I have watched and worked in
Indian Dairy farming very closely. I used to house stray cows and work with
them to make them productive and reproductively efficient, these two major
things for which the dairy farmers would let their cows loose and become stray.
Why, because it is not righteous to slaughter cows in India. Even the
government has banned it.
What these stray cattle are subjected to- hunger, starvation, extreme weather and beatings. But they are SACRED!! This is politics in the name of cow and nobody wants to help the poor animal but gain the political mileage by showing themselves as devotees and true HINDUs. 'Why can't we save cow for the sake of our religion?' Really? Are we really saving them? How? By letting them stray on the roads, eat plastic and die with diseases that we don't even care to address.
they are abandoned to eat garbage and die. This was a suggestion given by N.S. Ramaswamy, founder-director of IIM Bangalore and a notable animal rights activist, that there should be proper slaughterhouses near the farm so that such commercially nonviable cattle can be humanely culled nearby, without them having to be transported to distant places in horrendous conditions or be left astray. But who wants to listen to such intellectual people when we have the 'Moral Hindutva Brigade' with us? It's not about tongue/taste friends, it's all about that mentality to dominate, force, and bully. To bring anyone and everyone under our control leaving no room for discussion. There was a time in this very India when, without eating beef, no Brahmin could remain a Brahmin; you read in the Vedas how, when a Sannyasin, a king, or a great man came into a house, the best bullock was killed; how in time it was found that as we were an agricultural race, killing the best bulls meant annihilation of the race. Therefore the practice was stopped, and a VOICE was raised against the killing of cows.
You will be astonished if I tell you that, ACCORDING to the old ceremonials, he is not a good Hindu who does not eat beef. On certain occasions he must sacrifice a bull and eat it. That is disgusting now.
I am highly impressed and influenced by work of Dr. Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University.
“I think we can eat meat ethically,” she says, “but we’ve got to give animals a good life.”Dr. Grandin has spent 30 years doing that by looking at the beef industry through the eyes of a cow. She lays down in muddy corrals, crawls through metal chutes, and even stands in the stun boxes where factory workers deliver their fatal blows.She’s found a bunch of small ways that add up to a big difference in how humanely the beef industry treats cattle. Her discoveries include two inventions used in most slaughterhouses today: curved loading chutes and the center-track restrainer system.
What these stray cattle are subjected to- hunger, starvation, extreme weather and beatings. But they are SACRED!! This is politics in the name of cow and nobody wants to help the poor animal but gain the political mileage by showing themselves as devotees and true HINDUs. 'Why can't we save cow for the sake of our religion?' Really? Are we really saving them? How? By letting them stray on the roads, eat plastic and die with diseases that we don't even care to address.
they are abandoned to eat garbage and die. This was a suggestion given by N.S. Ramaswamy, founder-director of IIM Bangalore and a notable animal rights activist, that there should be proper slaughterhouses near the farm so that such commercially nonviable cattle can be humanely culled nearby, without them having to be transported to distant places in horrendous conditions or be left astray. But who wants to listen to such intellectual people when we have the 'Moral Hindutva Brigade' with us? It's not about tongue/taste friends, it's all about that mentality to dominate, force, and bully. To bring anyone and everyone under our control leaving no room for discussion. There was a time in this very India when, without eating beef, no Brahmin could remain a Brahmin; you read in the Vedas how, when a Sannyasin, a king, or a great man came into a house, the best bullock was killed; how in time it was found that as we were an agricultural race, killing the best bulls meant annihilation of the race. Therefore the practice was stopped, and a VOICE was raised against the killing of cows.
You will be astonished if I tell you that, ACCORDING to the old ceremonials, he is not a good Hindu who does not eat beef. On certain occasions he must sacrifice a bull and eat it. That is disgusting now.
I am highly impressed and influenced by work of Dr. Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University.
“I think we can eat meat ethically,” she says, “but we’ve got to give animals a good life.”Dr. Grandin has spent 30 years doing that by looking at the beef industry through the eyes of a cow. She lays down in muddy corrals, crawls through metal chutes, and even stands in the stun boxes where factory workers deliver their fatal blows.She’s found a bunch of small ways that add up to a big difference in how humanely the beef industry treats cattle. Her discoveries include two inventions used in most slaughterhouses today: curved loading chutes and the center-track restrainer system.
But all said and done, until we
separate politics from profession, Dairy farming has a big negative to become a
profitable profession in India.
so you are more worried on "Moral Hindutva Brigade" than "Cow"?Dont know which Vedas, you are referring? can you share the Veda where this para is mentioned?
ReplyDelete"There was a time in this very India when, without eating beef, no Brahmin could remain a Brahmin"
The Aryans of the Rig Veda did kill cows for purposes of food and ate beef is abundantly clear from the Rig Veda itself. In Rig Veda (X. 86.14) Indra says: ‘They cook for one 15 plus twenty oxen". The Rig Veda (X.91.14) says that for Agni were sacrificed horses, bulls, oxen, barren cows and rams. From the Rig Veda (X.72.6) it appears that the cow was killed with a sword or axe.
DeleteAs to the testimony of the Satapatha Bramhana, can it be said to be conclusive? Obviously, it cannot be. For there are passages in the other Bramhanas which give a different opinion. To give only one instance. Among the Kamyashtis set forth in the Taittiriya Bramhana, not only the sacrifice of oxen and cows is laid down, but we are even told what kind and description of oxen and cows are to be offered to what deities. Thus, a dwarf ox is to be chosen for sacrifice to Vishnu; a drooping horned bull with a blaze on the forehead to Indra as the destroyer of Vritra, a black cow to Pushan, a red cow to Rudra, and so on. The Taittiriya Bramhana notes another sacrifice called Panchasaradiya-seva, the most important element of which was the immolation of seventeen five-year old humpless, dwraf bulls, and as many dwarf heifers under three year old.
