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Reverence for the cow
Namaste.
I have been asked many times why we Hindus consider the cow
to be sacred. I can patch together reasons/instances like:
* Cow, being GOMAATA, is one of the five mothers every person
has, the other four being:
(i) DEHAMAATA (physical mother),
(ii) VEDAMAATA (vedas),
(iii) DESAMAATA (country or motherland) and
(iv) JAGANMAATA (The Divine Mother) - this last one I'm unsure...
* Cow gives milk which sustains the family - a motherly role.
* Actions of a cow are peaceful and/or benifical, e.g,
it is vegetarian, does manual labour in farms , provides
fuel in the form of dung...and so on.
But I am unable to answer questions like - A goat also gives
milk - so why is a cow alone special?
If someones knows the origin and significance of this custom,
please enlighten us. Thankyou.
--
Srikrishna
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Srikrishna Darbha
Univ. of Waterloo
Ontario, CANADA
