Cow's Milk and Love
Tattva Darsan 7 – 29
This is an interesting point that I wanted to speak on – Relationship between love and cow's milk. We were discussing about hatred and envy and love, it's kind of the same discussion. We were talking about nirmatsaranam satam vedyam – the Srimad Bhagvatam is not for the people who are envious and non-loving, people who are not interested in loving God.
People who decry God and envious of God, they have no real access or entrance into the Srimad Bhagvatam. They will never understand the teachings of Srimad Bhagvatam because it's basically prema tattva.
So what is the relationship between cow’s milk and love? Milk is very necessary for human life. You can’t manufacture milk or water or grains in a laboratory. No scientists can do that. In the previous ages, 5000 years ago, Maharaja Yudhistira, it is described in the Srimad Bhagvatam, his cows had so much milk in their udders, they were so full of milk, they used to drop milk from their udders and drench the ground. This is described in Krsna lila also. They were so happy.
If you read in the sastras, there is an island called Svetadvipa. Dvipa means island and sveta means white. Why is it called Svetadvipa? Because the cows walk there and there is so much milk flowing out of their udders, it automatically flows to the ground and the land becomes white. Svetadvipa is called the white island because it's covered with milk everywhere. Svetadvipa is another name for Goloka. Goloka Vrndavana is the planet of Krsna. ‘Go’ means cow and ‘loka’ means planet.
Previously cows gave milk happily. Actually I saw something on the internet. I was looking at Dandavats.com and there was some article. Or may be it was in Care For Cows website, I don’t remember. There was some cow in Australia that made the news because she is giving milk without being milked. She doesn’t even have a baby. Everyday she gives 8 liters of milk, 4 in the morning, 4 in the night. She just sits happily and pours out and the guy just leaves a bucket and it pours into it. He doesn’t even touch her or anything. It just pours out.
But previously cows gave milk happily. Now cows are afraid of the milkman and in the modern dairies, they put a needle in the neck of the cow and they inject it. They release a chemical inside the cow and force it to release the milk. It's very painful. This process is outlawed in the West but now it's being used in India in the dairies. The cows are afraid of the milkman because they pull all the milk out and they don’t leave any for the calf. They use these automatic machines that just stick on their udders and they treat them so inhumanely. So then they come and shoot them in the neck with a needle and this drug forces the milk to come out.
The cow gives the milk for the calf out of love. What is the milk that is coming from the cow? In Maharaja Yushidstira’s time, the cows were grazed freely in the pasture and they would happily give their milk. The milk coming from the cow was actually the love of the cow.
The cow gives the milk for the calf out of love. This is why the cow's milk is supposed to be very good for the mind. They say ‘liquid religiosity’, good for the mind. The cow's milk is very good for the mind because the cow has more love for her offspring than any other species including humans. The scientists have observed this. Because if you ever see the cow… actually in the sastras sometimes they call Krsna ‘vatsa’.
Mother Yasoda says, “Oh vatsa…”
Vatsa means calf, “Oh my calf-like son”. And the phrase for motherly love is called vatsalya bhava. There is a demon in Krsna lila called Vatsasura, one demon disguised himself as a calf and he mixed with Krsna's calves and Krsna killed him. Vatsa means baby cow or calf. And then we say – Krsna is bhakta-vatsalya. This vatsa means that Krsna has love for His devotees like a mother cow has for her calf.
When the mother cow has her baby calf, she loves him so much she wants to put him inside her belly. Ever see her licking? You are from the city, never noticed a cow. But the baby, they lick and they lick and the calf is going this way and toppling over but she is licking and licking. She is cleaning him, and not only cleaning him but she is just licking his rear end and licking everywhere, doesn’t matter where. That’s actually her love and then he comes and hits her udder with his head and takes her milk and she is so happy and she looks back at him and she is licking him when he is eating and she is always looking at him. If they tie him up separately she is just all day munching on her cud and looking at the calf.
