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Dhenu means

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Dhenu means cow. She is also mother.
Lecture on BG 1.31 -- London, July 24, 1973:

In India in village, there is, still the system is amongst the poor men, the cultivators, that if the cultivator cannot provide to keep a cow, he will not marry. Jaru and garu. Jaru means wife, and garu means cow. So one should keep a wife if he is able to keep a cow also. Jaru and garu. Because if you keep a wife, immediately there will be children. But if you cannot give them cows' milk, the children will be rickety, not very healthy. They must drink sufficient milk. So cow is therefore considered mother. Because one mother has given birth to the child, the another mother is supplying milk. So everyone should be obliged to mother cow, because she is supplying milk. So according to our śāstra there are seven mothers. Ādau mātā, real mother, from whose body I have taken my birth. Ādau mātā, she is mother. Guru-patnī, the wife of teacher. She is also mother. Ādau mātā guru-patnī, brāhmaṇī. The wife of a brāhmaṇa, she is also mother. Ādau mātā guru-patnī brāhmaṇī rāja-patnikā, the queen is mother. So how many? Ādau mātā guru-patnī brāhmaṇī rāja-patnikā, then dhenu. Dhenu means cow. She is also mother. And dhātrī. Dhātrī means nurse. Dhenu dhātrī tathā pṛthvī, also the earth. Earth is also mother. The people are taking care of mother land, where he is born. That is good. But by the by they should take care of mother cow also. But they are not taking care of mother. Therefore they are sinful. They must suffer. They must have, there must be war, pestilence, famine. As soon as people become sinful, immediately nature's punishment will come automatically. You cannot avoid it.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Dhenu means cow.
Room Conversation with Cardinal Danielou -- August 9, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Ātma-mātā guroḥ patnī brāhmaṇī, the wife of the priest.

Yogeśvara: (translates)

Cardinal Danielou:

Prabhupāda: Rāja-patnikā, the wife of king, the queen.

Yogeśvara: (translates)

Prabhupāda: Four. Ātma-mātā guroḥ patnī brāhmaṇī rāja-patnikā, dhenur. Dhenu means cow. Dhenur dhātrī. Dhātrī means nurse. Tathā pṛthvī. Pṛthvī means earth. These are seven mothers. So cow is mother because we drink milk, cow's milk.

Cardinal Danielou: Yes.

Prabhupāda: How can I deny that she's not mother? So how we can support killing of mother?

Cardinal Danielou: Yes, yes, it is a motive. But we think that...

Prabhupāda: Therefore, in India, those who are meat-eaters, they are advised... That is also under restriction. Advised to kill some lower animals like goats, even up to buffaloes. But cow killing is the greatest sin.

Cardinal Danielou: Yes, yes, we... I know this. I know this. And this is for us a difficulty, a difficulty...

Prabhupāda: Yes, because the cow is mother.

Cardinal Danielou: Yes, yes, yes...

Prabhupāda: You, you take the milk from the mother...

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Dhenu means cow, and dhātrī means nurse.
Morning Walk -- March 5, 1976, Mayapur:

Prabhupāda: Mental adjustment is nonsense. No mental adj... Actual. Mental adjustment is material. You have to follow the orders of superior. There is no question of mental adjustment. (break) You get all your necessities of life from the earth. Now, you get food, you get drinking water, you get shelter, bamboo. These things will... You get cotton. So what is that slogan? Kapara...?

Gopāla Kṛṣṇa: Roṭi kaparā makān.

Prabhupāda: Ah, everything, yes. Roti is there, kaparā is there, and makān is there. And wherefrom it is coming? Sarva-kāma-dughā mahī. From earth. Why you are after factories? The mother earth is giving you everything. Therefore he's called mother. Seven mothers... One of the mothers is this earth. Dhenu dhātrī tathā pṛthvi sapteti mātari smṛtāḥ. Dhenu means cow, and dhātrī means nurse. Tathā pṛthvi. Pṛthvi means this land. So they are taking care of the land, nationalists, and killing the other mother, dhenu. A rascal civilization. If you are taking care of mother, you must take care of all mothers. No, they are mad after the land, but killing the other mother, dhenu. This is called rascaldom. (break) ...to give all comforts to the human brother, and they are sending the animal brother to slaughterhouse. What is this Communist? If you are Communist, if you are equal to all your brothers, why you should discriminate? And our communism is that even there is a snake in your home, you must see that he is not starving. This is spiritual communism. Nobody likes snake. Everyone kills. But śāstra says, "Even a snake is there at your home, you must see that he's not starving." This is communism, perfect. What are these he is collecting?

Devotee: Eggplant.

Prabhupāda: Eggplant? (break) Not of the sun but of the mist, one who is driving away, "Get out!" Now, just see. He is becoming pure. Yāhāṇ kṛṣṇa tāhāṇ nāhi māyāra adhikāra. Immediately there is Kṛṣṇa, there is no more māyā. (end)

Dhenu means cow is mother because we drink her milk. She supplies milk. That's mother.
Room Conversation with Reporter -- June 3, 1976, Los Angeles:

Prabhupāda: Very simply thing. Just like the art of the material nature. Everything is coming out of the material nature, beginning from the grass to the highest intellectual human being or more than that. Wherefrom they are coming? From this material nature: ether, earth, water, fire. This element, some material nature. Let us see from the ground, the grass is coming, the vegetable is coming. From the water the fishes are coming, all the ants are coming, the germs are coming. Then, after eating that vegetable, the animals are coming. In this way everything is coming, generated from the earth, from the material nature. Is it not a fact?

