Gandhi, the "Father of the Nation of India", once said: "Respecting and protecting cattle is the noblest act of mankind, this kind of behavior can make man transcendent, the cow represents all living things, and the cow is the mother of the people, the embodiment of love." ”
It is well known that Indians have enshrined cattle as "holy relics" and have greatly worshipped cows and everything on their bodies. But this obsession is not another obsession, in India, the status of cattle is higher than that of people.
India during the famine once presented such a absurd scene: hungry and emaciated people sitting helplessly on the road waiting for death to come, while the majestic cattle were still wandering freely on the road. In addition, it is said that Indian trains were stopped by a passing cow.
Indians' worship of cattle is far more than just "giving way to cattle", not long ago a People's Party member of India announced his "anti-epidemic experience", saying that drinking cow urine can effectively resist the new crown virus, in addition, Indian folk also bury dead people into cow dung can be resurrected, and even some parts of India have a special "Songkran Festival".
It is estimated that in addition to indians, the vast majority of earthlings will find these deeds very outrageous, so why do Indians obsess over cattle to such an extent?
Derived from the needs of life, the mount of the Lord God Shiva
The indians' emphasis on cattle can be first glimpsed in the Indus civilization. Since the Vedic era, with the continuous development of ancient Indian society, people have gradually regarded the cow in daily life as a holy relic and worshipped it, and the cow has become a symbol of wealth and the embodiment of the gods.
Indian scholars believe that the vedic era was mainly because the nomadic people at that time were extremely dependent on cattle, cows could produce milk, transportable land, and even manure could be used as fuel, and cattle with such abilities were almost more reliable companions than humans.
In the long run, cattle became "holy relics" in India, and Hindu texts of the Vedic period explicitly prohibited the killing of cattle and the prohibition of eating beef.
In India, a religious country, more than 80 percent of the country is Hindu, and the practice of treating cattle as "holy relics" is written into the teachings of Hinduism.
In Hindu mythology, the cow is the mount of the main god Shiva and the messenger of the god, and in their view, each cow rides on the back of The Lord Shiva and is touring the land of India. Hindu teachings elevate cattle to the level of second only to God, and Hindu believers believe that if they want to reincarnate in this life, they must be kind to cattle in this life.
Today, India has long been separated from church and state, but long-standing religious beliefs have been deeply rooted in the soul of Indians, and their reverence for cattle has been continued from ancient times to the present.
One might wonder, cows can't eat while they're alive, but what about dead? The answer is no.
According to the data, the number of old cattle and sick cattle in India ranks first in the world, and India has special places to shelter old and sick cattle, and even these cattle have subsidies. When the cow dies, its carcass is also pulled to be cremated or buried, and it is still not allowed to eat.
Do not believe in science, believe in ghosts and gods, the decline of a great civilization and ancient country
In Ayurvedic medicine in India, cow dung is highly antibacterial and can be used not only as fuel, but also edible, and cow dung is used as a disinfectant for women during childbirth in some areas with extremely low medical standards.
As far as religious beliefs are concerned, as the messenger of God, the things on the body of the cow are naturally "holy products", and they cannot eat beef, and milk and even cow dung and cow urine have become treasures in the eyes of Indians.
Many Indians believe that cow urine can prolong life and eliminate diseases, so they will drink cow urine every day, even if they are sick, they will look forward to relying on cow urine to cure themselves. The Indians' attitude toward cow dung is even more outrageous, in their eyes cow dung can not only be eaten, but also smeared in the house to drive away evil spirits, and if people see cow dung on the road, they will also go forward and smooth it into a cake shape with their bare hands so that they can be dried for later use.
As mentioned earlier, indians have a "Songkran festival" and a "resurrection ritual" that buries the dead into cow dung, in addition to which they have a special drink, which is made of milk, cow urine, cow dung, curd, and ghee, which is said to have a miraculous effect on curing all diseases.
There are also companies in India that sell cattle excrement as medicines, toothpaste, and weight loss products, and these products are still very popular. However, in fact, cow urine and cow dung do not have any medicinal value, cow urine and other organisms of the urine, is only the biological body metabolism after the production of waste, the bacteria, diseases and eggs are easy to endanger human health of harmful substances.
Recently, India has launched a cow dung chip, which is said to be radiation-proof, which has attracted the attention of countries around the world, but obviously this is not a good product, otherwise the mobile phones in our hands may have "tasted" now.
