The real truth about cow-slaughter!  

Posted by Baba Ramdev Admirer in


 The following article was originally written by Sandhya Jain to dispel all the false claims that say, "Indians ate cows in Vedic era."

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Author: Sandhya Jain
Publication: Deccan Herald
Date: December 20, 2001 

 
Under the pretext of disseminating true knowledge about the past to young, impressionable school children, a perverse assault has been launched upon the religious sensitivities of the Hindu community. Marxist historians allege that ancient Hindus ate beef, that this is recorded in their sacred scriptures, and that this should be taught to school children. The Hindu prohibition on cow slaughter, they say, is a more recent development and Hindus are shying away from this truth because it is intimately linked with their sense of identity.

A Marxist specialist on ancient India, ignorant in both Vedic and Panini 's Sanskrit, claims that the Shatapatha Brahmana and Vasistha Dharmasutra clearly state that guests were honoured by serving beef. She also cites archaeological evidence as reported by H.D. Sankalia and B.B. Lal. While the lady thinks her evidence is irrefutable, I have decided to pick up the gauntlet.

To begin with, the Shatapatha Brahmana is Yajnavalkya's commentary on the Yajur Veda, and not a revealed text. As for the Vasistha Dharmasutra, the legendary Sanskritist, late P.V. Kane, said, "beyond the name Vasistha there is hardly anything special in the dharmasutra to connect it with the Rgveda." Kane also added, "grave doubts have been entertained about the authenticity of the whole of the text of the Vas.Dh.S. as the mss. (manuscripts) contain varying numbers of chapters from 6 to 30, and as the text is hopelessly corrupt in several places. many verses.bear the impress of a comparatively late age." Kane tentatively places this text between 300-100 B.C., that is, long after the end of the Vedic age.

According to archaeologists, the early Vedic age tentatively falls between the fourteen century BC to the first millennium BC. The later Vedic period lies between 1000 BC to 600-700 BC. But if we go by astronomical dating of some of the hymns, we get a period of 7000 BC for a portion of the Vedas.

The honest question, however, is whether the Vedas offer evidence about cow slaughter and beef-eating, and if not, how the controversy arose in the first place. A few clarifications are in order before we proceed. The word 'cow' (gau), for instance, is used throughout the Vedas in diverse senses, and, depending on the context of the verse, could mean the animal cow, waters, sun-rays, learned persons, Vedic verses, or Prithvi (earth as Divine Mother).

Then, Vedic society was heterogeneous, pluralistic, and non-vegetarian. In theory, it is possible that the cow was killed and eaten. The fact, however, is that throughout the Vedas the cow is called a non-killable animal, or "aghnya." According to "An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Sanskrit on Historical Principles" (Vol. I, Deccan College, Poona), "aghnya" means "not to be killed or violated" and is used for cows and for waters in the presence of which oaths were taken.

The Rig and Sama Veda call the cow "aghnya" and "Aditi", ie. not to be murdered (Rig 1-64-27; 5-83-8; 7-68-9; 1-164-40; 8-69-2; 9-1-9; 9-93-3; 10-6-11; 10-87-16). They extol the cow as un-killable, un-murderable, whose milk purifies the mind and keeps it free from sin. Verse 10-87-16 prescribes severe punishment for the person who kills a cow. The Atharva Veda recommends beheading (8-3-16) for such a crime; the Rig Veda advocates expulsion from the kingdom (8-101-15).

Hence, it seems unlikely that the cow would be slaughtered to entertain guests, as claimed by Marxist historians. But before coming to any conclusion, the archaeological evidence should also be examined. Archaeologists have excavated bones of cattle in huge quantity, "cattle" is a collective noun which includes the cow, bull, buffalo, nilgai and all other bovine animals. Nowhere in the world can experts differentiate between the bones of cows and other cattle recovered from excavations.

There are good reasons for this difficulty. Most of the bones found are not whole carcasses, but large pieces of limbs. Experts feel that these could be the remains of animals that died naturally and were skinned for their hide and bones. Ancient man used bones to make knives and other tools; the splintered bones found could be part of the tool-making exercise. In all honesty, therefore, cattle bone finds do not prove cow slaughter or the eating of cow meat, especially when all literary evidence points in the opposite direction.

There has been talk about cut-marks on the bones. But apart from tool-making, even if a tanner skins dead cattle for the hide, he will inflict cut marks on the carcass. Scientifically, it is not possible to say if the marks on the bones are ante-mortem or post-mortem. This can be determined only where the body is intact (animal or human), by analyzing blood vessels, tissue, rigor mortis and other factors.

Fortunately, there is now clinching evidence why the Marxist claim on cow-flesh rests on false premises. As already stated, the allegation rests mainly on literary sources and their interpretation, and we are in a position to trace the source of the mischief – the Vachaspatyam of Pandit Taranath and his British mentors.

