We are drinking the milk of the cow, and in exchange, if we cut the throat of our mother, that is not civilization.

Animal Welfare vs Sacred Cow

Source of ingredients for ritualistic sacrifices

As stated in Bhagavad-gita (18.5), yajña-dana-tapah-karma na tyajyam karyam eva tat: sacrifice, charity and austerity are essential to keep human society perfect in peace and prosperity. Yajña, the performance of sacrifice, is essential; to perform yajña, clarified butter is absolutely necessary; and to get clarified butter, milk is necessary. Milk is produced when there are sufficient cows. Therefore in Bhagavad-gita (18.44), cow protection is recommended (krishi-go-rakshya-vanijyam vaishya-karma svabhava jam).

Cow protection vital to economic well-being

PRABHUPADA: Yes. So you published I think two years before, about our New Vrindaban. And you stated that it is a wonderful land, that... We are giving cow protection in the country where they are eaten by the people. Their staple food, beef, and they are accepting this movement, giving cow protection.

INTERVIEWER: Which are those areas?

PRABHUPADA: West Virginia, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and where? Miami, Canada, Vancouver. Like that.

INTERVIEWER: So if you don't mind, what is bad about eating, people who are eating beef? What is bad about it?

PRABHUPADA: Bad means you become bad. That's all. You can see these things are...

INTERVIEWER: But we can eat goat's meat, and other animal's meat.

PRABHUPADA: Yes. And the thing is that cow is especially recommended in the Bhagavad-gita, krishi-go-rakshya vanijyam vaishya-karma svabhava-jam. [Bg. 18.44]: "Farming, cow protection and business are the natural work for the vaishyas..."] That you must produce enough food grains by agriculture and give protection to the cows. That means if you have got enough food grains to eat and if you have got enough milk to get fatty substance, then your whole economic question is solved. Annad bhavanti bhutani. [From Bg. 3.14 :"All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from rains. Rains are produced by performance of yajña {sacrifice}, and yajña is born of prescribed duties."] If you get sufficient food there is no question of agitation. Everyone is satisfied. Animal and man. So you must produce. That is recommendation in the Bhagavad-gita.

Sacred cow and the art of plain living, high thinking

GUEST: What I... I was going to ask you, Swami, if the sacred cow was a symbol symbolizing compassion for all living creatures?

PRABHUPADA: Not only cow. Any animal, they should be object of our compassion. If we want to eat something and live, so if you have got sufficient foodstuff in other kingdom... We have got vegetables, we have got grains, we have got milk. So many things. Fruit, flower. So many things. Just like we are living on these things. We don't feel any inconvenience. And they are... According to medical science also, they are very rich in vitamins, food value. So why should we kill? Especially if we are human being, the cow is supplying us milk, the most important foodstuff. So instead of giving protection to the cow, if we kill, do you think that is very..., if you kill me, is that very good gratitude? So at least in the human life, these senses should be there. Cow protection is recommended in the Vedic literature because it is giving the most valuable foodstuff, milk. Apart from other sentiments, it is supplying, and in exchange of nothing. She simply eats some grasses from the ground. That's all. You don't have to provide cows with foodstuff. The things which you refuse, you take the grain and you supply the skin. You take the fruit pulp, you supply the skin. You take the, I mean to say, from paddy. You take the rice. You supply the straw and she delivers you a very nice foodstuff. And I have discussed all these points in my Srimad-Bhagavatam, that human economic problem can be solved simply by having some land and some cows. That's all.

GUEST: Cows would increase and multiply.

PRABHUPADA: Yes. Every living entity will multiply. That is another thing. I mean to say from cow you get milk. From milk you get butter and so many milk products. And from the fields you get sufficient grains and fruits. So your economic question is solved immediately. If you have got some land, the land is..., immense land is still lying vacant all over the world. Yes.

