YouTube is my online university for many topics. For example, I’ve long had a desire to grow sweet peas in my flower garden, a remembrance of the flowers that grew so easily in my mother’s fertile Florida beds, in February. For some reason, they don’t seem to prosper in Virginia clay (nor do nasturtiums, but that’s another sad story). Today, I discovered most of what I’m doing wrong, which I hope can be amended quickly enough to get a late crop before the heat sets in.
However, while wandering through all the gardening information — there are thousands and thousands of videos out there that directly apply to our horticulture ‘issues’ at Schloss Bodissey — I got sidetracked (my middle name is SideTracked). As many of you no doubt have experienced, it’s not difficult to go wandering far afield from your first interest. Thus, in looking for items on flowering peas, e.g., their soil preferences and best temperatures for germination, up popped a Vedic offering on “perfect” soil:
This video shows a small part of the reasoning behind the Hindu practice of cow ‘worship’. It brought to mind one of the items featured in our newsfeed yesterday:
Gandhinagar, March 16: The State Government of Gujarat is set to introduce a Bill in the State Assembly
One reader’s response to the news item was dismissive of this piece of legislation. He asserted that Hindus undermine their legitimate complaints against Islamic intolerance by such measures.
But as I pointed out in return, those aren’t his sacred cows. My intuition was bolstered by the information I later found in that gardening video. It described well how, in a desperately poor country like India, cows are crucial to a fragile eco-system. Based on the soil video, one could reasonably infer that the cow is sacred to Hindu Indians at least partly because of its ability to make manure, one of the best soil amendments there is (at least it must be so based on the dozens of pallets piled with bags of cow manure at every garden center at this time of year, or on the evidence supplied by my rose bush).
Indian Muslims don’t care about cows except as food, so slaughtering these animals is a quick way to get meat. But for Hindus, it is, at the very least, akin to eating their seed corn. Islam suffers from presentism; eating someone else’s seed corn wouldn’t be a problem.
As we all well know, through its desertification projects Islam has ruined more than one robust ecosystem (cf. Egypt’s once-upon-a-time prosperous wheat, papyrus, and flax exports and its present Islamic practice of breadlines for the poor). So the slaughter of India’s cows is simply another eco-system outrage. If the Greenies had the brains God gave a goat, they’d know that Islam is probably the biggest enemy of nature and they’d be up in arms about the ongoing destruction wherever they invade. So where are the demonstrations to save Hindu cattle??
In a similar vein, Do you remember when Egyptian bureaucrats, in an effort to “protect” the populace against swine flu, stupidly slaughtered the pigs of the Zabaleen?
That was a hugely ill-advised move. Besides ignoring the fact that the Zabaleen pigs were never a vector for swine flu, that decision also ignored the habits of Cairo’s residents, and the intricate role the Zabaleen played in keeping the city (mostly) free of garbage. Hosni Mubarak will be long remembered for what he cost Cairo in that boondoggle. Piles of rotting garbage swallowed streets. The disease levels kicked up several notches as a result – and none of them were swine flu.
The destruction of an intricate system was so thorough that the Zabaleen are only now beginning to recover from the wreckage.
Kudos to the Hindus for moving against the slaughter of their cows. They have already lost so much to Muslim massacres over the centuries; this is one place where they could and should draw the line against ignorance. If the cow were not such an integral part of Hindu practices, perhaps a case could be made for Islam’s violation of Hindu sensibilities. But that is definitely not the case.
Hindus and their sacred cows were there in India before the Islamic hordes arrived. Based on history alone, their cultural and religious practices ought to be honored, not dismissed.
As a Christian who has watched her own religious culture denigrated and denied, I stand with those Hindus and their cows…not to mention their paneer. 😉
The closest analogy to Muslims invading seemingly at will is the locust. Do a word study on ‘locust’ in the bible. Also ‘Midianites’. In fact I changed my Facebook special page on Islam to a photograph of locusts. https://www.facebook.com/Civilian-Defense-from-Islam-107859335951612/
“In the Bible God compares the invasion of the sons of Shem to locusts. Devouring everything in their path. Taking what isn’t theirs, the sheep and goats, moving boundary stones, setting up shrines to false gods and worshiping idols. Even sacrificing their children to idols such as Baal and Molech. On the other hand God asks us to consider the ant as King Solomon was inspired to write. The ant is organized and prompt. Its prepared for the weather and the seasons. At this moment in time we have to be prepared for this season of challenge from locusts like Europe is not.
