COW AND SENTIMENTS

Sympathizing with the sentiments of people is one thing  but is it viable from an economical point of view?
This is the question raised by those who support the slaughtering of cows.

Those who want cows to be protected  say it does not matter whether it is economically viable or not it is a matter of our tradition,our emotion and our devotion to cows.
They say "an economic  calculation is brutal and quote the eg of old mothers, fathers, blind or handicapped and mentally-ill people saying even they are a burden so why not kill them ? "

The realists say "we already have burden why add one more because of religious sentiments ? Why not be practical? Affection towards parents, caring of sick and old is secular it has no religious connotation, but protection of cow is a Hindu sentiment and for others who are non Hindu it is a delicacy, nutritious and a habit since ages, why should they be forced to not eat beef? It's unreasonable and communal."

To this the cow lovers who are generally the follower of Sanatana dharma, Jains, Buddhists or Sikhs say, "this is the land of cow lovers and why should we compromise to the cause of the minority at the cost of majority?
When the Islamic invaders came even though they never had cow killing practices in the Arab countries they killed  cows to hurt  Hindu sentiments  When  they were uncompromising and hurtful why should we submit to them?
why not support non violence and ban cow killing for ever? They need to submit to the law of the land and respect the sentiments of the majority .They also say that the Hindu minority in other parts of the world  never creates or agitates
the law of their land."

Cow supporters also challenge saying
" the question of economics is easily solved if we make  the cow and land interdependent."

Unfortunately the western educated mind set does not want to understand the whole story of cows and its effect on economics. It's an open secret and implementable. To make land prosperous by cowdung and urine.

Few points to reflect.
The amount of subsidy given for pesticide and chemical fertilisers is colossal.
We are importing fertilisers which are banned in America and Europe.
Why not study why they are banned in Europe and America and why we are still using them?
Land is becoming poisonous and useless because of the poisonous fertilisers  and in turn  the immune system of humans and animals is getting destroyed.
Ordinary farmers who were promised  huge profits are crying for losing their land and health.
Cow and cow products have a solutions to this .
One can see how the British  destroyed the prosperity of the Indians by killing cows everyday. They killed a minimum of thirty thousand cows so that the land would become barren and they could advertise their chemical pesticides and control the economics of India by forcing the Indian farmers to depend on their products.
Why not both parties go beyond  sentiments and debate on the history of India for the last three hundred years? One will notice that cows grazing on land was synonymous to GDP being very high.
The Mahabharata says;
"The great Laxmi symbolically was given a place to reside in urine and dung of the cow." 
Does this ring a bell or are we so stubborn that we cannot hear it?
Mahabharata says that profits need to be dharma centric and dharma needs to be practicable.
The cause of cow protection  is challenging our sentiments.
The issue is not that it is good to protect  cows rather the fact that only cows can protect us from perishing due to lack of food and health,.
Why not give mother cow a chance to make India prosperous again?
Are we hearing?
The issue is beyond sentimental but certainly full of sentiments.

TIME PERSPECTIVE NOT FEELING

The Pandavas were looking for Duryodhana who was resting in the lake. He was  exhausted physically and emotionally after almost losing everything.  When the Pandavas found him they challenged him to come and fight with  any one of them. Duryodhana came out and challenged Bhima to fight with him.

Sri Krishna discussed with Arjuna the strengths and weaknesses of both the opponents.  At that time Balarama appeared. Both the brothers, Krishna and Balaram had different perspectives . Krishna was seeing from the over all perspective  and Balarama was seeing only from the perspective of a battle between two students. For Balarama it was a test of skills and practice, for Krishna it was question of establishing dharma as against allowing Duryodhana to snatch away the kingdom from the Dharmik Pandavas.
Sri Krishna told the Pandavas, “Duryodhana has lost everything, hence for him living or dying  makes no difference and he will be deadly in fighting. Secondly, Duryodhana has practiced without fail for thirteen years fighting keeping Bhima in his mind, hence he is extremely skillfull and fast. Bhima on the other hand being in the forest for all these years does not have practice.  Bhima is powerful but Duryodhana is skillful, skill is more important than power, therefore Duryodhana has to be defeated by  means of  an unfair fight.”

