1. COW
OR
MOTHER?
DR.
SHRINIWAS
KASHALIKAR

2. Once; someone ridiculed the idea of consuming cow urine;
as a therapeutic agent.
I had not studied Ayurveda in those days and was not sure
whether the cow products such as ghee, curd, milk, urine
and dung, of cow are really beneficial for health and if so
in what way and how. So I argued that it was not fair to
ridicule the ideas without proper study and research,
merely on the basis of some unfounded prejudices and
delusions. Cow and many other animal products can be
useful medicinally.
Having said that; it must be realized; that mere utilitarian
view point can be counter productive. It is important to
acquire and practice holistic perspective and holistic
rectification of our concepts and our actions in every field,
which is possible only through the individual and global
blossoming, through NAMASMARAN i.e. remembering
your true self. (You can get more explanation about
NAMASMARAN in my articles and books).
Presently we are being governed by superficiality,
pettiness, dullness, lassitude, parasitism, ethnocentricity,

3. individualistic obsessions, and many perverted elements
(which we justify and feel proud of) at the cost of other
living and nonliving elements in the nature, hence we
come across such statements.
At that time I was not in retaliatory mood, so I did not
point out that every person who consumes meat in one
form or another actually consumes dead bodies of animals
(can be called some kind of necrophagia) and also
consumes the urine and the dung of that animal (can be
called some kind of urophagia and coprophagia)!
Even as we uphold the principle of nonviolence we are
slaves of our cruel obsession to keep on practicing not
merely violence per se, but viciously perverted violence in
killing and eating dead animals and glorifying and
glamorizing it as if it is the ultimate pleasure in life! The
shameless hype of all this leads to perpetuation of the
perversion into the next generations far and wide in the
world!

4. I do not want to blame any one but only to appeal to find
out if we are in inner harmony through all this or we are
simply delirious!
Such introspection is possible through universally
acceptable and practical process of NAMASMARAN!
NAMASMARAN is like a process of oxygenation of the
dying organism! We urgently need it!
Through such introspection what I have realized is, eating
animals is a matter of slavery to one’s own cravings,
which are aggravated by media hype, promotion,
glamorization, glorification of such slavish trends; upheld
by many slaves in the positions of leadership (political,
economic, cultural, scientific etc.)!
I have begun to understand that:
1. Considering cow as a mother is far more evolved and
cultured than killing and eating her.
2. Considering rivers as mothers is far more evolved and
cultured than simply treating them as utility of life.

5. 3. Treating plants as goddesses such as holy basil i.e.
ocimum sanctum and ceremoniously worshipping them,
is far more evolved and cultured than treating it is as a
living element low in the scale of evolution.
4. This applies to the earth also. Considering earth as
mother viz. DHARANI MATA is far more evolved and
cultured than treating it as obvious element on which
we live!
5. In short, it is a far more advanced culture, in which the
nature around is worshipped with festive spirit and
never exploited.
6. The cruelty, exploitativeness, ungratefulness are (even
if they are glamorized, glorified, hyped and promoted as
superior) counterproductive and cast detrimental
influence on others; thus throttling, suffocating and
thwarting the blossoming process of individuals and
universe!