Cow Protection and Agriculture

Quotes from Srila Prabhupada about

COW PROTECTION AND AGRICULTURE

GIVE MORE ATTENTION TO ANIMAL PROTECTION

Animals are never meant to be killed. Killing of animals is a symptom of barbarian society. For a human being, agricultural produce, fruits and milk are sufficient and compatible foodstuffs. The human society should give more attention to animal protection...

COW PROTECTION AGRICULTURE AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE FOODSTUFF

The vaisyas, the members of the mercantile communities, are especially advised to protect the cows. Cow protection means increasing the milk productions, namely curd and butter. Agriculture and distribution of the foodstuff are the primary duties of the mercantile community backed by education in Vedic knowledge and trained to give in charity. As the ksatriyas [administrators] were given charge of the protection of the citizens, vaisyas were given the charge of the protection of animals...

INDUSTRY CANNOT PRODUCE RICE, WHEAT, GRAINS, MILK, FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Industry of various types cannot produce the essential needs of man, namely rice, wheat, grains, milk, fruits and vegetables This should not be the standard of civilization. (SB 1.9.26)

AGRICULTURE MAKES SOCIETY HAPPY, WEALTHY, HEALTHY, HONEST

Agriculture is the noblest profession. It makes society happy, wealthy, healthy, honest, and spiritually advanced for a better life after death. The vaisya community, or the mercantile class of men, take to this profession. In Bhagavad-gita the vaisyas are described as the natural agriculturalists, the protectors of cows, and the general traders. When Lord Sri Krsna incarnated Himself at Vrndavana, He took pleasure in becoming a beloved son of such a vaisya family. Nanda Maharaja was a big protector of cows, and Lord Sri Krsna, as the most beloved son of Nanda Maharaja, used to tend His fathers animals in the neighboring forest. By His personal example Lord Krsna wanted to teach us the value of protecting cows. Nanda Maharaja is said to have possessed nine hundred thousand cows, and at the time of Lord Sri Krsna (about five thousand years ago) the tract of land known as Vrndavana was flooded with milk and butter. Therefore Gods gifted professions for mankind are agriculture and cow protection...

HUMANITY MUST DEPEND ON AGRICULTURE

Trade is meant only for transporting surplus produce to places where the produce is scanty. But when traders become too greedy and materialistic they take to large-scale commerce and industry and allure the poor agriculturalist to unsanitary industrial towns with a false hope of earning more money. The industrialist and the capitalist do not want the farmer to remain at home, satisfied with his agricultural produce. When the farmers are satisfied by a luxuriant growth of food grains, the capitalist becomes gloomy at heart. But the real fact is that humanity must depend on agriculture and subsist on agricultural produce. No one can produce rice and wheat in big iron factories. (Light of the Bhagavata)

SOCIETY CAN ENJOY PROSPERITY AND HARMONY IF PEOPLE FIND OUT THEIR NATURAL ABILITIES

Syamasundara: Plato believed society can enjoy prosperity and harmony only if it places people in working categories or classes according to their natural abilities. He thought people should find out their natural abilities and use those abilities to their fullest capacityas administrators, as military men, or as craftsmen. Most important, the head of state should not be an average or mediocre man. Instead, society should be led by a very wise and good mana philosopher kingor a group of very wise and good men.
Srila Prabhupada: This idea appears to be taken from the Bhagavad-gita, where Krsna says that the ideal society has four divisions: brahmanas [intellectuals], ksatriyas [warriors and administrators], vaisyas [merchants and farmers], and sudras [laborers]. These divisions come about by the influence of the modes of nature. Everyone, both in human society and in animal society, is influenced by the modes of material nature [...goodness, passion, and ignorance]. By scientifically classifying men according to these qualities, society can become perfect.

But if we place a man in the mode of ignorance in a philosophers post, or put a philosopher to work as an ordinary laborer, havoc will result.


VEDIC CIVILIZATION IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH MILK, GRAINS, FRUITS AND VEGETABLES, YOU CAN LIVE VERY NICELY

In the Bhagavad-gita Krsna says that the brahmanasthe most intelligent men, who are interested in transcendental knowledge and philosophyshould be given the topmost posts, and under their instructions the ksatriyas [administrators] should work. The administrators should see that there is law and order and that everyone is doing his duty.