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SB 1.16.18 (1965)



His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada



TEXT No. 18

Dharmah pada ekena charan vichhayam up alabhya gam Prichhati sa ashruvadanam vivatsam iva mataram.


ENGLISH SYNONYMS

Dharma—The Personality of religious principle, Pada—leg, Ekena—by one only, Charan—wandering, Vichhaynm—overtaken by the shadow of grief, Upalabhya—having met, Gam—the cow, Prichhati—asking, Sa—with, Ashruvadanam—with tears on face, Vivatsam—one who has lost her offspring, Isa—like, Mataram—the mother.


TRANSLATION

The Personality of religious principle Dharma in the form of a bull was wandering. And he met the Personality of earth in the form of a cow who appeared to be aggrieved like a mother who had lost her child and thus she looked with tears on her face. She lost the beauty of her bodily feature and thus Dharma asked the earth as follows.


PURPORT

Bull is the emblem of moral principle and the cow is the representative of the earth. When the bull and the cow are happy in joyful mood it is to be understood that the people of the world are also happy and are in joyful mood. The reason is that the bull helps production of grains in the agricultural field and the cow delivers milk the miracle of aggregate food values. The human society therefore maintains, these two important animals very carefully so that they can wander everywhere in cheerfulness. But at the present moment in this age of Kali both the bull and the cow are now meant for being slaughtered and eaten up as foodstuff by a class of men who do not know what is Brahminical culture. The bull and the cow can be protected for the good of all human society simply by spreading the Brahminical culture is the topmost perfection of all cultural affairs because by advancement of such culture only morale of the society is properly maintained where by peace and prosperity of the society attained without any extraneous effort for them. When Brahminical culture deteriorates the picture is televisioned by the above description of the cow and bull and the resultant action is prominent by the following symptoms.