Few Fast facts on Ban on Cow slaughter

Map of Indian States which Ban Cow Slaughter

• Article 48 makes ban on cow slaughter one of Directive Principles of Indian Constitution adopted under Nehruvian Congress.
• Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), an over 150-year-old law. Of J&K-Under section 298A of the RPC, intentionally killing or slaughtering a cow or like animal (including ox and buffalo) is a cognizable, non-bailable offence punishable with 10 years imprisonment and fine.
• Likewise, under section 298B of RPC, possessing the flesh such an animal is a cognizable, non-bailable offence punishable with imprisonment of one year and fine. It is noteworthy that the RPC was enacted in 1862 by the then Dogra Maharaja of the state and is still Law.
• Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh Empire and Maharaja from 1801 to 1839, banned cow slaughter throughout his domains.
• Cow slaughter and beef eating habits started in India with the arrival of Islam but Arab countries never ate beef as there were no cows there then.
• The Mughal emperor Babar ruled in 1526 that killing cows was forbidden.
• Later Mughal emperors Akbar (reign: 1556 – 1605), Jahangir (1605 – 1627), and Ahmad Shah (1748 – 1754) imposed selective restricted bans on cow slaughter.
• The last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar banned Cow slaughter totally in 1857 .
• It was Tyrant Aurangzeb who allowed Cow slaughter who wished to convert India into a Muslim country and then Britishers propagated it.
• Cow and Calf meat export is totally banned in India as in “Beef export”
• And stop equating Cow meat as your right to eat any meat and if you still insist then start with dogs.
• And with all that stupid argument of evidence of meat eaters in Vedas , I will write another article on that ,, but that meat did not definitely mean Cow meat.
• Last but not Least Cow Rearing and worship is not only associated with Sanatan Way of life but also to Rural Economy and well being of Locals .

Can We answer this Question?

Jesus and first Christians were vegetarians and friends of animals

Moris Hoblaj, Theology and Sociology graduate, writer of critical articles about church.

Jesus and first Christians were vegetarians and friends of animals

Moris Hoblaj was born in Štrukovec near Čakovec in Croatia. He went to high school in Zagreb and studied philosophy, theology and sociology in Zagreb and München. Today he lives near Würzburg and is engaged in production of vegetarian food. In his free time he writes critical articles about church. He left the Church as theologian – teacher of religious studies because he believes that the Catholic Church with its hierarchic absolutistic arrangement and rigid dogmatic teaching is not even close to the message of Jesus of Nazareth. He says that the Bible clearly shows that Jesus of Nazareth was a democrat and a pacifist and that the religious caste of that time prosecuted him with the help of the authorities because of his teaching and at the end crucified him. Moris says: „I think the same thing would happen today if Jesus of Nazareth would come to Vatican and asked for what is written in the Bible – to respect only one Holy Father or for people to stop slaughtering and eating animals.“

Does God’s commandment „Do not kill!“ refer only to people or also to animals? It is difficult to picture Jesus telling people that slaughtering and torturing animals is alright!

God is perfect and when he says „Do not kill!“, he means everything that lives and feels. This commandment includes every living creature, both people and animals, and in broader sense even plants. God let us know through His prophets that He does not want us to kill the animals. Prophet Isaiah wrote: „Killing an ox is the same as killing a person.“ It is interesting that the Catholic Church does not respect this part of the Bible, has nothing against killing animals and does not support vegetarians. In the Middle Ages, at the time of inquisition, Catholic Church was even prosecuting and killing the members of all religious communities, where vegetarianism was a part of religious belief, such as Manicheans, Cathars, Bogumils and several others. It is known that members of these communities were against torturing and killing animals for food out of their belief and respect for animals.

The Catholic Church should therefore fight for the rights of animals. Why is this not so?

