Why does Krishna love cows when whatever qualities they have are simply given to them by nature?

From: Jugal

Why is krishna called the benefector of the cows when cow is just one of the specie and whatever speciality it has is already inherent in them due to being in that particular specie? I mean to say that if krishna loves the brahmanas then it is understood because the brahmanas have reached that stage due to their austerity and penance but cows didnt do any of these things, the qualities which cows have is already given by nature to them, then why krishna is inclind towards them? Please clarify. Thank you.

Transcript

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Jugal Prabhu, why does Krishna love cows? Why is Krishna called the benefactor of the cows when cow is just one of the species and whatever speciality it has is already inherent in them due to being in that particular species.
I mean to say that if Krishna loves the Brahmanas, then it is understood because the Brahmanas have reached that stage due to their austerity and penance. But cows didn’t do any of these things. The qualities which cows have is already given by nature to them.
Then why is Krishna inclined towards them? Answer, the material world is a reflection of the spiritual world. And in that sense, whatever we see in the material world is having its original pure manifestation in the spiritual world. So, what this implies is that when we see the cows in this world, from the material perspective, the cows are just one of the 8.4 million species.
And the souls who are in those cow species are no different from the other souls that are there in various species. So, that is perfectly fine. But at the same time, there is also another deeper understanding over here that actually not all bodies are just limited to being products of past karma.
Yes, certainly the soul gets a particular body by being a product of past karma. But there are different bodies, by bodies I mean species, which have different levels of connectedness with Krishna, because of which they have different significances. So, the first thing we need to understand is Krishna is a person and as a person he has his own preferences.
And one of his preferences is that he loves cows. So, just as Krishna chooses a peacock feather, just as Krishna chooses a flute, he could choose any other instrument, he could use any other adornment. But Krishna as a person chooses certain things.
And those choices are a manifestation of his individuality, his personality. Similarly, although Krishna loves all living beings in the spiritual world, he especially loves cows. And that love for the cows is a manifestation of his individuality, his personality.
So, once we understand this point, in the spiritual world Krishna has special affection for the cows. So, once that is understood, the next point that we understand is that yes, although from the material perspective those souls who get birth in the cow bodies, you could say the cow body is just another body like all other bodies, but we could use the same analysis to say that those people who are born in the dhams, say in human bodies, they are just like other people who are born in the dham, they also have human bodies, but they are just like other people who are born in other places. No, they are not.
Because the very fact that they are born in the dham indicates that there is some special devotional karma that they have done by which they have got birth in the dhams. Similarly, the souls who are born in the cow species, they are not just souls who are ordinarily in the upward cycle of evolution got into the cow body. The cow body manifests certain qualities originally in the spiritual world which are dear to Krishna.
And in this material world, when Krishna appears, the cows of this world remind him of the cows of the spiritual world. So, those cows are his eternal associates. The cows of this world may not be his eternal associates.
But that is not the important point here. The important point here is that whatever gives pleasure to Krishna, whatever gives joy to his heart is important for the devotee. So, for Krishna, the cows of this world remind him of the cows of the spiritual world.
And that’s why the cows are dear to him. So, now, of course, when Krishna was himself present in this world, at that time the cows that were present were his very intimate associates. So, they were his eternal associates.
But even other times, the cows that are there over here, they are considered special because of two reasons. First is that because it is not that these cows have certain qualities that make them dear to Krishna. It is that in the spiritual world, Krishna as a person chooses to love cows.
And as a person, he has arranged for cows to have certain qualities. And some of those qualities of the cows in the spiritual world are manifested in the material world, in the cow species. Why some? Because the cows in the spiritual world can give unlimited milk.
The cows in the material world cannot. But still some of the qualities are manifested. So, in that sense, the cows help us to remember Krishna.
And the cows are dear to Krishna because they also remind him of his eternal associates, the cows in the spiritual world. So, at the same time, the attraction to cows is not merely sentimental. There is also an understanding that the cows are not particularly advanced in intelligence.
So, that’s why sometimes it is described that in the Bhagavatam, that one who does not understand the essence of various rituals is like a cow or a donkey. So, normally you would consider a cow sacred. But the Vedic perspective also acknowledges the material perspective.
So, from the material perspective, the soul who is in a cow’s body, because the cow’s body is one of the animal bodies, so it is unaware of the deeper philosophical import of things. And that’s why that cow’s body is compared to a donkey’s body. And they said that both these animals are ignorant and a human being who just performs various rituals without understanding their purpose is also an ignorance.
So, the Vedic perspective recognizes, Vedic scriptures recognize the material perspective that the cows are one of the lower species, lower than the human species. But at the same time, because the cows remind Krishna of his eternal associate cows, because they reflect some of the qualities of his eternal associate cows, and because the cows remind us of Krishna, that’s why we cherish cows. And Krishna is called Gopal because in the spiritual world, by his free will, he has chosen to love cows.
And in the material world, the cows have certain similarities to those eternal associates, the cows of Krishna. And that’s why the cows are dear to him. Thank you.