Whereas a human mother will have a baby but she’ll watch TV and “Hey, somebody watch the kid, will they?” She will tell the older sister – “Hey Kaveri, watch Radha, I am busy. I have to watch the TV or whatever, chant my rounds…”
But there is nothing else in the cow’s mind but her calf. So even karmi scientists realized that the cow has more love for her baby, her calf, her offspring than any other species, including humans. All other animals, all the birds and humans – no mother has as much love for her baby or offspring as a cow. This is a fact of life.
So that love of the cow, which is more intense than any other mother in the entire creation, is also in her milk, the cow’s milk. And that milk is being given to her baby, so she is giving the baby her love in the form of the milk.
So scientists have done tests and they have taken hormones from the mother cow and injected those hormones into other animal mothers like a mother dog, goat, or other female animal mothers that have had babies to see what the result would be. And the result is that these animals changed their own behavior toward their offspring. Because inside these cow's hormones is intense love for the offspring. This is their theory. If this cow has so much love for her baby, this must be in her genes, it must be in her hormones.
So then they took those hormones from the cow and put them in a dog. The dog was ok, the puppies come and push, she will give some milk, sometimes they chase the puppies, they bite, hey, get out. I don’t feel like giving milk now. Then they noticed, when the dog would get injected with these cow hormones, she would become very much licking the puppies, palming like a mother cow! Very interesting study.
So the Sanskrit word vatsala, which means affection is derived from the Sanskrit word vatsa, which means calf. The Lord is bhakta-vatsala – very loving and affectionate toward His devotee, just like a cow toward her baby.
So it's a good uddipana to come to the village and watch a mother cow, especially with her new-born. How much they lick, how much affection, how much TLC – Tender loving care and affection, love, absorption, concern, protection that mother cow or go-mata has for her vatsa, her baby. That’s what Krsna has for us. That will really increase our attachment and affection for Krsna knowing that He has so much affection, concern and love and attention for us. He is looking at us every moment and watching over us every moment, every second.
The cow has so much love for her calf, her vatsa, that she goes mad in love trying to lick the calf practically to death. Trying to swallow the body of the calf, she is always licking and never gets tired of licking her baby.
So when a cow gives milk for her calf, she is actually giving milk out of her intense love for her calf. Therefore cow’s milk is carrying that quality of her love. Cow's milk is sometimes called liquid love in the Ayurvedic sastras, it's called amrta, doodh is called amrta, doodhamrta because it's so life-giving, for babies or old men or anybody.
So it's all called liquid love. If you drink cow’s milk, you also receive a little of that love and become a simple, normal, peaceful person. If the cow was in anxiety and denied the opportunity to see her calf and she is fed hormones and injections and shot in the neck to give milk, then that tension and anxiety comes in her milk. Our mind becomes influenced by the food we eat.
The way food is cooked, who cooks the food and how food is cooked and served and eaten affects our consciousness. It's a very subtle science. Previously in India, the cow was respected very much. If our mind remains sane, we keep peaceful and our society keeps peaceful.
Human society was based on the cow. Therefore Krsna-gopala, loves and protects the cows and the brahmanas
namo brahmanya devaya
go brahmanaya hitaya ca
jagad dhitaya Krsnaya
govindaya namo namah
Because the cow is giving such wonderful food, miracle food, milk which is good for the brain and brahmanas, who give us knowledge which by following we’ll attain the ultimate goal of life. So the cow would give nice milk, then the brahmanas would drink that milk and become very intelligent and very loving and very aware. Then they would teach the people the science of God and the scriptures and people would follow the scriptures and make their life perfect, happy and holy and peaceful, and then attain the goal of human life.
But now everyone drinks buffalo milk. Nobody has an opportunity to drink cow’s milk and even if they do the cow’s milk comes by violence and mistreatment and tension and anxiety.
But traditionally, it was a great interaction of love, the man was taking care of the cow lovingly, go-seva. That’s symbolized by every year during Gopastami they would take some turmeric and wet their hands with turmeric and mark the cow's body on the side with their hands, right hand. You ever seen prints like that? You ever seen pictures of the cow with handprints on the side? Never seen painting or pictures or never seen in the village? On Gopastami, they mix turmeric, there used to be candana powder sometimes, then they put their hand in it and then they put it like this on the cow, like a stencil. You see all the hand prints. They lick it or it wears off. It's just turmeric, it's a blood purifier and candana.