The reason seems to be that the self called followers of Jesus Christ with different mitres and tiaras, Holy Fathers, Excellencies, Cardinals and Bishops preferred power over people and animals to the succession of Jesus Christ, who was a pacifist and loved animals. Almost every Christian Institution betrays Jesus Christ and His teaching with its attitude to animals and definitions of animals. This is stated also in authentic historic documents that confirm that Jesus of Nazareth and first Christians were vegetarians and friends of animals. The Bible includes the words of Jesus:„Whatever you do to one of the living beings, you do it to Me.“ Jesus was not a hunter as many of His self called followers, who are proud that they were or are passionate hunters, which are murderers of the animals, such as Cardinal Franc Rode.

Why does the Church have such underestimating attitude to animals and people with different views?
This is a wide-ranging issue which reaches the core of state Catholicism in history as well as today. Today it is no secret that the bloody history of the Church is founded on the so called theological doctrines, such as doctrine about a fair war, existence of eternal curse, non-existence of soul before birth in the case of humans as well as animals. Just by reading the Bible anyone can be sure that the prophets and Jesus of Nazareth loved animals, while religious castes and their followers did not or loved just their dead bodies. They used dead bodies of the animals in pagan ritual worshiping of God, such as blessing of meat at Easter or Hubert’s masses.

In order to hide from the followers the non-acceptance of the prophets and Jesus of Nazareth, instead of prophetic divine declarations the clergy created its own absolutistic and forced dogmatic theology, which is far from divine.

You are asking, why the Church underestimates animals? It is known from prophetic essays that animals are constantly connected to their Creator, that they are constantly worshiping Him and that He immensely loves them. This may be the reason for its underestimating attitude to animals. Church theology convinced people that animals have no soul and thus people learned to have materialistic attitude to animals. To people animals became merely soulless dead objects that can only be used for food and clothes and towards which theology allows any possible brutality, such as laboratory tests. Although people, especially politicians, should know from the Bible that religious caste caused Jesus of Nazareth a great deal of problems, prosecuted him, slandered him and at the end crucified him because of his teaching that God and people do not need clergy, these religious people and politicians remain faithful, throughout the history and today, to the clergy, who according to facts manipulates them from religious as well as from political and economical point of view. It is true that today the Church cannot kill people, who oppose it, or burn them at the stake, but it can discriminate and slander them and together with its political vassals and different insulting and dangerous concepts, such as sect or sectarian, makes them look bad in public.

It is obvious that parts about Jesus’ love for animals were deleted from the Bible. When and why?
In all religions power and money always play the key role. Historical facts tell us that in year 313 Constantine’s edict replaced religious leaders, who were the carriers of prophetic words, with managers of material properties of the first Christians – deacons, elders and Bishops, who made a pact with Constantine. With his help they became leaders of a privileged religion and formulators of state authority. For these favors the Emperor Constantine requested counter favors of the new state religion, which he also got. Thus, in comparison to the first Christians, who were not soldiers and were against war, the state church, later Catholic Church, promised to Emperor its support in recruiting soldiers. It promised the Emperor support in warfare and to fight against everything that the Emperor would not approve of, among other things also against other religious movements. This newly based state religion also needed a certain authorized Holy Book, the Bible, in which the Christians would have to believe and which would bring power to clergy over everything and everybody as well as wealth and luxury.

Many experts and theologians are of the opinion that a lot of today’s Biblical Essays were manipulated at the very beginning of their formation, as also tell us authentic historical records and authors or translators – formulators of today’s Bible.

Can you state an example of forgery of God’s word?
One example is St. Hieronimus who was given a task by Pope Damasus to formulate and translate a unique work. This work is today named the Vulgate or the Bible. Hieronimus wrote to the Pope: „…I have several different translations of which I have to make one uniform work, which is impossible, therefore I have to formulate something completely new and that will probably make me a forger of holy essays.“ Hieronimus had to formulate the Bible in accordance to the teaching of the state church, which means he could not include some basic truths of the written teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, which was known at that time. These truths were especially essays of reincarnation, nonexistence of eternal curse, truth about the animals in relation to Jesus’ love for them. All this was not allowed to be included in the Bible, which today many Christians think is the authentic God’s word, so that there could exist a privileged state religion that has nothing in common with the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, except for His name, with which the Church manipulates religious people.

