"The Lord said, 'You drink cows’ milk; therefore the cow is your mother. And the bull produces grains for your maintenance; therefore he is your father.' "
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 17.153)
"Our Vedic scriptures are not ordinary lawbooks of human common sense; they are the statements of factually liberated persons unaffected by the imperfectness of the senses.
Śāstra must be correct always, not sometimes correct and sometimes incorrect. In the Vedic scriptures, the cow is described as a mother. Therefore she is a mother for all time; it is not, as some rascals say, that in the Vedic age she was a mother but she is not in this age. If śāstra is an authority, the cow is a mother always; she was a mother in the Vedic age, and she is a mother in this age also."
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 17.157, Purport)
"In the Vedic scriptures there are concessions for meat-eaters. It is said that if one wants to eat meat, he should kill a goat before the goddess Kālī and then eat its meat. Meat-eaters are not allowed to purchase meat or flesh from a market or slaughterhouse. There are no sanctions for maintaining regular slaughterhouses to satisfy the tongues of meat-eaters. As far as cow-killing is concerned, it is completely forbidden. Since the cow is considered a mother, how could the Vedas allow cow-killing?"
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi 17.159, Purport)
"The cow is the most important animal for developing the human body to perfection. The body can be maintained by any kind of foodstuff, but cow's milk is particularly essential for developing the finer tissues of the human brain so that one can understand the intricacies of transcendental knowledge. A civilized man is expected to live on foodstuffs comprising fruits, vegetables, grains, sugar and milk. The bull helps in the agricultural process of producing grain, etc., and thus in one sense the bull is the father of humankind, whereas the cow is the mother, for she supplies milk to human society. A civilized man is therefore expected to give all protection to the bulls and cows."
(Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.5.7, Purport)
Prabhupāda: In the creation of Kṛṣṇa, there cannot be any scarcity. Everything is sufficiently there. Pūrṇam: it is complete, perfectly made, either this planet, that planet. Everywhere the living entities are there, and Kṛṣṇa has made provision for every one of them. There is no question of scarcity. But people are not obeying the orders of Kṛṣṇa or the authorities, that "You produce..." Annād bhavanti bhūtāni (BG 3.14). Even in Bible it is said, "Thou shall not kill." They are not producing food grains, and they are killing the animals and eating.
How they will be happy? It is not possible. Most sinful activities. You produce your food. The bull will help you, and the cows will supply you milk. They are considered to be father and mother. Just like father earns money for feeding the children, similarly, the bulls help producing, plowing, producing food grain, and the cow gives milk, mother. And what is this civilization, killing father and mother? This is not good civilization. It will not stay. There will be catastrophe waiting. Many times it has happened, and it will happen, because transgressing the law of nature, or laws of God, is most sinful. That is sinful. Just like you become criminal by transgressing the law of state, similarly, when you transgress the law of God, then you are sinful.
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Geneva, June 6, 1974)
Prabhupāda: By nature, there is arrangement, foodstuff. The cows, the other animals, they are eating grass. There is profuse growth of grass. So they are not eating your nice foodstuff, sandeśa, rasagullā. You are making sandeśa, rasagullā from the milk which they deliver. They are eating grass and delivering you nice foodstuff, milk. And from the milk, you can make hundreds and thousands of nice, nutritious, full of vitamin foodstuff. But no. We are so fool that instead of utilizing the milk, we are utilizing the blood. You see?
These rascals, the scientists, they do not know that milk is nothing but transformation of the blood. That everyone knows. So if you want to... That is nature's way, by God's will, that a cow gives forty pounds, fifty pounds milk daily, but it does not drink. Although it is her milk, no, it gives you, human society: "You take. But don't kill me. Let me live. I am eating only grass." Just see. And the civilized men killing them. Killing them. And they want peace. Just see the fun. Without touching your foodstuff, the cow is eating the grass which is given by God, immense grass, and they are giving you the finest foodstuff, milk. Just after your birth you have only to drink milk, either mother's milk... Nowadays, mothers do not supply milk. That is also to be supplied by the cow.
So from the very beginning of my life I am subsisting by the foodstuff given by mother, cow, and when I am grown up, I kill. This is my gratitude. Just see. And they are called civilized. Less than lowest animal, narādhama. They are called narādhama, lowest of the mankind. Those who are killing cows, maintaining slaughterhouse, they are lowest of the mankind. They are not human being. Less than animal. They have no gratitude.
So the idea is that there is no food problem. As the mother earth said to King Pṛthu that "I am restricting," so the more you become sinful, the food supply will be stopped. This is the law of nature. At the end there will be no food grains, at the end of Kali-yuga. That is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. There will be no food grain, no fruits, no milk, no sugar. You have to live on flesh and blood. At that time, being hungry, you will kill your own children and eat flesh and blood. That day is waiting. So this is the civilization. Most heinous civilization. It can only be saved by spreading this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Otherwise there is no way. So sinful civilization.
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Los Angeles, September 19, 1972)
Prabhupāda: Why there should be slaughterhouse maintained? As you are one of the leading citizens of Paris, we appeal to you to take up this consideration seriously. Why we should maintain slaughterhouse? If we want to eat the flesh, let us wait till the death. And there will be death. There is no doubt about it. So why they should maintain slaughterhouse? And this is most cruelty. A animal which is giving milk, so important foodstuff, and that is being killed, it does not suit any moral sense of any human being. On the contrary, according to Vedic system, there are seven mothers. And cow is accepted one of them. Because she gives milk, and we take her milk, therefore she's our mother. So this is our philosophy.
Now, this is our proposal, that why you should kill cow? Cow may be protected to take milk, and use this milk for so many nice preparations. Then, so far meat-eating is concerned, so every cow will die. It is a fact. So you wait a few days only. There will be so many dead cows. So you take all the dead cows and eat. So where is the bad proposal? If you say that "You are restraining us from meat-eating," no, we don't restrain you. We simply request you that "Don't kill. When the cow is dead, you eat it."
(Srila Prabhupada Room Conversation, Paris, June 11, 1974)
"According to Indian way of thought, every one is advised to do good to others namely not only to the human society but also to living beings other than human being. The Indians are not cow worshippers as others wrongly interpret it, but the Indians are gratitudeful to the species of cow for supplying milk to the human babies and the sentiment is so fine that simply for supplying milk the cow is accepted as one of the seven mothers. That is called Indian cultural mission. We should learn to look upon every living being as our own brother and treat him in that love."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, August 2, 1958)
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