Eventually Duryodhana, was struck by Bhima on his thighs, which was against the law of mace fight.  This infuriated Balarama, who came to strike Bhima and punish  him with death penalty.  Krishna interrupted  Balarama and shared with  him how Duryodhana was meant to be struck on his thighs as predicted by Maitreya, and as promised by Bhima. Krishna narrated the past sins and the unjust death of Abhimanyu, but Balarama was unconvinced,and walked cursing Bhima and glorifying Duryodhana."

Similarly all the Siddhas, Gandharvas and Apsaras danced at the fighting spirit of Duryodhana, making  the Pandavas feel guilty. Ofcourse Sri Krishna gave a better and complete picture.

It is important to see the over all picture of a peson rather than seeing his present condition and make conclusions of dharma and adharma. Certainly dharma’s outlook is compassionate, but not at the cost of wrong assumptions and perceptions.

Duryodhan even while dying created confusion caused by apparent injustice to him but Sri Krishna cleared the cloudy and adharmik vision and gave a  complete  and wholesome vision

DIFFERENT EMOTIONS

When Yudhisthira maharaja was lamenting about the consequences of war, and taking the responsibility of war upon himself Vyasadeva shared his wisdom and with this Yudhisthira agreed to be coronated.

Vyasadeva said, “ When a king is forced to punish his subjects  by giving death penalty for the sake of the subject and the country, then it is not adharma. On the contrary if some one has evil intentions  and performs this activity then there is no question of repentence and neither do they feel repentant. 
All their rituals are useless. You never desired this war, and you are still repenting, even though they were all killed by their own sins.

On other hand Duryodhana or Dushashana even while dying, maintained the same arrogance that they had when they were living, because they were habituated to live a life of evil. They had mastered it as if that was dharma.  Duryodhana condemned Sri Krishna and here Yudhisthira condmned himself for the war. It is strikingly visible who is fit to rule, and who is fit to be punished." Vyasadeva being impartial to both the parties, made it very clear that Duryodhana and party deserved to be punished.

Sensitivity for oneself was Duryodhana’s legacy and sensitivity for others was Yudhisthira’s legacy.  Reflecting and inquiring from people of wisdom was Yudhisthira’s culture,  boasting and lying was Duryodhana’s perversion.

Even the Gandharvas and  Charanas failed to recognize this and got caught up with the skills of Duryodhana rather than seeing his over all purpose of life. They foolishly glorified Duryodhana at the cost of making the Pandavas feel guilty.

Yudhisthira was sensitive and at the same time spent his time listeining to his superiors, and eventually made the right deicison to rule reluctantly.  Duryodhana never listened to good counsel and made decisions unilaterally.
Choosing our decision is our right but the consequences and the reaction of our deicion is the realm of the time factor.

SKILL FOR KILLING?

Any skill acquired due to practice and passion makes one an expert and s masters of that skill.

Arjuna was skilled due to his extreme degree of focus, practice and passion.  Practice and patience are an interesting combination for becoming successful.  Both qualites are opposite of each other.  Patience is full of goodness, and action or practice denotes passion. In one sense they destroy each other. Patience destroys practice and action leads to impatience.  But Arjuna was harmonizing  both.

Many skills are inbuilt. Some are born with those skills due to the  influence of past karma. Expertise  and mastery  comes with skill practice with patience.

Ashwathama was impatient  unlike Arjuna. He wanted Drona his father to give him weapons just because he was Drona’s son, but that was an insufficient  qualfication.  But he insisted out of impatience. Karna also asked his  teacher to give him the brahmastra.
Drona refused to give knowledge of the brahmastra to his son and Karna, because they were impatient and not  qualifed to receive it . Their passion to get it made them lose their patience and honesty.  Ashwathama insisted and blackmailed his father, and Karna went to Parashurama and disguised himself as a brahamana. The consequeces that followed were terrible.

Karna was cursed when his education was almost complete. Parashurama cursed him for the lie, and told him that he would forget the astra when he needed it the most. Ashwathama was cursed for using it against Parikshita the only heir to the kingdom of the Pandavas.  Sri Krishna cursed him to suffer for three thousand years.

Arjuna who was most qualifed to use it never used it , rather he used it to counteract the weapon released by Ashwathama and was able to retract it when Vyasa and Narada requested him.  Arjuna was glorified by Vyasa and Ashwathama was  condemned  for misusing and causing such destruction.

Skill is good, but patience and right attitude is a special grace of God and  our superiors.

