Friday, August 22, 2014

Touching Cows



A cow had roamed to the middle of the road, attracted by speck of greenery on the median strip. As she was busy dealing with the grass, a car zoomed past her. As soon as it passed besides her, the driver brought his hand out and touched the cow on her back. It is a Hindu custom where it is considered sacred to touch a cow. We can guess that the purpose of this custom would be to encourage people to serve cows, to feed and protect cows who give us milk second only to our mother’s milk. So does this casual touch-while-you-go business serve any real purpose? 

This gesture is indeed ‘symbolism’. At the very moment the driver was touching the cow, he must have felt reverence for mother cow; at that moment he must have had pious thoughts in his mind; and hence I think this custom though symbolic in nature would still help preserve some goodness in the hearts of practitioners… 


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