As against the statement of the Apastamba Dharma Sutra, the following points may be noted. First is the contrary statement contained in that very Sutra. At 15, 14, 29, the Sutra says: "The cow and the bull are sacred and therefore should be eaten". The second is the prescription of Madhuparka contained in the Grahya Sutras.
Among the Aryans the etiquette for receiving important guests had become settled into custom and had become a ceremony. The most important offering was Madhuparka. A detailed description regarding Madhuparka are to be found in the various Grahya Sutras. According to most of the Grahya Sutras there are six persons who have a right to be served with Madhuparka namely, (1) Ritwija or the Brahmin called to perform a sacrifice, (2) Acharya, the teacher, (3) The bridegroom (4) The King (5) The Snatak, the student who has just finished his studies at the Gurukul and (6) Any person who is dear to the host. Some add Atithi to this list. Except in the case of Ritvija, King and Acharya, Madhuparka is to be offered to the rest once in a year. To the Ritvija, King and Acharya it is to be offered each time they come.
DeleteWhat was this Madhuparka made of? There is divergence about the substances mixed in offering Madhuparka. Asv.gr and Ap.gr. (13.10) prescribe a mixture of honey and curds or clarified butter and curds. Others like Par.gr.l3 prescribe a mixture of three (curds, honey and butter). Ap.gr. (13.11-12) states the view of some that those three may be mixed or five (those three with fried yava grain and barley). Hir.gr.L, 12, 10-12 give the option of mixing three of five (curds, honey, ghee, water and ground grain). The Kausika Sutra (92) speaks of nine kinds of mixtures, viz., Brahma (honey and curds). Aindra (of payasa), Saurnya (curds and ghee), Pausna (ghee and mantha), Sarasvata (milk and ghee), Mausala (wine and ghee, this being used only in Sautramanai and Rajasuya sacrifices), Parivrajaka (sesame oil and oil cake). The Madhava gr.l.9.22 says that the Veda declares that the Madhuparka must not be without flesh and so it recommends that if the cow is let loose, goat’s meat or payasa (rice cooked in milk) may be offered; the Hir.gr. 1.13, 14 says that other meat should be offered; Baud.gr. (1.2,51-54) says that when the cow is let off, the flesh of a goat or ram may be offered or some forest flesh (of a deer, etc.) may be offered, as there can be no Madhuparka without flesh or if one is unable to offer flesh one may cook ground grains. Thus the essential element in Madhuparka is flesh and particularly cow’s flesh. The killing of cow for the guest had grown to such an extent that the guest came to be called ‘Go-ghna’ which means the killer of the cow. To avoid this slaughter of the cows the Ashvateyana Grahya Sutra (1.24.25) suggests that the cow should be let loose when the guest comes so as to escape the rule of etiquette.
Such is the state of the evidence on the subject of cow-killing and beef-eating. Which part of it is to be accepted as true? The correct view is that the testimony of the Satapatha Brahmana and the Apastamba Dharma Sutra in so far as it supports the view that Hindus were against cow-killing and beef-eating, are merely exhortations against the excesses of cow-killing and not prohibitions against cow-killing. Indeed the exhortations prove that cow-killing and eating of beef had become a common practice. That notwithstanding these exhortations cow-killing and beef-eating continued. That most often they fell on deaf ears is proved by the conduct of Yajnavalkya, the great Rishi of the Aryans. The first passage quoted above from the Satapatha Brahmana was really addressed to Yajnavalkya as an exhortation. How did Yajnavalkya respond? After listening to the exhortation this is what Yajnavalkya said: " I, for one, eat it, provided that it is tender."
DeleteThat the Hindus at one time did kill cows and did eat beef is proved abundantly by the description of the Yajnas given in the Buddhist Sutras which relate to periods much later than the Vedas and the Brahmanas. The scale on which the slaughter of cows and animals took place was colossal. It is not possible to give a total of such slaughter on all accounts committed by the Brahmins in the name of religion.
In Magha days are oxen slain, in Arjuris they wed the bride.
— Rig Veda (10.85.13)[13]
What part of the Steed's flesh the fly hath eaten, or is left sticking to the post or hatchet,
Or to the slayer's hands and nails adhereth,—among the Gods, too, may all this be with thee.
Food undigested steaming from his belly, and any odour of raw flesh remaining,
This let the immolators set in order and dress the sacrifice with perfect cooking.
— Dirghatamas, Rig Veda (10.162.10)[15]
-Many gods such as Indra and Agni are described as having special preferences for different types of flesh - Indra had weakness for bull's meat and Agni for bull's and cow's. It is recorded that the Maruts and the Asvins were also offered cows. In the Vedas there is a mention of around 250 animals out of which at least 50 were supposed to be fit for sacrifice and consumption. In the Mahabharata there is a mention of a king named Rantideva who achieved great fame by distributing foodgrains and beef to Brahmins. Taittiriya Brahman categorically tells us: `Verily the cow is food' (atho annam via gauh) and Yajnavalkya's insistence on eating the tender (amsala) flesh of the cow is well known. Even later Brahminical texts provide the evidence for eating beef. Even Manusmriti did not prohibit the consumption of bee, as a medicine.