WICKED IN; WEAK OUT

The Bhagavad Gita begins with Dhritharasthra asking Sanjaya the updates of the preparation of the war between the Pandavas and Kauravas.

The beginning of the Bhagavad gita  reveals the heart of Dhritharasthra.
He did not want his children to compromise with the Pandavas Internally, externally  he always showed the  signs of weakness due to their unwillingness to listen to good counsel.  He would play this card to all, including  Sri Krishna, he would say, “what can I do they are not listening to me, I am blind hence weak and cant mend their behaviour, please understand my predicament.”  But internally he was hand in gloves with his wicked sons in conspiring against the pandavas.

When the news of the burning of the house of lac reached Dhritharasthra, he feigned lamentation for the death of his brother’s sons , but in reality he was very much a part of the consiparacy to eliminate the Pandavas, rather he supported the activity of his sons.

This comibination is very deadly.  This syndrome of Dhritharasthra is still  prevelant. When a religious body plays this card, it is dangerous.
In the evangelical movements, the stmpathy card is played very strongly. They provoke and make others attack them and  then act as victims to gain sympathy. They do this so that their conversion mission continues.

Dharma on the other hand gives us  deep and honest perceptions. It challenges us to go down and dig out intentions and our agendas. It questions what do we do with our weakness? Do we make it a deadly weapon to be selfish and unreasonably ambitious?

Since this combination is deadly, the reaction for such behaviour is also  severe. Dhritharasthra paid the price for this. He saw his sons getting slaughtered by Bhima.  Dhritharasthra lost both his resouces and all his sons.

We have to analyze, understand and then execute with great wisdom and foresight.

EXHIBITION DISCOURAGED.

Being sensitive towards others is a desirable quality , since it enhances continuity.  Sensitivity towards oneself is required to be functional but to be over sensitive is selfish. Selfishness leads to blindness of the future legacy and non sustenance of one's surrounding.
This aspect is illustrated very effectively in one episode in the Pandavas life.  When Arjuna came back from the heavenly realms learning and acquiring celestial weapons the other Pandavas wanted him to exhibit the power of those weapons.
As Arjuna started invoking the dreadful  weapons, they started creating a disturbance all around. All the elements started to act violently .
When Naradamuni noticed this, he came down and warned Arjuna not to use the weapons for the sake of display. Naradamuni told Arjuna the disadvantages of these deadly weapons  and how sensitively one had to use them  else they could cause colossal destruction.

Arjuna desisted and stopped the display.   In this episode the sensitivity of the great sage Naradamuni who is ever cognizant about the consequences of our actions is seen in abundance .
On the other hand we see that the modern civilization has become expert in display of technology however  sensitivity whilst displaying is either absent or is present in a very minuscule quantity .Inventions of today are popular but the effects of these inventions are more on the negative side. Presently the  invention may appear fascinating however the long term effect could be alarmingly dangerous.
Arjuna,  never became a warrior who would display his weapons and skills  rather he remained a sensitive warrior, who used his skills and weapons with great precaution.
In the modern civilisation slaughtering of humans has been increased many fold with restless minds and ruthless weapons including death of babies in the womb.
Hence sensitive people warn us to be cautious in using our power or else it may cause harm for long.

TEN HEAD BUT BRAIN?

When Vibhishana was speaking to Ravana after knowing that Sri Rama had  already come to fight Ravana, he gave good advise, which was rejected by the brainless Ravana.

Vibhishana was precise in his advise he said, "you can attack your enemy, If he is inattentive or if other’s have conquered him, or is diseased,  or destroyed by the Daiva.

But Sri Rama is very attentive, He has come to conquer and  his army is there. He has conquered  his anger- (person with anger is not strategic) SriRama has not offended you and Khara was killed because every one has the right to protect himself.

Therefore give back mother Sita, else it  will be disastrous for Lanka."  Vibhshana advised Ravana to give back Sita and along with that give lots of gifts to Sri Rama, to pacify him. Vibhishana  was right but Ravana was more obsessed with his ego than a right strategy for life.  Honesty and humility are not only good qualities but they are sustainable for legacy.

