Gomata, Kamadhenu by Rekha Om

My infinite salutations at your divine lotus feet Swamiji 🌺💐 Immense gratitude for everything 🙏🌹

There are lot of mythological stories about Kamadhenu and how it fullfills the wishes of it’s owner, a divine bovine-goddess, the mother of all cows. It is also believed that all the God’s reside in it.

In Hinduism, cows are revered as the earthly embodiment of the Kamadhenu. So we worship it.

Since the last lockdown I am staying in my native place, a remote village in western ghats of India. It is very near to ‘Agumbe’ which is also called “Cherrapungi of South” with highest rainfall. So we can easily visualise the greenery and the biodiversity it has.

With so much greenery around we think cows get plenty to graze. Which was true some decades ago, every morning, cows were untethered after milking, they go to nearby forest, graze the grass throughout day and return to it’s shed in the evening. Again it is leashed and it is milked.

Now due to deforestation, and due people putting fences around their field, it is almost impossible to for it to find grazing area. Even worst, if cows crossover anyone’s fence, then the dogs are unleashed on them and cows are bitten badly.

So most of the people have started to tether it. Rope will not be more than a meter length, whole life it’s movement is restricted to standing, sitting and sleeping. Can anything be inhuman than this? Not yet..

When it went on its own for grass grazing, everything was natural, including the breeding. Now that they are tied to rope all the time, there is no natural breeding, artificial insemination is done. So when the cow is ovulating, people inject the semen of whatever the cow breed they want. Is it to get the offspring? No… only post delivery cows will give milk, which I was not aware for a very long time, I thought cows just give milk throughout its life.

So cows are kept in maternity always!!, through artificial pregnancy and delivery cycle…

Are we done yet?

While milking the cow, they make the calf to suckle first, so that cow releases it’s milk, otherwise it won’t releases easily. Calves don’t get it’s share of milk, milk is for us you see.. it just sucks few millilitre of milk and then it is dragged away. After that we milk the cow empty.

Not feeling bad yet?

Cattle feeders are very costly, if you want lot of yield from the cow, you can’t just do it by feeding it alone. People who are into dairy farming, inject a lot of hormones to it.

Lastly…

In olden days bulls are kept for ploughing the field, for pulling cart etc. Now people rarely do ploughing using bulls/ox etc. So what happens when a male(bull) calf is born? People are not happy, they don’t know what to do with it. As cattle feeders are too costly, they cannot maitain it. So after it becomes a little big either they just leave it on the road or someone will come and take it saying they will use it for ploughing, in reality it may go to a slaughter house..

By the way last week in our house, Gauri gave birth to a male calf. It was born on Thursday (Guruvaar), so my son named it “Guruvendra”. Please wish Guruvendra a long and a healthy life..

These are my observation staying here in my native place. I really feel very sad for our gomata. I feel like giving up on coffee, tea, milk and milk products. But it is difficult. I am no more a proud vegetarian 😭😭