LET NOT THE SPIRIT SINK INTO MADNESS

LET NOT THE SPIRIT SINK INTO MADNESS

My mother is a human being, not a cow. Thank you. The proposition of certain spiritual leaders exhorting the government to declare the cow 'Rāshtra Mātā' is preposterous. While veneration of the cow which is even scripturally sanctioned is doubtlessly a noble attitude, to aver that it is not an animal but is in a separate category altogether as 'Mother of the Nation' is stretching things a bit too far. Such hyperstretch of religious conviction is tantamount to madness and cannot be counted as spiritual at all. The cow like all sentient beings is in essence the Spirit but cannot be singularly ascribed the epithet of 'Rāshtra Mātā'. I do not know a single human being who has been born of a cow despite the fact that most humans have been bred and brought up, fed and preserved on the cow's milk and its related products. Such nourishment derived from the cow's milk does not however make the cow the mother of man. That much for 'Rāshtra Mātā'. The episode in regard to this involving Swami Vivekananda and the propagator (prachārak) of the 'Cow Protection Society' ('Gorakshani Samiti') is pertinent. Swamiji's observations replete with devastating sarcastic wit is worth remembering. The nation ought to follow this modern sage of age-old wisdom if it aspires to rise to the due position of the spiritual preceptor of the world ('Vishva Guru'). Listening to half-cracked brains preaching mythological stuff as if they are literal truths to be followed will lead us back to the dark ages. Beware! Let discretion direct devotion. 🕉

Written by Sugata Bose