For reference see the book of Judges in the bible. Try Judges 6 in your bible.”
As an Indian hindu, I too firmly stand behind Western civilizations right to survive against the brutal islamic onslaught. We are all in this together. Any country from the civilized world that falls to islam is one less friend and one more enemy to deal with. Lets support each other and contain the spread of this virus.
Your comment is one of the best, concise statements of the reasons the US ought to oppose the globalist stampede to isolate and destroy Israel.
I fully agree with both of you! We can only win united, learning from each other’s experience with that cult. http://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk/news/15188663.FULL_STORY__Stroud_shopkeeper_run_over_in_vicious_gang_attack/?ref=trn
That states it all in under a minute.
It’s the #1 reason why I’m 100% behind India/Hindus, as well.
Same as with Israel. The similarities between the two are striking.
Neither are perfect, but they’re generally decent and they’re holding back forces of islamism that are quite determined to make life much worse. As such, they deserve support despite their imperfections.
We Hindus have fought Islam for over a thousand years now. 80 million hindus died in Islamic invasion of India. We are the only civilization which has survived to tell its story. And the only reason, we survived is bcoz we never stopped fighting across a time period of 1000 years. Islamic Jihad failed to convert India into an islamic country. But yes, we have lost 30% of hindu homeland. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and still 25% muslim still living in india even after 1947 violent partition. We have paid huge costs for survival. And yet today, our treacherous left wing insists on us paying even more costs. We feel alone. We dont think West understands us. Only Israel comes close to understanding us. India is the only stable democracy in south east asia. On one side we fight chinese communism and on other front we fight islamic terror.
We are fighting alone. Indian nationalists are trying to reach out and form alliances with right wing movements across europe. We need to unite at a global level against the nexus of communists and islamists, or else, we all will be in a big trouble. War of all wars is coming upon all of us.
May god help us all.
It’s probably the difference between religions which teach “We are here on this God given Earth to take good care of it”, and other religions which teach “If you want a house, go and conquer one for yourself, as there are many unbelievers with houses…”
PS: I also experimented with flowers, and I also found out that the bigger the cow poo – the greater the flower that comes out of it. I planted those right there where the drops happened, as I was lazy to move the poos. A tomato plant planted right there on the spot would outgrow my other “domesticated” tomato plants by as much as twice.
Another “plant growth acceleration technique” is a sort of glass roof over the plant. Strange as it may sound – I don’t think that plants like rain as much. It is better to water them from below. But it might be something about the temperature of the rainwater as well – I live in mountains, in a colder environment, and what I discovered is that plants are incredibly sensible to temperatures. If the temperature isn’t right, they simply stop “working”.
I used to employ old window frames to protect from the cold, plus that white polymer material but my fibromyalgia precludes moving things around much. So the B helps me lug stuff, and I have to find a way to garden whilst standing…it’s a work in progress.
Thanks for another sidetrack. Now, about those goats…
I once read an interesting account of why cows are considered sacred and it went back to a very archaic meaning of the Sanskrit word which also gives rise to the meaning of cow, and that is that it meant the radiance of illumination at Dawn, or that cows were a correspondence to the affection for this process., and that in this role they were described as briefly appearing then being lost to the dark again but then re-appearing, this cycle repeating but each time the darkness eases off and the light intensifies. Much like daylight at the winter solstice as winter wanes and days lengthen so new life returns. In brief this rebirth of spiritual enlightenment was the sacredness to be respected and protected as it developed. Kind of like a Christmas story.
Hindus are welcome to their cow thing in India but over here in the UK they can be a bit irritating, not as bad as Muslims though with their halal thing. The Hindus are moaning about our new five pound note (along with the fanatical vegans) because it contains traces of tallow, and in the past have attempted (thankfully unsuccessfully) to prevent cows that live in temples in Britain that are infected with bovine TB from being put down, thus endangering our livestock.
Good point, Clovis. Cows in an urban environment are bad for public health.
Hindus who leave their home country have to accommodate to the new neighborhood they choose. Or go back home, taking their cows with them…all migrants must accommodate, integrate, and assimilate into a new environment. It is up to them to make the necessary changes; that’s not the task for their host culture.