So they are marking their cow with their love. Just like a husband may touch his wife’s cheek or embrace, you know, he touches her, puts his hand on her head. So this is how the humans were showing their love for the family cow. And feeding her very nicely and protecting the bulls. So seva means love. You serve someone you love. Go-seva is based on love for go-mata. She is our mother.
We love our mother, so we serve our mother. We feed her, we protect her, we care for her, we give her medicine, we shelter her and clean her and all these things. So then the cow would reciprocate, of course by producing babies and then giving milk out of great love. She is very much in happy, peaceful, appreciative and loving care of her sevaites, then the milk practically falls out automatically like in Krsna's lila. Cows are all dropping milk all over the pasturing grounds because they are so happy to be in the loving association of Gopala. Even Yudhistira’s time, which is the same time as Krsna, the Srimad Bhagvatam says the earth was drenched with milk from the cows. And Krsna lives in a place called Svetadvipa, the planet Goloka, the planet of cows. Whole ground is covered with milk! It's good for complexion and you always have soft feet. No cracked feet over there, walking in milk all the time.
So this is the relationship between love and cow’s milk. Very interesting, the intense love of the mother cow for her offspring is incomparable, it's a scientific fact and they are just animals, pashu.
You would think – Oh human beings are so civilized and developed they must have so much more love and loving sentiments and loving expression. After all they are human beings, they are the crown of creation! But the fact is that they don’t have anywhere near the love of a mother cow, go-mata.
That’s why Krsna says that namo brahmanya devaya go brahmanaya hitaya ca. He says – go, brahmana, these personalities – the cow and the brahmana – they live for the benefit of the human society and they should always be honored by everyone. Krsna showed Himself, by His own example when He was on this earth planet, He showed so much regard for cows and brahmanas.
So that intense love of the cow for her baby, vatsa, is expressed through her milk. Just like the human mother, she feeds her baby her breast milk and that’s her love and when the human mother is feeding her baby, the baby is so happy to take the breast milk and the mother also feels happy. When the mother is breast feeding her child, she feels great happiness, releasing the milk, something happens in her mind. It's actually a very high experience of happiness, great joy and thrill that goes throughout the mind and body of the mother when she’s breast feeding the child which the husband cannot understand anything about. It's a special reciprocation of love.
So the cows have umpteenth more love than that for their babies. So much happiness they feel, how much love! So all of that is contained in the milk. Then the calf takes it's share and there is still more left. The calf drinks a couple of liters, but there are four or five liters there and that has to come out, because she gives four liters in the morning, and four liters in the evening, twice a day. The calf only takes two. If it doesn’t come out then the mother cow becomes painful, if that milk stays there. So that milk is for the human being. So that same milk is giving her love to the baby, now it gives the love to the human being.
Now everybody says – “Oh I like the taste of buffalo milk, it's so thick, so rich, it's so tasty.” Everything is based on senses, nothing based on sastra, nothing based on common sense, only senses.
But buffalo – what kind of love do they have for their babies? You ever see? They could care less! They don’t lick them… you have seen buffalo. They are practically not even ‘alive’. Like totally tamaguna. The baby just comes, the baby is here, there… have you ever observed? Buffalo are so dull. I mean you see a cow – they are practically mad! Licking the legs, the head, the nose, the calf is going this way and that way and they are licking the nose and there is all snort on the nose and the mother licks it and they lick the rear end. They don’t think – oh, this is…
You will never in a hundred years see a buffalo do that. They don’t even touch their baby. You saw a buffalo do anything like that? In Europe, etc, there is no buffalo. Of course they do atrocious things – they slaughter the poor cows. In the whole North American continent there is not one buffalo. It's a huge area. South America, no buffalo.
It's more of an Asian thing. In Africa, there is buffalo, in Asia… they are more like a hot climate type thing. Northern Europe, no buffalo, Russia, no buffalo. Buffalo is in warm area – Asia, Philippines, Malaysia, India, in these kinds of southern places. But the majority of the land mass of the world, there is cow. It's horrible what they do to the cow. They are drinking violent cow’s milk, not cow’s milk filled with love. Cow’s milk filled with anxiety, tension and violence.