Pandit Taranath, a professor of grammar at the Calcutta Sanskrit College, compiled a six-volume Sanskrit-to-Sanskrit dictionary, which is used by scholars to this day. The Vachaspatyam is a valuable guide for scholars because there are certain words in the samhita (mantra) section of the Vedas that are not found later in the Puranas.

What most Sanskrit scholars have failed to notice is that Taranath artfully corrupted the meanings of a few crucial words of the Vedic samhita to endorse the meaning given by Max Muller in his translation of the Vedas. Swami Prakashanand Saraswati has exposed this beautifully in "The True History and the Religion of India, A Concise Encyclopedia of Authentic Hinduism" (Motilal Banarsidass).

The British idea was that Max Muller would translate the Rig Veda "in such a scornful manner that Hindus themselves should begin to reproach their own religion of the Vedas," while a Hindu pandit would "compile an elaborate Sanskrit dictionary that should exhibit disgraceful meanings of certain words of the Vedic mantras." As Hindus would not question a dictionary by a Hindu pandit, the British would be able to claim that whatever Max Muller wrote about the Vedas was according to the dictionary of the Hindus.

Swami Prakashanand Saraswati focuses on two words – goghn and ashvamedh. "Goghn" means a guest who receives a cow as gift. Panini created a special sutra to establish the rule that goghn will only mean the receiver of a cow (and will not be used in any other sense). But Taranath ignored Panini's injunction and wrote that "goghn" means "the killer of a cow." He similarly converted the ashvamedh yagna from 'ritual worship of the horse' to the "killing of the horse."

The Swami proves the British hand in this mischief through the patronage given to Taranath by the Government of Bengal in 1866, when Lt. Governor Sir Cecil Beadon sanctioned ten thousand rupees for two hundred copies of his dictionary. This was a king's ransom in those days, as even in the 1930s the headmaster of a vernacular primary school received a salary of twenty rupees a month. Today, ten thousand rupees is the equivalent of two million rupees.

When the basic premise upon which all modern translations rest is thus knocked off its pedestal, what beef is left in the theory that Vedic Hindus enjoyed the flesh of the cow? I rest my case.

We are what we eat!  

Posted by Baba Ramdev Admirer in


Most of you who follow Baba Ramdev regularly are aware of his strong advocacy for vegetarianism in life. Vegetarianism is deeply rooted in the concept of nonviolence. Ancient rishi-parampara teaches us that in order to advance in spirituality, non-violence should be practiced at the highest possible extent. 

It is not possible to be completely nonviolent. We kill thousands of bacteria when we breathe and also when we digest food in our stomach. However, our goal, as real Aryans, should be to commit as less violence as possible. This involves not killing innocent creatures for our own self-pleasure. God can forgive us when we happen to kill an animal unintentionally, such as while driving a car. However, killing an animal intentionally and deliberately is a sin which should be avoided. Anyone who has for once been to an animal slaughterhouse will agree to the fact that there is a VAST difference between chopping a tomato and slitting the throat of a cow or a pig.

One main reason why we should avoid eating meat is this: Any food that we consume directly or indirectly affects our mind. Food is classified into three categories, modes of nature: sattvic (mode of goodness), rajasic (mode of passion), and tamasic (mode of ignorance). Food such as meat, alcohol, and wine fall under the umbrella of tamasic mode. Such food is situated in ignorance and creates obstacles for us in our spiritual pursuit or yoga. Onions, garlic, chocolate, caffeine, etc. fall in the rajasic category because they make us passionate. They lead to an increase in passion, desire, anger and all the negative qualities. In addition, when an animal is killed, it dies in fear. The subtle vibrations it emits when it dies pass on to our body when we eat the dead. These vibrations makes us more violent, more impatient, and less peaceful. Therefore, such foods should be avoided at all possible costs if one desires to advance in yoga.

Baba Ramdev, as did all our ancestral rishis, gave special importance to cows. According to shastras, cows should be regarded as our second "mothers." While our biological mother may have breastfed us when we were in the cradle, mother cow provides us her milk everyday, perhaps until death. All cow-slaughterers should ask themselves a very simple question: Would you kill your mother who breastfed you when you were a child? NO. Then why would you kill cow, whose milk you drink almost everyday, until your death? There are thousands of reasons explaining why cow is our second mother. Those who want to learn further on this topic are encouraged to read Steven Rosen's (Satyaraja Dasa's) book Holy Cow

Thus, we all should take intense care that we do not kill ANY creatures unnecessarily, except in the most dire circumstances. ALL creatures have an intrinsic right to live.

"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were created for us no more than the blacks were created for the white, or women created for men." -- Alice Walker in her book The Color Purple.

LET'S ALL REMEMBER THAT!