Where can be found more about Jesus’ vegetarian life and His living in harmony with animals?
First, there are apocrypha from the time of the first Christians. These are not part of Biblical texts. Then there are many Roman state documents from the time of the first Christians and Christian movements that talk about the prosecution of these movements because they followed the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth and vegetarianism as one of the main truths. These are foremost essays of Manicheans, Cathars, Bogumils or the essays of the Grand Christians in Universal Life. In one of the most recent leaflets Great Gabriella’s letter No 4 it is stated that the great Church Father Hieronimus (331–420 A.D.) wrote about vegetarianism in one of his essays the following: „Until the Flood, consumption of animal meat was unknown. From the Flood on our mouths are full of fibers and smelly juices of animal meat… Jesus Christ, who came when the time was right, made ends meet again and now consumption of animal meat is not allowed anymore“.
The Apostle Paul wrote in his official letter to Romans: „We know that all beings breathe and suffer together. Beings await in fear for people to recognize themselves as God’s children, as all beings shall once be freed from the slavery of circle of mortality into the ultimate freedom of God’s children“.
John the Goldenmouth (354–457 A.D.) describes life of a certain group of Christians of that time: „They do not shed blood, slaughter and cut meat… There is no horrible smell of meat… no raging and terrible uproar. They only eat bread they earn with their work and drink spring water. When they wish for a luxury meal they eat fruits and enjoy more than at King’s table“. I know a lot of historical researches about life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, but the most authentic and comprehensive is the book This is My Word. Alpha and Omega. The Gospel of Jesus. A Christ-Revelation which the world does not know., in which He, who walked this Earth as Jesus Christ, explains in details about what really happened at the time of His life.

In one of the newspapers there was an interview with former Slovenian Archbishop, Cardinal Franc Rode, in which he said that he was once a passionate hunter, but the new hunting law does not allow him to shoot wild animals as much as before. How do you comment his statement?
This surely is not something Jesus Christ would approve of. Those, who on vile impulse treat animal like this, kill them with a gun, slaughter and at the end eat them, as Archbishop said in the interview, are well described in the statement of the first president of the Federal Republic of Germany, Theodor Heuss (1884–1963): „Hunting is a definition of a very cowardly murder of a helpless being. Hunting is a parallel form of a mental illness“. Jesus of Nazareth, in whose name Franc Rode thinks is acting, did not teach nor do so. He was a pacifist and loved animals. Unfortunately, the hunting of Franc Rode is not the only wickedness toward animals in connection to torturing and killing animals that has full support of the Church. There are also the so called Hubert’s masses. These are offered by his college Bishops and priests in front of dead bodies of animals that are blessed at the end of the mass.

Tolstoy said: „As long as there are slaughter houses there will be wars!“ Is the Catholic Church, which abuses the fifth commandment, also responsible for violence and wars all over the world?
Even the late Pope John Paul II obviously did not doubt it, otherwise he would not ask for forgiveness of the victims, who were killed by suns and daughters of his organization. Many historians and free-thinking people are of the opinion that the Catholic Church carries a great deal of responsibility for wars that happened in the last 1700 years because it was ethically-moral institution of the authority or it was the authority itself, which means that it was actively deciding for wars. It is a historical fact that churches, which claim to be the followers of Jesus of Nazareth, from the time of their establishment in year 313, have caused only suffering, problems and deaths to people as well as to animals and nature. Just think about the Crusades, the Middle Ages, burning of witches at the stake, massacre of Catholic Croatians over Orthodox Serbs in a period 1941–1943 in Yugoslavia – former Pope asked for forgiveness for this crime in Banja Luka.
It is almost impossible to believe that an organization, such as the Catholic Church, has been killing, prosecuting and, as at the time of inquisition, slaughtering people and animals for almost two thousand years, without people being able to fight against it, and all this in the name of Prince of peace, Jesus Christ.