Remember the old saying, “when in Rome…”? Like that.
I’ve never seen a Hindu fail to do that.
Neighbour in front and neighbour in back are excellent examples.
As an Indian Hindu, I can vouch for the fact that you will never hear of a hindu gang or violent group overseas. We never demand anything like sharia. Millions of Hindus live outside India and yet there has never been a single news of a Hindu being involved in an act of terror. Not one.
I’ve yet to see Hindus making any serious attempts to impose anything on people outside of India.
The neighbours in front are Hindu. The ones in back too.
The ones in front are vegetarian. The ones in back don’t care.
Everyone gets along.
I’d have no concerns with Hindus moving onto the left and right, either. As far as I’m concerned, they’re people “just like us”. If Hindus were the only types that ever moved in, I’d be a full subscriber to “multikulti” ideologies.
Do you have a source for the story? It sounds like a fascinating foundational myth. All cultures have them. The ones in the deepest trouble are those who are cut off from that knowledge of their own people.
“the four creatures at the throne of God were originally man, lion, bull, and eagle” – Jewish Encyclopedia
The Lion and the Eagle are the wild beasts, while the man and the bull are domesticated.
Remember what the Israelites worshiped (instead of God) while wondering the wilderness?
Knossos – Crete, from which we get the nasty Greek word “Cretin” also worshiped bulls. This tradition is live and well in Spain of today.
Some say that Lucifer, the covering Cherub, was in his original form a great winged bull. The best and the greatest – domesticated animal – that went rogue.
In Czech language, we call each other either fool (vůl), stupid guy, an infertile male bull. Or a cow – stupid woman. If you are smart, you are just male or female.
There is certainly a strong European tradition, traceable to ancient Greece, to call “cow worshipers” idiots, cretins, fools, etc.
Take what you will – but cows truly are incredible. But they are not here to be worshiped by man. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnowFtmp0zc
I think you’re conflating the Hindu belief that the cow is THEIR sacred animal with their worship of said animal.
Further, your reductio ad absurdum – i.e., because some European traditions use the soubriquet “cow” to insult another person that somehow this gives Europeans the right to pass judgment on Hindus for a differing belief – is without merit.
I have no idea whether or not cows “are here to be worshiped by man”. Do you have a special channel that gives you this information?
I don’t give a fig one way or another. However, I will defend the Hindus’ right to practice their religion in their native land free from the predations of Islam’s cruel animal treatment.
Further, it harms no one if Hindus hold bovines in esteem in India. They should be free to do so without being accused of “intolerance” by outsider Europeans who know next to nothing about a religion that predates the entity known as “Europe”.
BTW, the four creatures you describe are used in Christian iconography to represent the four gospels of the New Testament and their assigned “authors”. For anyone familiar with the New Testament, these are familiar figures. And since Christianity borrowed heavily from Jewish scripture, they employed those familiar icons, utilizing them for different purposes.
Early Christianity was ultimately influenced by the Hellenistic Jews living in Greece and Asia Minor, especially after the fall of Jerusalem. Paul’s urbane Hellene views clashed with Jerusalem’s more conservative ideas. His epistles predate the gospels by a good few years and it was his Roman citizenship which was to form the pattern of Christianity after that Diaspora in 70 AD. That dispersal was a game-changer for Christ-followers. No longer did they have to become disciples via entry through Judaism…the branch grew Greek and Roman roots and flourished in another clime.
Just as it continues to do. You don’t find Christianity credible or useful but it doesn’t matter. The center of gravity for Christian belief has moved to Africa and China, where it will again change to meet local conditions.
In the meantime, India has its many spiritual traditions, much older than the ones Westerners know. If its people want to make laws to protect their totems and temples, under any humanist principle they have the right to do so without having outsiders telling them they’re “intolerant”. Seeking the protection of the law against Islam’s inhumane cruelty toward animals is even echoed in the West’s various laws protecting animals from abuse.
To be honest I don’t understand your – what I consider – overreaction, to my trying to tell some facts. In no way am I trying to tell the Hindus what animal they should keep sacred, and how. If it’s their thing, and they don’t kill my cows (and I trust them on that a bit), I guess that we are fine.
I wanted to point out – what I consider – a fascinating foundational myth. That the Israelites on the way from Egypt, the hause of slavery, in their “dark hour” turned to worhip a golden calf. Young golden bull, that is.
Furthermore, in Crete there is some evidence for bull worship. Minotaur being a part of that evidence. The Minoan civilisation, rich in gold and cattle, living in luxurious wide open pallaces, has been destroyed by the “sea people”. As it happens, Greeks were ancient sea raiders, destroyers of cities – and the Greek Hero Theseus was one of them.
Then, out of a sudden – the pejorative term “cretin” shows up, and the European languages, English and Czech being some of them, have a word for fool, vool, most probably originating from bull.
The Boii tribe, which conquered Rome some time in the ancient past, had been known to have a lot of gold, and a lot of cattle – that was their business.
I find it pretty fascinating, and it may not be as fascinating to you, but in no way do I want to cause any interference in Indian/Hindu/etc.. matters.
The derivation of the word “cretin” from “Crete” is a false etymology. According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, “cretin” is derived from the French word crétin, which came from the Swiss French word creitin or crestin, and ultimately from the Latin Christianus, meaning Christian.
Despite the delight that this etymology must give atheists, the original sense of the word was not that Christians were stupid, but that mentally deficient people in the community were not beasts or sub-humans, but Christians; that is, they were deserving of mercy and charity.
Thank you Baron, I’m glad that someone reads what I write and gives a valid response.
In any case, I hope you give me freedom to say and think that 18th century Cretin/Christian may be somewhat misleading word origin, because the word “Creten”, as “one from the Island of Crete”, had its pejorative spirit as far back as ancient Greece.
The famous Cretan Epimenides – cca 600BC – caused a so called “Creten Paradox” – Epimenides being a Cretan, made one immortal statement: “All Cretans are liars.”
It is a self reference paradox and – see, me being a Christian, I may have been led into the same corner – if what you and the Oxford dictionary say about the word Cretin is true. 🙂
Nevertheless, Apostle Paul seems to reference Epimenides in Titus:
“For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.”
So, the dictionaries say that the word
Cretinism: A condition of endemic or inherited idiocy, accompanied by physical degeneracy and deformity (usually with goiter), frequent in certain mountain valleys, esp. of the Alps.
was defined in the 18th century.
However – I am still not convinced that the word in question does not have ancient origins, as Crete was too important an Island, and had its fair share of Cretenism as well. I have red a book about ancient languages that dealt with this issue, but I am unable to quote out of it just now, as it is not on Google. So – that is where I stand, and I still hope you won’t consider me a Cretin, because I am not from Crete.
PunkEdge, I so agree with you.
Wade Meyer, your analogy to the locust is very much spot on.
Doggone it, we have already subdued the muslims in the past (see Gates of Vienna, the original history) and now we have to do it again? This is beyond stupid. It amazes me that our so-called leaders learn NOTHING from history. But of course they are just politicians, and that doesn’t mean they are educated in any way other than to get elected.
People who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. We, in this time, seem to be too stupid to learn anything from history. I am not, but I am one little person living in the midwest with NO POWER. If I had the power, I’d be deporting muslims as fast as possible back to wherever they came from. America does not HAVE to accept any [one] that shows up at the door.
Furthermore, I am an immigrant — came to America after WWII, but I was only 5 years old so didn’t realize my blessing for a number of years until I was old enough to learn some history. However, I will point out that back in those days, my parents had to apply to come to America — the door was not open to anyone who wanted to come in. I am grateful to America, but I worry about her. The so-called leadership of today seems to be deluded or stupid, not sure which.
I apologize if I sound incoherent, but this invasion of muslims drives me mad at times. We do NOT need this (expletive deleted by me) at all. There are plenty of people in our country who could do with a job so why import a bunch of backward illiterate muslims? All they do is go on welfare (and yes, I do know this from extensive reading). Here in my state, most muslims are on welfare and I do not see why we have to support people who either passively or actively hate us because we are not muslims.
Let the muslims stew in their own countries. We do not need people who hate us, want to kill us because we are not muslims, we just don’t need this sh*t at all (sorry, forgot to delete the expletive).
However, this is why I support you, GOV, financially. You are fighting the good fight, one that I do not have the tools or ability to do. So there is another check coming your way soon.
