Gow Samrakshanam

In earlier days almost all houses in the villages had cows and hence taking care of these animals or Goseva was an essential part of life. In our country,cows have always been regarded and revered as holy beings or Goddess.The milk derived out of these cows were used for household needs and also taken for abishekam/rituals in the respective village temples.In recent times, in view of the migration to cities, Goseva has not been possible though not forgotten. As our lives became busier and more and more people moved to cities for occupation, having cows at our homes have become far from reality now-a-days.In our holy country a trend has set in that when these cows become old and stop giving milk, they are considered a burden and sent for slaughtering, which is one of the most sinful acts.If this trend continues, there is a danger that Goseva may vanish from our list of duties and our future generations may not even know about this sacred duty. Most of our children may not have even seen a calf.In current times it is not possible to have a cow at home, especially in urban centres.It has therefore become imperative that we create and sustain the interest in Goseva among the people of this and future generations.Therefore the greatest need of the day,is to protect the nation from falling to such dismal levels of such sinful deeds/activities and to revive the nation to its glorious days,restore peace and harmony we need to take care of the cows however old and of any use to the society.

Therefore there is a need to establish Goshalaas where cows can be maintained in a good environment . This has to be a community effort rather than individual effort.Such community activities are also not possible due to the people not coming together under a common platforms due to lack of time,differences in attitudes,views etc.Hence most of the temples have Goshalaas.

I myself have seen such wonderfully maintained Goshalaas in many big temples and recollect with fond memory how my 18 Siddhar universal & Sathguru Seshadri Swamigaal's temple at Madambakkam has a Goshalaa.I recollect remembering to have read a post in facebook by Shri Ravi shankar,a member of the temple joyously announcing :" namaste - our universal shrine goshalaa have now 3 newborn calfs. Visit our shrine and get the blessings of SreeKrishna. like minded persons can adopt the newborn calfs to perform go dhana ".

People can come forward to do such Go Pujaa / Go Dhana on their important days in their life and become receipients of blessings of Universal Mother Lalitha Tripurasundari, Goddess Mahalakshmi,remove earlier janma sins, pitrudoshas or curse of ancestors and for prosperity and wealth.

We will see what Kanchi Maha Periavaal Paramacharya Jagadguru Sri Chandrashekarendra Saraswathi says about Go-Samrakshana:

"It is very important to create awareness; and once it is done, the man power and money will automatically flow. It is a matter of taking initiative by a few people in this direction and the required resources will come on its own. However, the person who donates money should also participate physically and similarly the one who toils physically should also contribute in whatever manner possible monetarily also. This will ensure total involvement and instead of bifurcation as donor and laborer class they will all come under the aegis of children of “Go Maatha” as a member of the same family.

It is my earnest desire that all Hindus should join united in this effort as a family and also include others to become one big family in a spirit of mutual understanding and cooperation. “Matha Abhimanam” (respect towards religion) may be different in different religions. But all religions are for “Jeeva kaarunya” ( compassion towards the other living beings) and using this, all of us of various religions, must unite and shoulder this responsibility by giving a helping hand".

The only option is to do Goseva by taking part in activities to further the cause of cow protection. We must support Goshalaas , physically and monetarily, to the best of our abilities.

I share another incident which I read:

Few years back, a devotee of the Kanchi Mutt sent a Cuban newspaper paper cutting to the Paramacharya about a secret pact agreed between the European countries. Due to excess population of cows, there was a oversupply of milk and all cheese/dairy products which in turn had a cascading price effect. To reverse the tumbling prices, the European countries decided to arrange slaughter of excess cows in each of their countries to arrest the excess production of milk and cheese production.

The Paramacharya instructed a very ardent devotee to discuss with the European countries to make them give away those excess cows which in turn can be relocated to various countries in and around India where there is malnutrition. The gigantic effort was undertaken by this devotee who convinced these European countries to give away those excess cows to the kanchi mutt for further transportation by a cargo plane to the various deserving countries as per the Paramacharya’s instructions.
The ardent devotee doesn't wish to be named but attributes this monumental task completely to the grace of the Paramacharya.

(Shared from a post titled Save the COW in a facebook group called Sage of Kanchi)

Also read here how a great philanthropist Shri Krishna Chand Chordia been drawn into taking care of Cows by Kanchi Maha Periavaal.He orated his experiences with Maha Periavaal and inculcated into the habit of taking care of the cows. you can read about the same more in here:  http://omlog.org/2012/06/paramacharya-jayanthi-celebrated-with-great-reverence.html

We will further discuss this topic in greater length.
People wanting to donate to this greatest Seva can please contact the temple Administrative office at the following address: Sathguru Sri Seshadri Swamigal Brindavanam Trust, New No.43, Old No.21/3, Alamelumangapuram, Mylapore, Chennai - 600 004. Phone nos: +91 44 2493 8734 / +91 44 2495 3793 Email: swamigal@md4.vsnl.net.in
Sri Seshadri Swamigal Brindavana Sakthi Peetam