Reporter: Mmm!

Prabhupāda: So, we are coming from material nature. That means we are..., material nature is our mother. From the womb of mother, the child comes from. So, from the material nature everything is coming. Therefore according to Vedic knowledge, this earth is also mother. We have got seven mothers according to Vedic civilization:

ātma-mātā guroḥ patnī
brāhmaṇī rāja-patnikā
dhenur dhātrī tathā pṛthvī
saptaitā mātaraḥ smṛtāḥ

Ātma-mātā means original mother, real mother. And guroḥ patnī, the wife of teacher. The wife of a brāhmaṇa. Brāhmaṇa means the most intellectual class of men in the human society, brāhmaṇa. It is not a caste. It is a section in every human society. Always, there is a class of men very intelli..., intelligent. They are called brāhmaṇa. So, ātma-mātā, guroḥ patnī, brāhmaṇī, rāja-patnikā, and the queen—formerly there were kings—she is also considered mother. And dhenu means cow is mother because we drink her milk. She supplies milk. That's mother. And pṛthvī, in the earth, we are coming out. Earth is mother. Really we see coming. And there may be different varieties of sons. That doesn't matter. But anything coming out the earth—the earth is mother—and that is coming out, that is son. Then where is the father? There must be father. Is it possible mother can give birth to a child without father?

Reporter: Mm?

Prabhupāda: Is it possible?

Reporter: I wouldn't think so.

Prabhupāda: Eh?

Reporter: I wouldn't think so. No.

Prabhupāda: So, there must be father. This is conclusion. So who is sanctioning about the father? The answer is in the Bhagavad-gītā: ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4), "I am father." You cannot denying father; that is not possible. If there is mother, if there is child, there must be father. This is human sense. And animal sense is: "I don't care for father. There may be father, may not be..." That is animal sense. So do you want to keep the human society in such ignorance just like cats and dogs? The dogs do not care who is father. This movement wants to give education to the human society: "Yes, there is father." And that is actual fact. Without father how there is child? Is it possible? Then? For at the present moment, the human society is child playing on the lap of mother, that's all. In big, big motorcars, that's all. Without any knowledge of father. But will the human being remain simply satisfied with toys on the lap of mother, or you'll try to understand who is father? So we are satisfied with the toys, and playing on the lap of the mother. The motorcar is running very swiftly, head-break or neck-break speed, and they are thinking they are civilized, advanced. What is.... "Who is your father?" "Don't know."

Dhenu means cow, and dhātrī, nurse, she is also mother.
Evening Darsana -- July 8, 1976, Washington, D.C.:

Devotee (2): Śrīla Prabhupāda, they say that only the human has a soul, therefore it's wrong to kill humans. But other animals you can kill because there is no soul. That is their argument.

Devotee (3): They'll ask what should be killed and what shouldn't be killed for eating? Where do we draw the line?

Prabhupāda: No, you, we are speaking go-rakṣya. That is not point of view of killing. There are other animals. We do not say that you stop. If you want to eat some meat, at least don't kill cow. You can kill other insignificant animals which has no importance. Cow has got special importance because it supplies milk, and milk is very essential food that is... From the childhood, a child lives on milk, and there are many saintly persons, they also live by drinking milk. Milk is very important item in the human society, and it supplies all vitamins. Even if you say that "Meat-eating is essential for me," you can eat other animals, but don't kill cows. That is our proposal. Give protection to the cows. Kṛṣṇa mentioned specifically, go-rakṣya. He does not say that you don't kill, but you give protection to the cows. And if you want to eat meat, you can kill other animals. On the whole, paśu-hiṁsā, any animal killing, is not good for spiritual life. And so far vegetable is concerned, everyone has to eat something. So if you can eat vegetables, that does not mean because somebody is killing vegetables, he should kill his own father and mother on that plea. So cow is mother because we are drinking her milk. So you cannot put any argument in favor of killing mother. If you... Anyone who supplies milk from the body, she is mother. According to Vedic civilization, cow is one of the seven mothers. There are seven mothers: the real mother, ātma-mātā guroḥ patnī, the wife of spiritual master; then queen, rāja-patnikā. Ātma-mātā guroḥ patnī brāhmaṇī, the wife of a brāhmaṇa. In this way, especially, seven mothers, dhenu, dhenu means cow, and dhātrī, nurse, she is also mother. So from that point of view, cow is mother, and you cannot kill on any ground the mother. That is not good reasoning. You are taking the last drop of milk. In South Africa you said?

Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Yes. They have one slaughterhouse and just beside, I have seen, just beside there is dairy. So at night they bring the cows in to the dairy, milk them to the last drop, and then to the slaughterhouse and all night screaming. I heard because the Indian neighborhood was about five hundred yards from the slaughterhouse. Then in the morning you'd drive by and the carcasses are hanging up.

Prabhupāda: So you are drawing the last drop of milk from the cow and sending her to the slaughterhouse. Is that very good civilization?

Page Title:Dhenu means
Compiler:Rishab, Visnu Murti
Created:22 of Feb, 2012
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=1, Con=4, Let=0
No. of Quotes:5