Dogs' Rights Activists are Neglecting Cows

In China animals' rights activists are vigorously campaigning to convince the Chinese people to stop eating dogs. While we appreciate their endeavors to save the dogs we wonder why they are not campaigning to save the cows also. Why should only dog eating be stopped and not cow eating? Just see how valuable the cow is. She eats grass, which we cannot digest, and transforms it into the most wonderful tasty miracle food, milk. We enjoy milk in so many varieties of ways, taking it straight or as yogurt or ice cream. How can we be so cruel to enjoy the milk of the cow and then slaughter and eat her flesh when her milk bag dries up? How barbaric we are! It's time we learn how to become civilized.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Cow at ISKCON Temple--Alachua, Florida

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: Can I Desire to Relish Krishna's Name?

Dear Gurudeva,
Please accept my obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I have some questions.

You said in a lecture: "This is an easy way to get taste. Don't try to get taste. No, try to chant so that Krishna can hear your chanting. Try to chant so Krishna will relish your chanting." But, at the same time, there are these great devotees like Srila Narottama dasa Thakura, who are longing for the taste for the holy name. And why are they writing in that way because according to the songs it seems they have the taste already?

More questions: From where comes desire to do devotional service and chant the holy name? What is needed to get that desire and to keep that desire: devotees' or spiritual master's blessings or personal effort or something else?

There are many different things described in the Srimad Bhagavatam. For example the structure of the universe, how the human-population was created, etc. Why do we need to know these things about the material world?

Your servant,
K.D.

Answer: Learn the Art of How to Relish It.

We must long for nama-ruci, taste for chanting Sri Krishna's beautiful name. But at the same time, we should know the secret of how to get nama-ruci. The secret is that we must chant in such a loving way that Krishna is very satisfied by our chanting. This is the method of how we become satisfied. We cannot be satisfied independently because Krishna is the prime enjoyer and we are the secondary enjoyers. We become pleased only when He is pleased. So we should always chant in such a way that He is pleased. In this way we will relish unlimitedly the chanting of His name.

The pure devotees write as if they have no taste for chanting Krishna's name in order to teach us what our mood should be so we can develop a taste for Krishna's name.

Just as we naturally desire to eat, deep within every jiva soul is the desire to have a loving relationship with God. And just as the clouds cover the sunshine, sometimes the cloud of material desires cover our natural tendency to love God. But if we are fortunate to come into contact with someone who is fully absorbed in love of God, by that contact we are stimulated to revive our original divine nature. And if we can maintain that contact by accepting diksha or spiritual initiation from that pure lover of God and then always obeying his instructions, we can gradually become completely liberated from the clouds of maya and be fully and permanently re-established in our constitutional glory as pure lovers of God.

The scientists are working hard to try accurately trace out the origin of the human race and the structure of the universe because people are very eager to know about these things. Sukadeva Goswami has very mercifully included these topics in the Srimad Bhagavatam to attract the people in general to read the Bhagavatam. In this way at the same time that they get their desire for this knowledge satisfied they will also learn how to get out of this material world by surrendering at the lotus feet of Lord Sri Krishna.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari