NEW DELHI — Those who slaughter cows and let others kill the sacred animal are deemed to rot in hell for as many years as there are hairs on his body, observed the Allahabad High Court while stressing the need to stop the practice and hoping from the Central government to take “appropriate decision” to ban it.
The court sought the Centre to declare it as a “protected national animal”.
“India is a secular country where we must have respect for all religions. In Hinduism, the belief and faith is that the cow is representative of divine and natural beneficence; and therefore, it should be protected and venerated,” the court observed, refusing to quash a criminal case against one Mohammad Abdul Khaliq, who is alleged to have slaughtered a cow and transported beef to sell. The accused is booked under sections 3, 5 and 8 of the Uttar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955.
Describing the degree of the veneration of the cattle, the bench of Justice Shamim Ahmed said its ‘panchagavya’ (a mixture used in traditional Hindu rituals that is prepared by mixing cow dung, urine, milk, ghee and curd) is used for purification and penance.
Tracing its holiness to the Vedic period (seventh century BC, the high court said, “The cow is the most sacred of all the animals of Hinduism. It is known as Kamadhenu, or the divine cow, and the giver of all desires. The Puranas (a vast genre of Indian literature) state that nothing is more religious than the gift of cows. Lord Rama was given a gift of many cows. In the Mahabharata, Bhishma (grandfather of the leaders of warring factions) observes that the cow acts as a surrogate mother by providing milk to human beings for a lifetime, so she is truly the mother of the world.”
Allahabad