Cow slaughter is an act of the grossest type of ignorance.

Government's duty to intervene and protect the cows

Cow slaughter grossest ignorance

The result of pious activities in the mode of goodness is pure. Therefore the sages, who are free from all illusion, are situated in happiness. But activities in the mode of passion are simply miserable. Any activity for material happiness is bound to be defeated. If, for example, one wants to have a skyscraper, so much human misery has to be undergone before a big skyscraper can be built. The financier has to take much trouble to earn a mass of wealth, and those who are slaving to construct the building have to render physical toil. The miseries are there. Thus Bhagavad-gita says that in any activity performed under the spell of the mode of passion, there is definitely great misery. There may be a little so-called mental happiness—"I have this house or this money"—but this is not actual happiness.

As far as the mode of ignorance is concerned, the performer is without knowledge, and therefore all his activities result in present misery, and afterwards he will go on toward animal life. Animal life is always miserable, although, under the spell of the illusory energy, maya, the animals do not understand this. Slaughtering poor animals is also due to the mode of ignorance. The animal killers do not know that in the future the animal will have a body suitable to kill them. That is the law of nature. In human society, if one kills a man he has to be hanged. That is the law of the state. Because of ignorance, people do not perceive that there is a complete state controlled by the Supreme Lord. Every living creature is a son of the Supreme Lord, and He does not tolerate even an ant's being killed. One has to pay for it. So indulgence in animal killing for the taste of the tongue is the grossest kind of ignorance. A human being has no need to kill animals, because God has supplied so many nice things. If one indulges in meat-eating anyway, it is to be understood that he is acting in ignorance and is making his future very dark. Of all kinds of animal killing, the killing of cows is most vicious because the cow gives us all kinds of pleasure by supplying milk. Cow slaughter is an act of the grossest type of ignorance. In the Vedic literature (Rig Veda 9.46.4) the words gobhih prinita-matsaram indicate that one who, being fully satisfied by milk, is desirous of killing the cow is in the grossest ignorance. There is also a prayer in the Vedic literature that states:

namo brahmanya-devaya
go-brahmana-hitaya cha
jagad-dhitaya krishnaya
govindaya namo namah

"My Lord, You are the well-wisher of the cows and the brahmanas, and You are the well-wisher of the entire human society and world." (Vishnu Purana 1.19.65)

The purport is that special mention is given in that prayer for the protection of the cows and the brahmanas. Brahmanas are the symbol of spiritual education, and cows are the symbol of the most valuable food; these two living creatures, the brahmanas and the cows, must be given all protection—that is real advancement of civilization. In modern human society, spiritual knowledge is neglected, and cow killing is encouraged. It is to be understood, then, that human society is advancing in the wrong direction and is clearing the path to its own condemnation. A civilization which guides the citizens to become animals in their next lives is certainly not a human civilization. The present human civilization is, of course, grossly misled by the modes of passion and ignorance. It is a very dangerous age, and all nations should take care to provide the easiest process, Krishna consciousness, to save humanity from the greatest danger.

Discriminating between pious and sinful activities

PRABHUPADA: The social body should have a class of men who act as the brain and guide everyone so that everyone can become happy. That is the purpose of our movement.

MR. HENNIS: That's a valid point, because it has always been affirmed in every society that there is a need for a priestly class or a class of philosophical leaders.

PRABHUPADA: But now the so-called priestly class are amending the Biblical injunctions according to their whims. For instance, the Bible enjoins, "Thou shalt not kill." But the priestly class is like the other classes—sanctioning slaughterhouses. So how can they guide?

MR. HENNIS: But the animal world is entirely composed of beings who eat one another. I suppose that the justification that people have for maintaining slaughterhouses is that it is just a cleaner way of killing than for a lion to jump on the back of an antelope.

PRABHUPADA: But as a human being you should have discrimination. You should be guided by your brain, and society should be guided by the "brain class" of priestly, thoughtful men. Nature has given human beings the fruits, the vegetables, the grains, the milk, which all have great nutritional value, and human beings should be satisfied with these wholesome foods. Why should they maintain slaughterhouses? And how can they think they will be happy by being sinful, by disobeying God's commandments? This means society has no brain.

MR. HENNIS: My organization isn't directly concerned with giving people brains.

PRABHUPADA: Your organization may not be directly concerned. But if human society is brainless, no matter how much you may try to organize, society can never be happy. That is my point.

MR. HENNIS: My organization is concerned with taking away the obstacles that prevent people from attaining a proper brain. One of the obstacles is just plain poverty.

