When cows are souls who were cow-killers in their past life, why is killing them considered so sinful?

Transcript

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Q. When cow killers become cows in their next lives, why is killing cows, who are ultimately souls who are so sinful, that they were cow killers, why is killing cows considered to be so sinful? A. After all, aren’t those souls sinners who deserve punishment? It is not for us to take the law of karma in our own hands and it is not for us to judge people, judge other living beings based on their karma from previous lives.
First of all, we do not know what is the karma of souls from previous life. Now it is not only the cow killers who become cows. Souls come to a particular species from various directions.
So one possible trajectory by which a soul can come to the cow body is through the trajectory that there were people who killed cows in the past life and now they have become cows. So the point here is that this is only one way and we do not know that is the way by which souls have come to the cow’s body. Irrespective of what a person has done in the past life, our dealings with that person in this life have to be based on that person’s life status.
So cows in this life are very benevolent creatures. They give milk, they give… their komutra is helpful, even the cow dung is extremely helpful. And that is just from the material or economical perspective.
From the spiritual perspective, cows are extremely dear to Krishna. And because of this, the cows are to be cared, cherished, loved, valued, protected. So if we start judging people based on their past life karma, then where do we stop? Do we say that if a child, if an infant gets a disease, then does the mother say that, oh, this infant got diseased because of past life karma.
I shouldn’t offer any medicine, otherwise I’ll be interfering with the karma. It’s only sinners who suffer, let them suffer. If we start dealing with people based on their past life karma, we will bring all humanity and all civility to an end in society.
Even in human to human dealings, or to speak of human to animal dealings. So beyond that, the law of karma is gahana. So it is not necessary that every cow killer will have to become a cow and be killed.
That is one possible trajectory that is given. And that is primarily based on Manusmriti, where Manu used the word maam saha, and he explained maam saha means, maam saha, actually he explains it means maam saha, that I will become the animal that I’m killing. I will become that animal in future and I will be killed.
Now, whether that will happen exactly for every single cow killer or not, that is dependent on the person’s karma and the best way that the person’s karma can be brought out, can be delivered to that person. So this is the essential principle is that when we cause pain to others, the pain will come back upon us. Now, the specifics of how the pain will come back, it is not necessarily stereotyped.
This is definitely a possibility. But whether that is the only way people have to suffer is also a matter of discussion because karma is not simply linear or predictable. What is definitely certain is that every action brings a reaction.
But the specific way in which the actions bring reactions varies because there are multiple factors involved in delivering karmic reactions. So it’s not that this principle is wrong, but it is that this principle has to be seen in the light of other principles also. It’s like I said, one who practices devotional service never goes down to a lower species.
But in Bharat Maharaj, he practiced devotional service to a very advanced level and still went down to a lower species. Why was that? Because there’s another principle involved that whatever we think of at the time of death, we get that. So Bharat Maharaj went down to a lower species but did not get lower consciousness.
Even in a deer species, he got human consciousness. So both principles were reconciled or applied in a different way over here than what would be the case if only one principle was involved. So like that, there are multiple principles involved.
The person may have different kinds of karma at different times. And accordingly, the exact trajectory of one’s past next life may not be predictable. So these visually evocative images are given primarily for us to understand that we will have to suffer, that we can’t escape, whatever pain we cause others, we will get the consequences for that.
And the principle is that whatever pain we cause, we will get that. The specifics will vary depending on time, place, circumstance. So to summarize, firstly, we can’t judge people based on their past life karma.
Secondly, not all souls, not all cow bodies, get those cow bodies because of their past life killing of cows. And thirdly, it is not that all cow killers necessarily have to go to the body of cows and get killed, although that is definitely one possible trajectory. But other factors can also come into the picture while determining one’s post-mortem journey.
And because of all these factors, we should treat cows based on how the scriptures want us to treat. And the scriptures tell us that we should protect cows. And by protecting cows, we make spiritual advancement because they adhere to Krishna.
And that’s why, if we go into the past life, where do we extrapolate? The scriptures say that a man who is attached to a woman gets a woman’s body. The Gopis are women. Draupadi is a woman.
So are they less intelligent? Are they sinful souls who got female bodies? Then why do we consider Gopis to be the highest devotees? We can say Gopis are transcendental. Yes, but there were sadhana siddha Gopis also. They are also exalted.
So we reciprocate with people, deal with people and all living beings, in fact, based on how they, what is their status in this life. And there is another answer I have given about why we consider, why unintelligent people are considered like cows, why cows are equated with asses. I explained there that there is a material perspective also that the cow body is an animal body and the animal body, the soul who goes into animal body is degenerated from the human body.
So that fact is there. At the same time, the cow body is special among animal bodies because it is benevolent and because it is modeled on the cows in the spiritual world who are extremely dear to Krishna. The cows in this world are also dear to Krishna.
So how a person gets to a particular body from a previous life is not our business. Our business is to deal with that person in a way that is in accordance with the principles of dharma. Thank you.