So this concludes our discussion for today.
This is an interesting point that I wanted to speak on – Relationship between love and cow's milk. We were discussing about hatred and envy and love, it's kind of the same discussion. We were talking about nirmatsaranam satam vedyam – the Srimad Bhagvatam is not for the people who are envious and non-loving, people who are not interested in loving God.
People who decry God and envious of God, they have no real access or entrance into the Srimad Bhagvatam. They will never understand the teachings of Srimad Bhagvatam because it's basically prema tattva.
So what is the relationship between cow’s milk and love? Milk is very necessary for human life. You can’t manufacture milk or water or grains in a laboratory. No scientists can do that. In the previous ages, 5000 years ago, Maharaja Yudhistira, it is described in the Srimad Bhagvatam, his cows had so much milk in their udders, they were so full of milk, they used to drop milk from their udders and drench the ground. This is described in Krsna lila also. They were so happy.
If you read in the sastras, there is an island called Svetadvipa. Dvipa means island and sveta means white. Why is it called Svetadvipa? Because the cows walk there and there is so much milk flowing out of their udders, it automatically flows to the ground and the land becomes white. Svetadvipa is called the white island because it's covered with milk everywhere. Svetadvipa is another name for Goloka. Goloka Vrndavana is the planet of Krsna. ‘Go’ means cow and ‘loka’ means planet.
Previously cows gave milk happily. Actually I saw something on the internet. I was looking at Dandavats.com and there was some article. Or may be it was in Care For Cows website, I don’t remember. There was some cow in Australia that made the news because she is giving milk without being milked. She doesn’t even have a baby. Everyday she gives 8 liters of milk, 4 in the morning, 4 in the night. She just sits happily and pours out and the guy just leaves a bucket and it pours into it. He doesn’t even touch her or anything. It just pours out.
But previously cows gave milk happily. Now cows are afraid of the milkman and in the modern dairies, they put a needle in the neck of the cow and they inject it. They release a chemical inside the cow and force it to release the milk. It's very painful. This process is outlawed in the West but now it's being used in India in the dairies. The cows are afraid of the milkman because they pull all the milk out and they don’t leave any for the calf. They use these automatic machines that just stick on their udders and they treat them so inhumanely. So then they come and shoot them in the neck with a needle and this drug forces the milk to come out.
The cow gives the milk for the calf out of love. What is the milk that is coming from the cow? In Maharaja Yushidstira’s time, the cows were grazed freely in the pasture and they would happily give their milk. The milk coming from the cow was actually the love of the cow.
The cow gives the milk for the calf out of love. This is why the cow's milk is supposed to be very good for the mind. They say ‘liquid religiosity’, good for the mind. The cow's milk is very good for the mind because the cow has more love for her offspring than any other species including humans. The scientists have observed this. Because if you ever see the cow… actually in the sastras sometimes they call Krsna ‘vatsa’.
Mother Yasoda says, “Oh vatsa…”
Vatsa means calf, “Oh my calf-like son”. And the phrase for motherly love is called vatsalya bhava. There is a demon in Krsna lila called Vatsasura, one demon disguised himself as a calf and he mixed with Krsna's calves and Krsna killed him. Vatsa means baby cow or calf. And then we say – Krsna is bhakta-vatsalya. This vatsa means that Krsna has love for His devotees like a mother cow has for her calf.
When the mother cow has her baby calf, she loves him so much she wants to put him inside her belly. Ever see her licking? You are from the city, never noticed a cow. But the baby, they lick and they lick and the calf is going this way and toppling over but she is licking and licking. She is cleaning him, and not only cleaning him but she is just licking his rear end and licking everywhere, doesn’t matter where. That’s actually her love and then he comes and hits her udder with his head and takes her milk and she is so happy and she looks back at him and she is licking him when he is eating and she is always looking at him. If they tie him up separately she is just all day munching on her cud and looking at the calf.
Whereas a human mother will have a baby but she’ll watch TV and “Hey, somebody watch the kid, will they?” She will tell the older sister – “Hey Kaveri, watch Radha, I am busy. I have to watch the TV or whatever, chant my rounds…”
But there is nothing else in the cow’s mind but her calf. So even karmi scientists realized that the cow has more love for her baby, her calf, her offspring than any other species, including humans. All other animals, all the birds and humans – no mother has as much love for her baby or offspring as a cow. This is a fact of life.