PRABHUPADA: No. The main thing is, society must learn to discriminate between pious and sinful activities. Human beings must engage in pious activities, not sinful activities. Otherwise, they have no brain. They are no better than animals. And from the moral point of view, do you like sending your mother to the slaughterhouse? You are drinking the milk of the cow—so she is your mother—and after that you are sending her to the slaughterhouse. That is why we ask. Where is society's brain?

MR. HENNIS: Of course, when we speak of the distinctions that are made between pious activities and sinful activities—

PRABHUPADA: Today practically no one is making this distinction. We are making it, and we have introduced these ideas by establishing farm communities and protecting our cows. And our cows are winning awards for giving the most milk, because they are so jubilant. They know, "These people will not kill me." They know it, so they are very happy. Nor do we kill their calves. At other farms, soon after the cow gives birth to a calf, they pull her calf away for slaughter. You see? This means society has no brain. You may create hundreds of organizations, but society will never be happy. That is the verdict.

MR. HENNIS: Well, we can't be accused of engaging in sinful activities when we don't think what we are doing is sinful.

PRABHUPADA: [Laughing] Oh? You don't think you can be accused of breaking the state law—just because you don't know what the state law is? The point is, if your priestly class have no knowledge of what is sinful, they may instruct you, "Don't do anything sinful"—but what good is that? You must have a priestly class who know what is sinful, so that they can teach you. And then you must give up your sinful activities. When these young people came to me, I told them, "Flesh-eating, illicit sex, gambling, and intoxication—these things are sinful. You must give them up." If we do not give up these sinful activities, nature punishes us. So we must know the laws of nature, what nature wants. At the very least, nature wants that we human beings stop our sinful activities. If we do not, then we must be punished.

MR. HENNIS: We are just trying to give people a fair share of the material things of life: proper wages, decent homes, decent opportunities for leisure.

PRABHUPADA: That is all right, but people must know what is sinful and what is pious.

MR. HENNIS: Yes, but I don't think you can properly expect to indoctrinate people. At least, you can't expect an international organization to indoctrinate people.

PRABHUPADA: As an international organization for peace and well-being, the United Nations should maintain a class of men who can act as society's brain. Then everything will be all right. Simply legs and hands working without any direction, without any brain—that is not very good. The United Nations was organized for the total benefit of human society, but it has no department that can actually be called the brain organization.

MR. HENNIS: That's true. That's true. They are servants of the membership, servants of the various states of the world. We are only servants of these people. What we try to do is let them get together and help them understand their problems.

PRABHUPADA: Yes, help them understand. At the very least, help them understand what they should do and what they should not do. At least do this much.

MR. HENNIS: This we do try to do to the extent that it is possible for the secretariat to shape and evolve a philosophy. We try to do it. But of course, we can't adopt a completely radical approach. We do what we can, in the manner of a good servant and the manner of a good steward, to try and hope the leaders are on the right path and the right direction.

PRABHUPADA: If society does not know what is sinful and what is pious, it is all useless. If your body has no brain, then your body is dead. And if the social body has no brain, then it is dead.

Ideal government must support cow protection

At present, ... because the head of the social body is missing, it is a dead body. The head is very important, and our Krishna consciousness movement is attempting to create some brahmanas who will form the head of society. Then the administrators will be able to rule very nicely under the instructions of the philosophers and theologians—that is, under the instructions of God-conscious people. A God conscious brahmana would never advise opening slaughterhouses. But now, the many rascals heading the government allow animal slaughter. When Maharaja Parikshit saw a degraded man trying to kill a cow, he immediately drew his sword and said, "Who are you? Why are you trying to kill this cow?" He was a real king. Nowadays, unqualified men have taken the presidential post. And although they may pose themselves as very religious, they are simply rascals. Why? Because under their noses thousands of cows are being killed, while they collect a good salary. Any leader who is at all religious should resign his post in protest if cow slaughter goes on under his rule. Since people do not know that these administrators are rascals, they are suffering. And the people are also rascals because they are voting for these bigger rascals. It is Plato's view that the government should be ideal, and this is the ideal: The saintly philosophers should be at the head of the state; according to their advice the politicians should rule; under the protection of the politicians, the productive class should provide the necessities of life; and the laborer class should help. This is the scientific division of society that Krishna advocates in the Bhagavad-gita [4.13]: chatur-varnyam maya srishtam guna-karma-vibhagashah. "According to the three modes of material nature and the work ascribed to them, the four divisions of human society were created by Me."