I wholeheartedly agree! The United Nations is hell bent on destroying our national sovereignty if we let them. Brainwashing the gullible Millennials into their way of thinking is happening on Western campuses. Perhaps when our “snowflakes” become parents, they will wise up and clearly see the mass of third world refugees eating through our “entitlements” and ravaging our Kafir children like swarms of locus in a field of baby corn & wheat!
This Youtube video gives eyewitness account of military age Muslim men brought into Missouri on late night planes and given unearned, costly benefits by the UN Refugee Resettlement teams working with the U.S. Department of State. Unbelievable! Interview held March 2017:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3qXL6IB9YKE
Hmm… I am that non-defender of sacred cows, Dymphna. Your arguments defending the Hindus’ practices on practical, rather than religious grounds make sense.
My objection to the legislation was on the grounds of intolerance. Jews don’t eat pork, Hindus and Sikhs (in theory) don’t drink alcohol, but they (mostly) don’t try to prevent the rest of us from doing so. Muslims often do; hence my comparison. If cows are sacred, then we Beefeaters (with or without the silly costumes) will doubtless suffer in the afterlife, if any.
I reckon if God hadn’t meant us to eat animals, he wouldn’t have made them out of meat.
You poor English are so petrified of being thought “intolerant”. It has become the mortal sin, above all others. Nothing else comes close.
The Hindus don’t care if they’re thought intolerant of those who kill the animal they hold sacred. It’s a belief that existed long before the English were cowering over the idea of being thought intolerant. Ever since the Islamic hordes arrived in India they’ve persecuted Hindus and their beliefs, destroyed their temples, and killed them by the millions. It still goes on.
Cows are sacred to Hindus, and they’re entitled to make laws prohibiting the slaughter of their one particular animal they hold sacred. Since they’re not demanding that the rest of the world comply, this proposed law in their own land is hardly “intolerance”. The partition of India was supposed to have left the Hindus free to practice their own beliefs unmolested. That didn’t happen. Thus the Hindus in that province see the need to protect their totem animal.
Only a modern-day Englishman would find intolerance in such legislation. In one short century, England has changed from an infamously intolerant empire into a sovietized politically correct Big Brotherland with a camera on every corner and fines for what you put in your wheelie bins. People fail to protect vulnerable children for fear of being seen as “intolerant”.
By the way, people are made out of flesh. Why not eat them too? Otherwise, why did god make them so meaty? I’ll bet smoked Conservative tongue would be quite tasty. Especially when it becomes more and more difficult to get pork bacon.
I know next to nothing about the Hindu religion but I was taught as a child that Hindus revere cows because they fertilize the fields, as this video explains, they provide energy, the burning of cow dung and, they provide milk.
If I was living a subsistence life I too might revere them.
Probably most Hindus don’t live subsistence lives anymore but this reverence for the cow is part of their culture.
It seems to me that in the West we are very quick to toss various aspects of our culture. First we denigrate something and then we ban it from the public square.
In our rush to the bottom, we denigrate anything we don’t understand.
Here here.
The cow is sacred to the Hindu in many ways. My relatives aren’t exactly farmers. They live in multi-story houses in Kolkata. When I was last there for my cousin’s wedding, a cow was brought into the courtyard for the ceremony. It was garlanded with marigolds and prayers were said. The cow is a symbol for the blessings of God.
At Eid, the Muslims sacrifice animals to commemorate Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son. Traditionally, this is a goat, sheep or, if your family or mosque can afford it, a camel.
All three of these are available in India. Camels may be hard to come by outside of Rajasthan, but goats and sheep are found at any market.
Do you think that’s what Muslims in India sacrifice at Eid? No, of course not. They sacrifice cows, and you know why.
The Hindus hold the cow sacred, so of course, the cow it is.
The Eid sacrifice is of course a grim affair. The cow is tied down, usually in a painful position, for hours on end, while Muslims ululate and shriek allahu akbar and utter guttural denunciations of infidels.
Then the cow’s throat is slit and usually it is beheaded. They let it bleed alive for a while, so its dying cries can be heard as long as possible.
Then the head is held up by Muslim men, fierce grimaces on their faces. The message to the Hindus is clear: “You’re going to be next!”
Sorry for the delay replying, Vikram. This is shocking yet not altogether surprising.