Resource: Magazine Liberation of animals, April 2004,
Edited by The Society for the Rights and the Liberation of Animals,
Slovenia, info@osvoboditev-zivali.org , www.osvoboditev-zivali.org
Damjan Likar

What Are You Doing for Cow Protection?

By HH Sivarama Swami

Krsi goraksya vanijya. Krsi means ploughing or agriculture and goraksya, cow protection. These are the staples of society, this is what people live on. All living entities subsist on grains. So the ksatriyas may direct and instruct people, the brahmanas may perform their yajnas, but if they don’t eat then giving shelter or instruction is not going to work.

That eating is therefore the most essential aspect of life and this is why the vaisyas and their assistants, the sudras, are so integral that the other castes think that they are the most important people, because it is actually they who are feeding. Of course the vaisyas think that the brahmanas are the most important because they are taking the result of their work and offering it back to the Lord.

Srila Prabhupada said that this very common type of exchange was there but the responsibility of this goraksya, is it the duty of just some people? Some very very exclusive people? Is it the responsibility of all vaisyas, or is it for all grhastas or all devotees?

My proposition is that it is everyone’s responsibility. Just like everyone’s responsibility is chanting Hare Krishna, watering Tulasi devi, reading Bhagavatam. Similarly part of our common dharma is to protect cows. This is something that you see ingrained in communities like Bhaktivedanta Manor, where they have to limit the amount of cows they receive as gifts, and be very careful about the type of food that is offered to the cows, because to a greater or lesser degree all the devotees see the protection of cows as their dharma.

It is everyone’s dharma: the cow is our mother, she gives us milk while all over the rest of the world cows are being butchered, slaughtered, abused, and taken advantage of. Vaisnavas must take it as their responsibility to protect cows. Now, how do you protect cows? Does that mean that you have a cow on your balcony in downtown Singapore? No, that type of cow protection is actually cow abuse. You cannot just keep your own cow.

Cows only give milk if they have calves, which means you have to constantly have calves, which means you have to have a herd, and that is a full time business. So how is it that individuals should protect cows? They should in some way or another be connected to ISKCON’s herds. Srila Prabhupada established cow protection for instance in New Vrindavan, Gita Nagari, or as we have done here in Hungary at New Vraja-dhama. These herds are not the sole responsibility or duty of the local devotees in those places, they are the responsibility of the devotees and congregation of the local country. It is their responsibility to contribute to the cow protection, to donate towards the maintenance of the cow, to come and do some cow seva, and when they come to the temple they should bring some bhoga for the cows, to find out what items are needed by the cowherds. And the cow herds.

Cow protection is everyone’s business, it is everyone’s responsibility. This is being written down as varnasrama dharma. If one does not contribute or participate directly in cow protection then he should know that he is neglecting his dharma, he is neglecting his dharma. In other words he is adharmic.

This is in my view the greater picture of what varnasrama means. Varnasrama doesn’t mean that we simply philosophise about a way of life, but what are the duties of varnas and asramas, what are the duties that are common for all Vaisnavas, for all humans. And one of them is the protection of cows, just like chanting Hare Krsna is a common responsibility as mentioned earlier.

So, similairly, cow protection is a common responsibility for everyone. It doesn’t necessarily always occur to us, and even when it does, it’s difficult to get devotees interested. More difficult than getting devotees to do sankirtan, more difficult than getting someone to cook in the kitchen or be temple president, is to get devotees to be cowherds. To make devotees work with the cows, bulls, and oxen and to make that their life, it is very difficult for devotees to do this. “I am an educated person, I have this diploma and you want me to take care of cows? You want me to do that thing that God does? You want me to do that activity that is going on in the spiritual world?”

And that is what is going on the spiritual world. That is what is going on where we are going–at least where I want to go is where there is only gopas and gopis. The whole social identity is based on go, on cows. There are milkmaids and there are cowherd men. And if we are not willing to be milkmaids and cowherd men here in the material world, if this service is beyond us and we cannot forsee how we are going to dedicate our lives to working with the cows, then were are we going? Then you had better look for somewhere other than Braja. Then you had better go to Dwaraka or Vaikuntha, where that is not a compulsory, integral part of life.

