic fertilizer, the urine can supply 2,000 litres of pesticides and the use of these products in farming increases the yield very substantially. The value of above contribution can be placed at Rs. 20,000/- per year to the owner; (which is more than Rs. 45,000/year as time value of money in year 2016)V/S
Rs. 271/Kg of beef (refer : http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=beef&months=12¤cy=inr )
In which a 350Kg cow gives 220Kg beef and a Rs. 60,000 from sale of beef, one time, only.
- Shri J.S. Parikh , pg. 30, (iv) mentions, it is estimated that bull or bullock at every stage of life supplies 3,500 kgs of dung and 2,000 litres of urine and whereas this quantity of dung can supply 5,000 cubic feet of biogas, 80 M. T. of organic fertilizer, the urine can supply 2,000 litres of pesticides and the use of these products in farming increases the yield very substantially. The value of above contribution can be placed at Rs. 20,000/- per year to the owner; (which is more than Rs. 45,000/year as time value of money in year 2016)V/S
Per annum the yield of a living cow is worth Rs. 2 lakh (2005) and about Rs. 5 lakh (2015). This more than the CTC offered to a GET (graduate engineer trainee) these days.
Cow & Bull are so valuable, even old age homes for these animals are profitable. The SC judgement, point (37.2 pg-42) mentions analyzing the reports of such Cow rescue homes which house cows/bulls rescued from butchers.
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- Their operational expense/cow was Rs. 15 to 20 (as per year 2005), and
- Earnings/cow was about Rs. 25 to Rs. 30. Imagine a cow which is not giving milk is ALSO profitable. The worth of the gobar, cow dung itself is so much.
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People run a 1MW power plant from this gobar. And this is a fact. The SC judges were so baffled that they ran their cars on gobar gas for 3 months just to check the validity of a few economic points.
- The British Origin of Cow-Slaughter In India:
- Britishers had conspired to make Hindus and Muslims fight over cow. Also they knew that to enslave the country, the cow needed to be taken away so that they could sell their chemical fertilizers in India. Before the British farming was sustainable and profitable. British records of 1830 reveal that per hectare yield of Bengal was thrice of what it is now using chemicals.
- Muslim rulers always had laws to protect cows
- Cow slaughter was not allowed during the Mughal emperor Humayun’s reign.
The last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar banned cow slaughter in 1857 in the territories he nominally controlled. Zafar banned the butchery of cows, forbade the eating of beef and authorised for anyone found killing a cow the terrible punishment of being blown from a canon.
Many countries ban slaughter of milch animals. Besides, if tree felling can be banned for environmental concerns why not cow killing.
References:
1) CASE NO.: Appeal (civil) 4937-4940 of 1998 Supreme Court judgement on cow slaughter
http://judis.nic.in/
2) http://www.indexmundi.com/
3) The British Origin of Cow-Slaughter in India with some British Documents on the anti-kine-killing movement 1880-1894 Dharampal, T.M. Mukundan
4) Rig Veda (4.28.1;6)1