But they have diverted their energy in a different way. That is the miscalculation of the present civilization. They have forgotten that the aim of human life is to advance oneself in spiritual realization. So time should be saved as much as possible, and that time should be utilized for spiritual realization. But we have encumbered our civilization in such a way that we have lost all simple living thing. We have manufactured in so many ways encumbered ways of life. Therefore we have neglected spiritual life. And because we have neglected spiritual life there is no peace. If you want really peaceful life, then you have to make your material necessities simplified and engage your time for spiritual cultivation. Then you will have peace. And that is the best type of civilization. Plain living, high thinking. Now, in the modern days, the high living and plain thinking. Eating, sleeping, mating. This is plain thinking. This thinking also in the animals. They are also thinking what to eat, where to live, how to defend, how to have..., have semen or sex life. These are problems in animal life also. So if we keep that animal life problem, at the same time we claim that we are civilized, is it very nice? Civilization means how to get out of this material miseries—birth, death, disease and old age. That is real advancement of civilization. If there is any way and means to get out of this problem, then we must adopt in this human form of life. And that is possible in this human form of life. In no other life.

Don't cut your mother's throat

There is no other controller above Krishna, therefore, He is the Supreme Controller: Ishvarah paramah krishnah [Brahma-samhita 5.1], the Supreme Controller. The Supreme Controller, He is giving us instruction. If we follow His instruction, very simple, and remain in this village, satisfied with simple life, agricultural produce, milk, how many nice things you have produced, where is the difficulty? There is no economic problem. You are getting so much milk that it is becoming a problem how to utilize it.

In India we are in scarcity of milk. So, krishi-go-rakshya-vanijyam. [Bg. 18.44]: "Farming, cow protection and trade are the natural work for the vaishyas..."] If you have got enough milk you can make trade. Vanijyam, that is Krishna's instruction. It is not that we hate the modern system. No, we do not hate anything. Nirbandhah krishna-sambandhe. [From Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu 2.255: "When one is not attached to anything, but at the same time accepts everything in relation to Krishna, one is rightly situated above possessiveness. On the other hand, one who rejects everything without knowledge of its relationship to Krishna is not as complete in his renunciation."] we want to try to engage everything in Krishna's service. If modern machine is there, we don't hate it. We must find out the means how this machine can be utilized for Krishna's service. So if you have got excess milk, you can make it powdered milk and you can send to India in any amount. It will be consumed. At least we can use it in out different centers, we can distribute. So there is no question [of excess or waste].

Besides that, you can prepare ghee from milk. From milk first of all drink as much as you like. then convert it into yogurt, next day, next day, next day. And then, when that is also enough, then churn it, take out butter...buttermilk and butter...and drink butter milk with chapati. It is very palatable, very nutritious. Then butter...if you have got excess butter, then turn into ghee, and ghee can be preserved for years. There's no question of preservation. You send it to cities and towns. And we are now encouraging to open prasad distribution restaurant. They can utilize the ghee. Then where is the problem? There is no problem. Each drop of milk you can utilize to the perfect utility point.

And if there are excess cows, you have got some woods, so you cut out the trees and make an encirclement and keep them there. They will live there. So there is no problem. Krishna was maintaining 900,000 cows. There is no problem. But give protection to the cows. That is the order of Krishna. We cannot be so ungrateful that we kill our mother. Milk is so important. We are drinking the milk of the cow, and in exchange, if we cut the throat of our mother, that is not civilization. That is barbarism, less than animal. Animals also, they have respect for mother. So try to give protection to the cow, that is a pious activity, and you'll not be in scarcity.

Live village life, simple life, and be satisfied with the bare necessities. There is no need of luxury. And save time and chant Hare Krishna. This is ideal life. So I am very pleased that you are doing that, and do it more nicely so that others may be attracted.

This town life, industrial life, factory life, is asuric life. It is killing human ambition. It is killing civilization. So there are many other businesses for a Krishna conscious person, because in the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna speaks all around: sociology, politics, philosophy, religion, culture, economics, everything is there. If you simply follow Krishna's instructions, then you get cultural life all around.