Because in the spiritual world, in Goloka Vrindavan, Krishna goes out every day to tend cows. And yet it is so difficult to get devotees to be cowherders, to see that this is a respectable future, and to stick with that service. Because once again, cow protection is something that we talk about as being against the principles of slaughtering the animals. We don’t believe in slaughtering the cow, we don’t believe in eating the meat of the cow, cows should be properly protected. But, when it comes to properly protecting the cows, are we willing to do it? Are we actually willing to dedicate our lives to taking care of cows? Or are we willing to participate and support the protection of cows?

Therefore, we should ask: “What am I doing for protecting my mother? What am I doing to sustain cow protection in my zone? It is my responsibility, my duty as a Vaisnava. Am I performing my dharmic duty?”

Stop Slaughter of Holy Cow on Bakri-Eid in the Name of Religion

Article submitted by Sree Mahesh Agarwal, President A.P.Goushalala Federation
Cow is highly sacred animals to Indians. They worship cow along with other God Goddess equally. But to violate the religious feelings of Hindus a large number of Cows & Calves are being slaughtered on Bakri-Eid by Muslim community. No religious provision is there in “Islam” or “Quaran” regarding the slaughter of Cows on Bakri-Eid. The plea is categorically rejected by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in a case of state of West Bengal v/s. Ashutosh Lahiri and others. In this case one another case was also quoted M. H. Qureshi & others in the state of Bihar, (A.I.R. 1958 Sec. 731) in which the Hon’ble Court has clearly ruled that slaughter of Cows on Bakri -Eid day cannot be considered to be a part of essential religious practice and that is the reason why protection of Article 25 is not available for enabling slaughtering of cows on Bakri-Eid day.

Even though it is not so essential for Muslims sacrificing Cows, they are being slaughtered on Bakri-Eid day only with a view to damage the sensitive religious feelings of Hindus. Not only a Bakri-Eid but also on other days also large number of Cows and calves are being slaughtered while violating the (i) A.P. Prohibition of Cow Slaughter and Animal Preservation Act, 1977 (ii) PCA Act 1960, (iii) A.P. Motor Vehicle Rules.

At the time of slaughtering the Cows no animal slaughter rules were followed. They were slaughtered in a mob at a time and on same place though they are animals. They also feel pain, stress, heat cold, thirst, hunger.

Animal Welfare Organization in A.P. was working hard for the strict implementation of the above mentioned Act. Members of various Animal Welfare Organisation were helping the police department by providing information about the illegal transportation and slaughter of Cows.

Unfortunately, nobody came forward to complaint regarding the illegal slaughtering of Cow. If any one complained to any concerned authorities, the authorities were not taking any action and said that they will face religious problems from the Muslims and majority of these officials have no knowledge of PCA Act 1960 & their responsibilities.

Except taking temporary preventive actions on Bakri-Eid, slaughtering of Cows is not successfully resisted, but so many other problems are arising.

Now it is suggested to take hard preventive actions at least 15 days before the Bakri- Eid. Then no religious problems will arise and law and order may not be damaged. In this connection Director General of Police, District Collectors, Secretary, Road Transport Authority, Director Animal Husbandry were contacted but of no use.

Director General of Police issued a circular asking all the police station to form teams for stopping of cow slaughter but not a single case has been booked in this regard since the issue of circular.

Not only on Bakri-Eid in regular days also there are thousands of cow slaughter in and around Hyderabad.

We are of strong opinion that nearly 25000 cows will be slaughtered only on Bakri-Eid in Hyderabad itself.

If the concerned authorities implement the preventive measures at least 15 days before the Bakri-Eid, slaughtering of cow can be prevented peacefully and successfully. Animals markets shall be made close down for 15 days up to Bakri -Eid.

If anybody finds anybody slaughtering cow or its progeny they can contact Mr. Mahesh Agarwal, President A.P.Goshala Federation on 9394005600 or mail him on police4animals@gmail.com