HOLY COW – Cows are held sacred by majority of the Hindus in India.
India suspends ban on trade of cattle for slaughter
By: Shakeeb Asrar
The federal law enacted in May had prohibited sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter at animal markets.
India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended a government ban on sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter.
The new law, which was announced in May by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s federal government, had placed a nationwide ban on the sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter at animal markets, allowing cattle trade only for plowing and dairy production.
The officials had cited animal cruelty and unregulated animal trade as reasons behind the ban, while critics believed the ban to be “unconstitutional” as it endangered the livelihood of millions of Indians employed in the cattle-related industries.
Impact on bovine economy
The apex court’s suspension of the ban gives relief to the multi-billion dollar beef and leather industry. India’s bovine industry is one of the largest in the world and employs millions of people.
Killing Cows brings India billions of dollars
SB 4.26.5 P King Puranjana Goes to the Forest to Hunt, and His Queen Becomes Angry
In this age of Kali the propensity for mercy is almost nil. Consequently there is always fighting and wars between men and nations. MEN DO NOT UNDERSTAND THAT BECAUSE THEY UNRESTRICTEDLY KILL SO MANY ANIMALS, THEY ALSO MUST BE SLAUGHTERED LIKE ANIMALS IN BIG WARS. This is very much evident in the Western countries. In the West, slaughterhouses are maintained without restriction, and therefore every fifth or tenth year there is a big war in which countless people are slaughtered even more cruelly than the animals. Sometimes during war, soldiers keep their enemies in concentration camps and kill them in very cruel ways. These are reactions brought about by unrestricted animal-killing in the slaughterhouse and by hunters in the forest. Proud, demoniac persons do not know the laws of nature, or the laws of God. Consequently, they unrestrictedly kill poor animals, not caring for them at all. In the Krsna consciousness movement, animal-killing is completely prohibited. One is not accepted as a bona fide student in this movement unless he promises to follow the four regulative principles: no animal-killing, no intoxication, no illicit sex and no gambling. This Krsna consciousness movement is the only means by which the sinful activities of men in this Kali-yuga can be counteracted.
SB 1.7.37 T The Son of Drona Punished
sva-pranan yah para-pranaih
prapusnaty aghrnah khalah
tad-vadhas tasya hi sreyo
yad-dosad yaty adhah puman
SYNONYMS
sva-pranan–one’s own life; yah–one who; para-pranaih–at the cost of others’ lives; prapusnati–maintains properly; aghrnah–shameless; khalah–wretched; tat-vadhah–killing of him; tasya–his; hi–certainly; sreyah–well-being; yat–by which; dosat–by the fault; yati–goes; adhah–downwards; puman–a person.
TRANSLATION
A cruel and wretched person who maintains his existence at the cost of others’ lives deserves to be killed for his own well-being, otherwise he will go down by his own actions.
PURPORT
A life for a life is just punishment for a person who cruelly and shamelessly lives at the cost of another’s life. Political morality is to punish a person by a death sentence in order to save a cruel person from going to hell. That a murderer is condemned to a death sentence by the state is good for the culprit because in his next life he will not have to suffer for his act of murder. Such a death sentence for the murderer is the lowest possible punishment offered to him, and it is said in the smrti-sastras that men who are punished by the king on the principle of a life for a life are purified of all their sins, so much so that they may be eligible for being promoted to the planets of heaven. According to Manu, the great author of civic codes and religious principles, even the killer of an animal is to be considered a murderer because animal food is never meant for the civilized man, whose prime duty is to prepare himself for going back to Godhead. He says that in the act of killing an animal, there is a regular conspiracy by the party of sinners, and all of them are liable to be punished as murderers exactly like a party of conspirators who kill a human being combinedly. He who gives permission, he who kills the animal, he who sells the slaughtered animal, he who cooks the animal, he who administers distribution of the foodstuff, and at last he who eats such cooked animal food are all murderers, and all of them are liable to be punished by the laws of nature. No one can create a living being despite all advancement of material science, and therefore no one has the right to kill a living being by one’s independent whims. For the animal-eaters, the scriptures have sanctioned restricted animal sacrifices only, and such sanctions are there just to restrict the opening of slaughterhouses and not to encourage animal-killing. The procedure under which animal sacrifice is allowed in the scriptures is good both for the animal sacrificed and the animal-eaters. It is good for the animal in the sense that the sacrificed animal is at once promoted to the human form of life after being sacrificed at the altar, and the animal-eater is saved from grosser types of sins (eating meats supplied by organized slaughterhouses which are ghastly places for breeding all kinds of material afflictions to society, country and the people in general). THE MATERIAL WORLD IS ITSELF A PLACE ALWAYS FULL OF ANXIETIES, AND BY ENCOURAGING ANIMAL SLAUGHTER THE WHOLE ATMOSPHERE BECOMES POLLUTED MORE AND MORE BY WAR, PESTILENCE, FAMINE AND MANY OTHER UNWANTED CALAMITIES.