Being harsh and egoistic is unsustainable, they destroy the one who has it and those who fan such egoism.  Ravana was doomed by his ego, and the ministers were fanning his ego, so that they could get better remuneration. However instead of better remuneration   they got cremation . On the other hand Vibhishana took the risk of losing every thing , and took the side of truth and dharma. Destiny and the lord of destiny coronoated him as the king of Lanka, even before Ravana was killed. Sri Rama was kind and confident enough to declare Vibhishana as the next king.

Ravana’s destiny was sealed with his behaviour, and this was true for Vibhishana too. However Vibhshana went through some serious churning of  thought process and separated  himself from his brother at the cost of losing all shelter and the relationship with his brother.  However  the reality was that Ravana lost everything while Vibhishana gained everything.

A question  that is  raised ..
Are  transferency and dharma time bound or eternal?

The answer  is  you think  and choose.  Dharma and transferency are like finger burns in fire, time bound or eternal?

HANUMANA’S INTEGRAL ADVICE

When Bhima was looking for some special flowers for Druapadi, he met with Sri Hanumanaji. Bhima was delighted to see the great devotee of Sri Rama, who was full of energy, devotion and sensitivity.

Hanumana in a causal way instructed  Bhima about the yuga cycle and how it operates and how one needs to respect the changing times. He spoke of the effect of different yugas on people, but beyond this information, Hanumana, spoke of an eternal  and unchangeable principle of life.

Hanumana said, “do not be so adventurous that it is destructive, follow the path of dharma and understand the deeper aspects of dharma. Without understanding dharma and serving the superiors it is difficult even to some one like Brihaspati to experience dharma and explain artha properly. Only by proper behaviour dharma is realized, and dharma is the foundation of the vedas, and vedas reveal yagnas,and devas are situated in yagna.”  Hanumana continued speaking about Raja dharma to Bhima, which explained the duties of the administrative class.

Interestingly we see that Hanumana was warning Bhima to not be destructively adventurous . We see in the modern world  that adventures are deadly and dangerous, they have only entertainment value and a less constructive value. Adventures relating to protecting some one, saving others, and standing for truth are hardly discussed and shown on  televsion whereas adventure sports pre occupies most of the world.

Hanumana said that according to the vedic texts, it is not possible to understand the vedas simply by critical study. One needs honesty on a dharma platform ,mercy and blessing of superiors to understand the vedic texts  so that its knowledge is never misused and wrongly interpreted.

Modern indologists have speculated on the vedic knowledge without having the proper  qualification,lifestyle and humility to understand  the vedic texts by service and honesty. Think about it .

BUTCHER ENLIGHTENS THE BRAHAMANA

Dharmik scriptures depict life in a very dynamic way. They narrate systems which are rigid and fluid, but the purpose of both is to create harmony and  the legacy of a dharmik life.

One such incident is narrated in the Mahabharata. An austere brahaman who burnt a bird to ashes with his power,  felt sorry and simultaneously  was amazed by his power. He came to a house to beg for some food. The lady made him wait as she was busy serving her husband a meal. When she came out to offer him the charity of food, the brahamana stared at her, not to burn her with his power but to show his disapproval for making him wait. She told him she is not the bird but a chaste lady. He was shocked to know that she knew about the incident .
She asked him to go to a butcher who was known as Dharma vyadha, meaning dharmik butcher.
When the Brahamana came to Janaka puri, he got in touch with the butcher who took him to his house, and offered him a place to sit. They started discussing,  the brahamana heard form the butcher because he found him to be the knower of the essence of scriptures and having all the qualities of an  advanced person with character. Some of the things the butcher said to the Brhamana was “greed is the house of sin.  One who covers adharma by the show of dharma will not suffice, however big they talk.   To find good character is difficult in them.

Those who are real people with character, serve their superiors,  their speech  is constructive or truthful, and they are free form anger and are charitable.

This body is like a river,  the five senses are the water in the river, greed and obesession are the whales, who will swallow, and this river is flowing in the difficult terrain of life and death. You sit on the boat of sobertiy and cross this difficult place."

The butcher went on to speak on varied subjects, causing great fascination in the heart of  the Brhamana. The Bahamana was humble enough to receive the knowledge coming from a person with great character even though apparentely he was  from a low background.

The butcher said that destiny  had placed him in this kind of a family but it was possible to transcend the situation and be placed in proper behaviour.  It was truly amazing and certainly possible.  Dharmik scriptures try to encompass every one while maintaing the system in a such way that every one has the chance for perfection.