The only normal role of cow dung in India may be to make fuel, but using cow dung as fuel will produce air pollution, and Indians also like to burn cow dung indoors, which leads to the life expectancy of many Indians is greatly shortened. However, Indians obviously do not believe that cow dung produces substances that are harmful to the human body, and still continue the original habit.
In April 2014, the Indian state of Medya spent a lot of money on a grand wedding for two cows, hoping that the future of the place can be smooth and prosperous. It's hard to believe that this will happen in the 21st century, and Indians obviously believe in ghosts and gods more than science.
As one of the four ancient civilizations, China's science and technology and culture have long been ahead of India. Taking its essence and removing its dross is a necessary step in historical development, China is already a world power, but India is still showing a feudal and backward image, and the Indian government has even solidified the people's belief in ghosts and gods for the sake of profit, which is really sighing.
Human life is inferior to that of cattle, but the belief in sacred cows ignores human life
In order to show their respect for the cows, Hindus not only list the cattle in religious places for worship, but also hold a grand cattle worship festival every year, during which people will put wreaths made of leaves and flowers on the neck of the cow, paint the horns of the cow in various colors, hang coconut fruits and sweet cakes, sprinkle "holy water" on the cow, and finally bow down in front of the cow.
Even in India's popular elections, leaflets will print cows and calves on the leaflets as symbols so that illiterate people can vote. It can be said that cattle have become the national symbol of India.
However, in stark contrast to the "sacred cow" is India's attitude towards human rights, especially women.
Not long ago, there was several news in India, first in May a thirteen-year-old girl was abducted, raped by four men in three days of captivity, and then she had to escape the poisoners, full of hope to go to the police station to report the crime, and was raped by the police.
In June, another mother and daughter were tricked into getting into the bus while waiting for the bus at night, and as a result, the mother and daughter were gang-raped by the owner and his accomplices, and it is worth mentioning that the little girl who was raped was only 6 years old. Such an astonishing frequency of crimes is enough to prove how hot Indian women are, and it is ironic compared to the reverence of Indians for cattle.
The Indian movie "Pad Man" presents people with various unfair treatment of Indian women due to physical problems in society and life. In India, menstrual women are regarded as unclean and even morally deplorable, and even women have an inexplicable sense of shame about their menstrual period because of their own environmental influences. In the film, the heroine said such a sentence: "Shame is the biggest disease for women." "It shows the status of women in India.
Interestingly, the status of women in Hinduism and the status of Indian women in reality are actually diametrically opposed. The Sakti Sect, one of the three major sects of Hinduism, is an independent sect that is completely goddess worshipper, and there are only a few sects that have put the goddess in the sole dominant position around the world.
Leaving aside reality, from the perspective of Indian religious literature and literary works, the status of women is not low, for example, the Indian writer Tagore, who we are familiar with, said: "The development of material civilization has made people, especially men, fall into the trap of power desire, and women have become a force that balances male civilization because of the characteristics of their natural status." They are the bond between human nature and the pan-natural god, and they become the embodiment of God. "While worshipping goddesses and discriminating against women in reality, India's differential treatment of the two is puzzling.
There are "miracles" in the fight against the epidemic, when will India make progress
On the other hand, in the face of the new crown, India is almost in a state of "pendulum". When the new crown first began to run rampant in India, the anti-epidemic action from the government to the private sector seemed to have gone astray. The government has taken the lead in preventing and treating the new crown with "folk remedies" such as drinking cow urine and smearing cow dung, and even relaxing epidemic prevention measures, and India has almost returned to the normal life when there was no epidemic in the past.
Unsurprisingly, the rotting indian corpses are all over the field, and the new crown virus is spreading in India like a "wildfire", and the WHO said that the epidemic in India may become a "time bomb" and endanger the world.
India's obsession with cow dung and cow urine can also be regarded as protecting India's natural environment from another point of view, but India's cattle are too many, the number is high in the world, and these cattle can not be sold, cow urine and cow dung These will be bought by locals, which has no practical help to the Indian economy.
Instead, Indians not only feed their cattle, but also provide them with pensions, which in turn creates a financial burden on themselves. But religious ideas have become deeply rooted in India, and with the support of the Indian government, India's cattle and people have almost become a symbiotic relationship, and cattle are the link between man and God, and based on this relationship, the status of cattle in India may continue for a long time.