On Cows and Mutual Respect

To Christ-followers, drinking cow urine is a sign of bad hygiene and religious insanity. However, to many North Indian Hindus, it is an act of devotion. Years ago, I visited my uncles in Rajasthan. We went to the temple of Kal Bhairava, our maternal grandfather's favourite deity. My maternal uncles played key roles in the temple management. One day, a sacred act of cow worship caught me off guard. It was early morning. I was the first one, early to rise and early to bed, to wake up. My younger brother was fast asleep. The moment I stepped out of my room, still rubbing my sleepy eyes, I saw my maternal uncle standing behind a cow and collecting its urine. I was stunned. 

Then, my uncle drank some of the urine even as he recited some mantras. I felt like throwing up as I saw it, but my mother placed her hand on my shoulders to pacify me. I was angry because he mixed some of the urine in the charn-amrit, the fluid the priests offer people to drink. I stopped drinking it from that day onwards. The Charn-amrit (Nectar of the Feet) is the fluid that the priest offers all the devotees to drink at the end of the service. It generally contains milk, honey, yogurt, sugar, ghee, tulsi leaves, and Ganges water. However, my uncle thought cow urine would make it purer and perhaps add some medicinal value. I felt horrible. 

Many years later, I realized that many North Indian Hindus consider the cow a divine, mother-like being. Cows are productive animals for North Indian cow ranchers, as sheep are a symbol of productivity in Israel and its Scriptures. The cow herders may have developed an emotional attachment to their domesticated animals and eventually treated them as mothers. Mother gives milk. Similarly, cows gave milk. Simple-minded people might have started venerating cows because they respected their mothers. Like we don't kill our pet dogs and eat them, they don't kill their cows. To many Hindus, cows are mother-like sacred animals. 

Muslims and Jews don't eat pigs or camel meat. Still, we don't find it abnormal. Christians eat all the unclean animals, including pigs and dogs. The Lord has allowed it (Mark 7:19). Yet we know we won't eat any animal flesh in the age to come after Jesus returns. To many people, eating meat is sinful. To others, it is helpful. In the coming age, there will be no death, so no meat will be available for eternity. A bear will lie down with a calf, and not hurt it. "The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox (Isaiah 11:7)." It will be a nonviolent world with no death or decay. Nobody will eat meat in such a deathless world: the renewed creation (Gen 1-3, Rev 20-22). 

Mahatma Gandhi also venerated cows and did not encourage eating cow meat. In North India, people consider killing cows for meat a criminal offence (BNS 325) with a five-year imprisonment plus a fine. Therefore, those who respect the views of Hindus and think they have religious freedom in their own land must not overstep and hurt their religious sentiments. Some people call these cow worshippers, dung lovers (chanaka sanghis). The term is derogatory and more prevalent in South India, where people do not honor cows in the same way. Their use of cow dung as a body massage oil and paste, and a jam for roti sandwich has irritated many South Indians. 

Even so, we must not judge them hastily. Instead, we need to consider their views, holding their sensitivity in mind. Do you know what they use cow dung for? Don't look at the extremes and be aghast. They use cow dung for fuel, roofing, walls, and many other purposes, just as people in Kerala use coconut leaves. Like cow's milk, cow dung became a symbol of auspiciousness due to its multi-purpose usefulness. Like the body parts of an elephant, everything that cows produce is considered beneficial. Many South Indian Christians fear these naive cow bhaktas, thinking that they would hurt them. However, if you stay clear of cow meat, they won't consider you a threat. 

Moreover, if you respect their vegetarian way of life, you may make loyal friends for life. Hindutva has no terrorists. Hindutva means Hindu culture. Some violent Hindus were misled into killing Graham Staines' family. However, Mr Staines' family forgave them, and some of the hardliners eventually repented. I don't know of any other seriously violent acts of Hindus in comparison to what Islamic Terrorists are doing to Christians in Nigeria or the Middle East. Therefore, we should let these harmless, nonviolent, vegetarian Hindus live peacefully. Let us help them know Jesus by respecting them, not by disparaging them. If we give respect, they will also respect us and our Bible.