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During
the reign of Maharaja Yudhisthira, the clouds showered all the water
that people needed, and the earth produced all the necessities of man
in profusion. Due to its fatty milk bag and cheerful attitude, the cow
used to moisten the grazing ground with milk.
PURPORT
The basic principle of economic development is centered on land and
cows. The necessities of human society are food grains, fruits, milk,
minerals, clothing, wood, etc. One requires all these items to fulfill
the material needs of the body. Certainly one does not require flesh
and fish or iron tools and machinery. During the regime of Maharaja
Yudhisthira, all over the world there were regulated rainfalls.
Rainfalls are not in the control of the human being. The heavenly King
Indradeva is the controller of rains, and he is the servant of the
Lord. When the Lord is obeyed by the king and the people under the
king's administration, there are regulated rains from the horizon, and
these rains are the causes of all varieties of production on the land.
Not only do regulated rains help ample production of grains and fruits,
but when they combine with astronomical influences there is ample
production of valuable stones and pearls. Grains and vegetables can
sumptuously feed a man and animals, and a fatty cow delivers enough
milk to supply a man sumptuously with vigor and vitality. If there is
enough milk, enough grains, enough fruit, enough cotton, enough silk
and enough jewels, then why do the people need cinemas, houses of
prostitution, slaughterhouses, etc.? What is the need of an artificial
luxurious life of cinema, cars, radio, flesh and hotels? Has this
civilization produced anything but quarreling individually and
nationally? Has this civilization enhanced the cause of equality and
fraternity by sending thousands of men into a hellish factory and the
war fields at the whims of a particular man?
It is said here
that the cows used to moisten the pasturing land with milk because
their milk bags were fatty and the animals were joyful. Do they not
require, therefore, proper protection for a joyful life by being fed
with a sufficient quantity of grass in the field? Why should men kill
cows for their selfish purposes? Why should man not be satisfied with
grains, fruits and milk, which, combined together, can produce hundreds
and thousands of palatable dishes. Why are there slaughterhouses all
over the world to kill innocent animals? Maharaja Parikshit, grandson
of Maharaja Yudhisthira, while touring his vast kingdom, saw a black
man attempting to kill a cow. The King at once arrested the butcher and
chastised him sufficiently. Should not a king or executive head protect
the lives of the poor animals who are unable to defend themselves? Is
this humanity? Are not the animals of a country citizens also? Then why
are they allowed to be butchered in organized slaughterhouses? Are
these the signs of equality, fraternity and nonviolence?
Therefore, in
contrast with the modern, advanced, civilized form of government, an
autocracy like Maharaja Yudhisthira's is by far superior to a so-called
democracy in which animals are killed and a man less than an animal is
allowed to cast votes for another less-than-animal man.
We are all
creatures of material nature. In the Bhagavad-gita it is
said that the Lord Himself is the seed-giving father and material
nature is the mother of all living beings in all shapes. Thus mother
material nature has enough foodstuff both for animals and for men, by
the grace of the Father Almighty, Sri Krishna. The human being is the
elder brother of all other living beings. He is endowed with
intelligence more powerful than animals for realizing the course of
nature and the indications of the Almighty Father. Human civilizations
should depend on the production of material nature without artificially
attempting economic development to turn the world into a chaos of
artificial greed and power only for the purpose of artificial luxuries
and sense gratification. This is but the life of dogs and hogs.