Tattva-viveka
Serving the Cows
Vrindaranya Dasi - February 23, 2005 3:54 pm
SERVING THE COWS
by Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Goswami Maharaja
There is a mantra for the worship of the cows. There is a mantra for herding the cows. Krishna was a cowherd, that is why He has names like Gopal and Govinda. Krishna protected all the cows Himself. He and His friends would shout, "Hoy, hoy" at the cows to make them go in the direction they wanted.
I have often said no one should think that serving the cows is an ordinary kind of job. There is a very famous pandit in Vrindavan—I even have some of his books here—Haridas Shastri. He gave up everything to serve the cows. If we can serve the cows then we will give pleasure to Krishna. We have an expression, go-manyu. Manyu means anger. If the cows are displeased with our behaviour, then there will be inauspiciousness in the household. All the gods dwell in the heart of the cow; that is why she is called sarva-deva-maya.
This is why I say that service to the cows is not a commonplace activity. One of Krishna's names is Gopal. This is a special aspect of Krishna's pastime. He has so many cows, black ones, white ones. There are seven notes on the scale that Krishna plays on His flute—sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha and ni. So when He plays sa, then all the syamali or black cows would come running. When He plays the dha note, all the dhavali, or white cows come running to Him. They would come up to Him and start licking Him, and Krishna would rub and scratch them.
When Krishna left for Mathura, the cows completely lost their appetite. They stopped eating altogether. The mothers of the cowherd boys said to their sons—Sudama's and Sridama's mothers said to them, "Go and take the cows out to graze a little. Eat a little something yourselves and then go." Then they answered, "Mother, we stopped feeling hunger and thirst the day that our brother Kanai left us. You're telling us to take the cows into the fields, but they won't even look at the grass. They simply look up and moo for our brother Kanai to come back. Tears pour out of their eyes in torrents. That is the state the cows are in."
Krishna's friends go on, "And what will we eat? We cannot feel either thirst or hunger." Everyone is feeling the same way.
Syamasundara - February 23, 2005 7:50 pm
Luckily in one week I'll have internet at home, so I won't have to contain my reactions while reading these recounts, which I get totally sucked into. The first part was pure nectar, the second part was even more intense. All these instances of separation of the Vrajavasis from Krsna are so intense. Sometimes allegory is used in our scripture to make a point. I am no authority in the scriptures, but I know (GM says it so often, too) that whatever refers to Krsna is just the truth.
Intellectually I still can't quite relate to rolling on the ground thing, but all of us have been in love with a human being, and we all experienced lack of appetite, or sleep or anything; now just imagine this in relation to the absolute. I get torn apart every time I read what Nanda and Yasoda went through, yet it's so purifying to sympathize with the kamanugas and what they are about.
Thanks for putting go-seva into perspective. My attachment to cows is probably just sentimentalism (my first essay ever at school at 6 was about cows 
), but it's become my good fortune too!
All glories to the cowoholics of Tattvaviveka.
I don't remember, did I ever tell about when we fed all the Vrndavana cows on GM's birthday? I can repeat for the new ones, no prob!
This pic is from one or two days later (note the dye on my dhoti from the Holi celebrations).
GM and I are outside the neighbors' barn in Vrndavana. A cow had just given birth and we were assuring she had enough food to make milk, as the calf was malnourished. The cow tenders would just call her choti, lil one, but Vrndaranya and I called her Mangali, as the lady said she came back from mangala arati and there was the new born...
