​When Krishna is the protector of cows, how are so many cows being slaughtered?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
See, when Krishna is said to be the protector of the cows, so many cows are being slaughtered today. How do we understand that Krishna is the protector? See, there is the principle of Dharma.
And, the principle of Dharma is that actually, there are systems by which Dharma is protected. Not so much. I can understand, but not so much.
There are principles by which Dharma is protected. So, for example, in the Vedic culture, there were Brahmanas and there were Kshatriyas. So, Kshatriyas are meant to be the protectors of Dharma.
And, when say, some demons are coming and troubling, at that time, there are Kshatriya warriors who go and protect. So, we do not expect, we understand that Krishna is the protector on principle. In practice, it is not that for everything, we expect that Krishna will come and protect.
See, Arjuna was a devotee of Krishna. But Arjuna himself trained in archery. Arjuna trained so much that all night he would be practicing 10 times.
And that’s how he became an expert archer. So, it is not that Arjuna said, Oh, Krishna is the protector of his devotees, so Krishna will protect me, I don’t have to do anything. Arjuna himself practiced archery tirelessly, became excellent, and he became an instrument for Krishna.
And, similarly, when we say Krishna is the protector, how we see it is that Krishna likes cows. And therefore, we should be able to create systems by which cows are protected. Now, if there are adharmic people, adharmic people may brutalize, may do brutal things.
And there will be terrible consequences of that. If you see, the Ramayana talks about Rakshasas. And Rakshasas are cannibals.
Or to speak of killing cows, they would eat humans. Eat humans, you know. So, there are Brahmanas.
Lord Ram came to a place called Ramtek when he was travelling in the forest. And that time, he saw that there are pile of bones. And then the sages told him that the Rakshasas had come and there are many Brahmins who were performing, many sages who were performing austerities.
And Brahmins had come and desecrated their hermitage and devoured the sages. So, it is unspeakable for us. Unthinkable also, that kind of atrocity.
So, Lord Ram corrected it. But that was also happening at that time. So, it is not that because Krishna is the protector of the Brahmana, that means, Brahmanas can never come under danger.
Rather, sometimes in this world, dharmasya glani happens. When dharmasya glani happens, at that time, terrible things can happen. So, devotees see it as their responsibility to try to do what they can to avoid the dharmasya glani.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said that My holy name will be chanted in every town and village. Now, He said that Prakriti Ache Nagar Adhigram Sarvatra Vachar Hoi Vemurana Now, Prabhupada did not think that Oh, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has said, it will happen. Let me just sit and chant in Vrindavan.
Prabhupada took the responsibility of making it happen. He travelled all over the world and talked about the glories of the holy name. That’s how people were able to come to Krishna, to start chanting the holy names.
Similarly, we should see it as our responsibility. Now, in the field, there are so many big things happening. So many millions of cows.
What can I do? So, there are three ways. First is that if we have a lot of activism, then there are devotees who are directly working in cow protection. Now, we can contribute to that.
We can volunteer or whatever way. There are many initiatives which are there. We can even practically contribute to that way.
That’s one way we can do it. Second is, if that is not practical, we can actually elevate, we can create awareness about how cow protection is important, how cows are so beneficial, how cows are so sacred. Just by talking with others, based on our intelligence.
And thirdly, Hare Krishna. Thank you. Thank you, Hare Krishna.
So, thirdly, even just by our own practicing bhakti, we are elevating our consciousness. There is sattva guna, rajo guna, tamo guna. Bhakti is ultimately transcendental.
But even if the world comes more to goodness, just by coming to goodness, there will be a decrease of rajo guna and tamo guna. And that will help in the establishing of dharma or that will decrease the violation of dharma. So, we too can do that.
That means, if we just practice bhakti diligently, we are contributing to the solution. See, we may not be directly contributing, but just by practicing bhakti, we are contributing to the raising of the global consciousness. But if we feel strongly about it, we should find out some devotees who are working in this field actively and we can try to assist in whatever way I can.
See, we always have to see things in a way that encourages us and not discourages us. Just focus on all the things that are wrong, we can become very discouraged. But we can focus on what can I do to let things ride in a small way.
You know, if power goes off everywhere, everywhere is dark. I can just curve the darkness or I can turn on my own flashlight. So, like that, we can just focus on turning on our own flashlight.
We can do what we can in our own small way to contribute to the cause of co-creation. Thank you. Hare Krishna.