So that love of the cow, which is more intense than any other mother in the entire creation, is also in her milk, the cow’s milk. And that milk is being given to her baby, so she is giving the baby her love in the form of the milk.
So scientists have done tests and they have taken hormones from the mother cow and injected those hormones into other animal mothers like a mother dog, goat, or other female animal mothers that have had babies to see what the result would be. And the result is that these animals changed their own behavior toward their offspring. Because inside these cow's hormones is intense love for the offspring. This is their theory. If this cow has so much love for her baby, this must be in her genes, it must be in her hormones.
So then they took those hormones from the cow and put them in a dog. The dog was ok, the puppies come and push, she will give some milk, sometimes they chase the puppies, they bite, hey, get out. I don’t feel like giving milk now. Then they noticed, when the dog would get injected with these cow hormones, she would become very much licking the puppies, palming like a mother cow! Very interesting study.
So the Sanskrit word vatsala, which means affection is derived from the Sanskrit word vatsa, which means calf. The Lord is bhakta-vatsala – very loving and affectionate toward His devotee, just like a cow toward her baby.
So it's a good uddipana to come to the village and watch a mother cow, especially with her new-born. How much they lick, how much affection, how much TLC – Tender loving care and affection, love, absorption, concern, protection that mother cow or go-mata has for her vatsa, her baby. That’s what Krsna has for us. That will really increase our attachment and affection for Krsna knowing that He has so much affection, concern and love and attention for us. He is looking at us every moment and watching over us every moment, every second.
The cow has so much love for her calf, her vatsa, that she goes mad in love trying to lick the calf practically to death. Trying to swallow the body of the calf, she is always licking and never gets tired of licking her baby.
So when a cow gives milk for her calf, she is actually giving milk out of her intense love for her calf. Therefore cow’s milk is carrying that quality of her love. Cow's milk is sometimes called liquid love in the Ayurvedic sastras, it's called amrta, doodh is called amrta, doodhamrta because it's so life-giving, for babies or old men or anybody.
So it's all called liquid love. If you drink cow’s milk, you also receive a little of that love and become a simple, normal, peaceful person. If the cow was in anxiety and denied the opportunity to see her calf and she is fed hormones and injections and shot in the neck to give milk, then that tension and anxiety comes in her milk. Our mind becomes influenced by the food we eat.
The way food is cooked, who cooks the food and how food is cooked and served and eaten affects our consciousness. It's a very subtle science. Previously in India, the cow was respected very much. If our mind remains sane, we keep peaceful and our society keeps peaceful.
Human society was based on the cow. Therefore Krsna-gopala, loves and protects the cows and the brahmanas
namo brahmanya devaya
go brahmanaya hitaya ca
jagad dhitaya Krsnaya
govindaya namo namah
Because the cow is giving such wonderful food, miracle food, milk which is good for the brain and brahmanas, who give us knowledge which by following we’ll attain the ultimate goal of life. So the cow would give nice milk, then the brahmanas would drink that milk and become very intelligent and very loving and very aware. Then they would teach the people the science of God and the scriptures and people would follow the scriptures and make their life perfect, happy and holy and peaceful, and then attain the goal of human life.
But now everyone drinks buffalo milk. Nobody has an opportunity to drink cow’s milk and even if they do the cow’s milk comes by violence and mistreatment and tension and anxiety.
But traditionally, it was a great interaction of love, the man was taking care of the cow lovingly, go-seva. That’s symbolized by every year during Gopastami they would take some turmeric and wet their hands with turmeric and mark the cow's body on the side with their hands, right hand. You ever seen prints like that? You ever seen pictures of the cow with handprints on the side? Never seen painting or pictures or never seen in the village? On Gopastami, they mix turmeric, there used to be candana powder sometimes, then they put their hand in it and then they put it like this on the cow, like a stencil. You see all the hand prints. They lick it or it wears off. It's just turmeric, it's a blood purifier and candana.
