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Caring for cows can have a healing effect, says Iskcon monk Kenneth Valpey, aka Krishna Kshetra Swami, to Sonal Srivastav.
French philosopher Rene Descartes suggested that animals are merely reflex driven and have no intellectual capacities that imply self-consciousness. “It actually goes all the way back to Aristotle,” says Kenneth R. Valpey, aka Krishna Kshetra Swami, a Gaudiya Vaishnava theologian with a DPhil degree on Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy, from Oxford University. A professor at Bhaktivedanta College, Belgium, Valpey also teaches at the University of Florida and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Valpey explains that even before Descartes’ views on animal ethics were widely accepted in the 17th century, Aristotle’s notion of teleology had already sealed the fate of animals in the context of their place in the human world. “Aristotle,” says Valpey, “gave a purpose to everything and for him the purpose of animals was to serve humans. Therefore, humans can do whatever they want to, with animals. This changes the way we perceive other beings and it goes all the way back to ancient Greece, approximately to fifth century BCE.”
Vaishnava Tradition
Western philosophical notions that denied the presence of reason or consciousness in animals led to their large scale exploitation.
In stark contrast is the way animals, particularly cows, are perceived in Indic thought, especially in the Gaudia Vaishnava tradition.“In the Vaishnava belief system, the Infinite is not something abstract and impersonal; the Infinite is the supreme person Krishna, and what does Krishna do? He takes care of cows. Krishna is an untiring champion of gau seva, cow care, points out Valpey, talking about references to cow care in Indic scriptures.
In his latest book, Cow Care In Hindu Animal Ethics, he explores references to the cow from the Rig Veda and the Bhagavata Purana to medieval bhakti poetry. “Altogether, scholars have counted some 700 times that words indicating a cow have been used in the Vedas,” says Valpey, positing that there are economists who will obviously say that this is because Vedic people had an agrarian economy.
He says that the Vedas have profoundly rich poetry that suggests cows and hymns are all tied with rituals, most centrally to yajna, which is crudely translated as sacrifice. It really has to do with the idea that human beings are in particular function of maintenance of the cosmic order, and cows are essential to humans performing that function.
“This central idea then gets carried along and elaborated in the later texts including the Upanishads. With the Upanishads, the central question is, what is ultimate reality? The term Brahmn is most commonly used. Along with this question is a major change of values, where the Rig Veda and others are referred to as karma kandiya texts, meant for worldly well-being. The Upanishads turn things in a different direction, from pravritti, worldly path, to nivritti, path of renunciation; still, cows appear in the Upanishads. I want to suggest that it’s not just accidental, it’s important,” says Valpey.
Did the rishis use cows as a metaphor? “Cows were not just a metaphor,” says Valpey, recalling a legend from an Upanishad. He says that in the Chandogya Upanishad, Satyakama is given a task by his guru Gotama to take care of 400-odd cows. Satyakama welcomes this as seva, takes the cows and comes back later with a thousand cows, to his guru. By the time he comes back, he has realized Brahmn, but he is very humble, so he asks his guru ‘to confirm what I have learnt.’“That’s what his service was — taking care of cows. This becomes a kind of seed for an idea that gets prominent among champions of cow care. First of all the word ‘seva’, gets translated as service, but I want to say that it is constant, attentive service. There’s a distinction to be made between seva and puja. Puja is a temporary ritualistic activity often done for a specific purpose to get a specific result for oneself, whereas seva is caring for the other person. I’m using the word person in a broader sense; the cow is also a person. In a similar way, a mother cares for her child — that is seva, unconditionally, constantly and attentively,” explains Valpey, a Tridandi Swami in the Iskcon tradition. He carries a staff — three sticks tied together that represent three aspects — service of Krishna with body, mind and soul, at all times.
Special Symbol
Valpey suggests that there’s a spectrum of meaning of the cow, going from the most literal — physical animal with animal needs — to the symbolic, abstract and figurative.“Robert Neville, a theologian at Boston University, says that a symbol is marking a boundary between the finite and the Infinite. So a symbol acts as a liminal entity between these two and it is also connecting the two. I would say that’s why in Vedic culture, cows become particularly important because we see the cow as somehow making access for us to the Infinite through their finite being. We feel there’s something special about cows and that by doing their service, we get access to the Infinite,” explains Valpey.
In his book, he also refers to M K Gandhi’s view on cow protection and writes about Gandhi’s disappointment with Hindus for doing the most damage to cows. “Yes, he was very upset about it. He was mainly addressing Hindus for their hypocrisy. He felt that the Hindus say that the cows are sacred but then they neglect cows and he also spoke about the beating of oxen and bulls; he was very disturbed about that,” recalls Valpey.
Talking about cow care in India in present times, he adds that we must think about better ways of treating them, drawing from ancient Indian scriptures. Valpey says that in present times, there is an element of tamo guna in cow care, which means darkness, and that the care is not being effective in the long run, for tamo guna is also reflected in the activity of cow vigilantes. Those who are supposedly caring for the cow are themselves becoming violent; hence the actual purpose of what they want is self-defeating.
For effective saatvik cow care, he envisages more thoughtful people coming together to make some major changes in lifestyle, collectively. He suggests that we find a way to know more about cows. Maybe, we can start with visiting a goshala, cowshed, and offering seva, volunteer work. Sometimes, contributing by spending time with cows and just brushing the cows can be therapeutic. “People, Hindus in particular, have to rediscover that cows are nice. A lot of changes could be made in the saatvik side of things,” says Valpey.