Why We Kill Cows ?

" Swami Krishna Ashram,a Hindu Monk of the Dandii Swami order is on a fast unto death to stop cow-slaughter in Haryana-Punjab and in India.He sits under a banyan tree on the island inside the Brahmasarovar in Kurukshetra,Haryana.His fast started on 29th September.

I met him one day at our Upanishad sitting held on Sundays and was impressed with his simplicity,experiential learning as a Sannyasin,his ideas of perennial Indian values of individual life and society.He speaks a chaste,direct and sweet Haryanvi language casually chanting from memory Sanskrit verses from the Gita and other scriptures along with words of Kabir and Nanak etc.He quotes Guru Gobind Singh who took up cudgels against cow slaughter.

His argument is well-founded.He has evidence to show that even during the Moghul days,the rules had passed orders prohibiting cow-slaughter and imposing death penalty on the defaulter.But he sadly adds that after even the country has been independent,the country is earning revenue from the slaughter houses from which beef is exported to other countries !

He sites the case of the butchery at Derabassi just near Chandigarh falling in Punjab territory where the crime goes unabated since decades.

He has with him literature to prove the contribution of cows to human and social health and the ill effects of beef-eating.

His own book on Yoga named Haryanvi Yoga as it is in Haryanvi language is straight and illuminating.One is reminded of the work Vichaarasaagar by Sant Nischal Das of Haryana who also was a Vedantic Sannyasin of high order.

I am deeply hurt and unhappy when a Sannyasin is on fast without water in Dharmakshetra and I have to swallow my food routinely.I try to pay a visit to him at least once a day on these fast days to feel a little comfortable as he is doing a tapas to awaken the public and the government against a crime that no religion would accept.

If we have to save the soul of India we have to save her ethos ! The body without soul is death of a culture as we nourish the body and neglect the soul !

Will God or someone as his deputy see to it that something positive should emerge out of this selfless penance of a man and monk ? "

Long Live Hindi !

On September 14 we have again celebrated the Hindi Divas and repeated our resolve to protect, preserve and promote good and standard Hindi,prevent her from deterioration and so on.People as usual tried to put blame on the system,academia,globalization,print & electronic media,growing misplaced popularity of English and many other aspects.

This is common experience that all over India and abroad Hindi as used in her multiple shades,does serve as a linkage between the people of Indian origin.People have taken to English for a purpose but certainly not forgotten their roots.

But how to prevent Hindi and also many other Indian languages spelled in the constitution is a thousand crores question.To me this is due to our growing obliviousness of the cardinal role played by Samskrit for ages ! She has been the mother and nourisher,she used to recreate,recast,reinvent,support and substantiate like a mega river system doing to it's branches spread in different directions assuming divergent natures and roles.

We have paid lip service to Sanskrit,we have been no less cruel to her than the invader and foreign rulers.No other language can ever match her potentials as the only scientific language on earth ! She still lives but under strained circumstances,but her soul has not eroded,her voice is free from signs of corruption ! She beckons us in the face and at the back.If we show the care she deserves,she can ensure longevity and quality to the daughter languages,cultural moorings and values which are so essential to humanity !

There is no antipathy between Hindi and Sanskrit.Hindi is our national official language,horizontally she makes us meet and speak heart to heart.Let Sanskrit connect us to the best ever in human knowledge and existence,that soulful living : sarvabhuutahite rataa.h !

By Samskrit coming to occupy a greater position in our society and lives,we shall know that we are a race of millenniums old,we shall be infinitely wise,we shall be spiritually united as we shall recognize that the rest of the world is organically related to us !