So they are marking their cow with their love. Just like a husband may touch his wife’s cheek or embrace, you know, he touches her, puts his hand on her head. So this is how the humans were showing their love for the family cow. And feeding her very nicely and protecting the bulls. So seva means love. You serve someone you love. Go-seva is based on love for go-mata. She is our mother.
We love our mother, so we serve our mother. We feed her, we protect her, we care for her, we give her medicine, we shelter her and clean her and all these things. So then the cow would reciprocate, of course by producing babies and then giving milk out of great love. She is very much in happy, peaceful, appreciative and loving care of her sevaites, then the milk practically falls out automatically like in Krsna's lila. Cows are all dropping milk all over the pasturing grounds because they are so happy to be in the loving association of Gopala. Even Yudhistira’s time, which is the same time as Krsna, the Srimad Bhagvatam says the earth was drenched with milk from the cows. And Krsna lives in a place called Svetadvipa, the planet Goloka, the planet of cows. Whole ground is covered with milk! It's good for complexion and you always have soft feet. No cracked feet over there, walking in milk all the time.
So this is the relationship between love and cow’s milk. Very interesting, the intense love of the mother cow for her offspring is incomparable, it's a scientific fact and they are just animals, pashu.
You would think – Oh human beings are so civilized and developed they must have so much more love and loving sentiments and loving expression. After all they are human beings, they are the crown of creation! But the fact is that they don’t have anywhere near the love of a mother cow, go-mata.
That’s why Krsna says that namo brahmanya devaya go brahmanaya hitaya ca. He says – go, brahmana, these personalities – the cow and the brahmana – they live for the benefit of the human society and they should always be honored by everyone. Krsna showed Himself, by His own example when He was on this earth planet, He showed so much regard for cows and brahmanas.
So that intense love of the cow for her baby, vatsa, is expressed through her milk. Just like the human mother, she feeds her baby her breast milk and that’s her love and when the human mother is feeding her baby, the baby is so happy to take the breast milk and the mother also feels happy. When the mother is breast feeding her child, she feels great happiness, releasing the milk, something happens in her mind. It's actually a very high experience of happiness, great joy and thrill that goes throughout the mind and body of the mother when she’s breast feeding the child which the husband cannot understand anything about. It's a special reciprocation of love.
So the cows have umpteenth more love than that for their babies. So much happiness they feel, how much love! So all of that is contained in the milk. Then the calf takes it's share and there is still more left. The calf drinks a couple of liters, but there are four or five liters there and that has to come out, because she gives four liters in the morning, and four liters in the evening, twice a day. The calf only takes two. If it doesn’t come out then the mother cow becomes painful, if that milk stays there. So that milk is for the human being. So that same milk is giving her love to the baby, now it gives the love to the human being.
Now everybody says – “Oh I like the taste of buffalo milk, it's so thick, so rich, it's so tasty.” Everything is based on senses, nothing based on sastra, nothing based on common sense, only senses.
But buffalo – what kind of love do they have for their babies? You ever see? They could care less! They don’t lick them… you have seen buffalo. They are practically not even ‘alive’. Like totally tamaguna. The baby just comes, the baby is here, there… have you ever observed? Buffalo are so dull. I mean you see a cow – they are practically mad! Licking the legs, the head, the nose, the calf is going this way and that way and they are licking the nose and there is all snort on the nose and the mother licks it and they lick the rear end. They don’t think – oh, this is…
You will never in a hundred years see a buffalo do that. They don’t even touch their baby. You saw a buffalo do anything like that? In Europe, etc, there is no buffalo. Of course they do atrocious things – they slaughter the poor cows. In the whole North American continent there is not one buffalo. It's a huge area. South America, no buffalo.
It's more of an Asian thing. In Africa, there is buffalo, in Asia… they are more like a hot climate type thing. Northern Europe, no buffalo, Russia, no buffalo. Buffalo is in warm area – Asia, Philippines, Malaysia, India, in these kinds of southern places. But the majority of the land mass of the world, there is cow. It's horrible what they do to the cow. They are drinking violent cow’s milk, not cow’s milk filled with love. Cow’s milk filled with anxiety, tension and violence.
So this concludes our discussion for today.
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