- Author: Vidwan Undaru Srinivasamurthy Acharya
- Translation : Prabhanjana Kalya
The Indian subcontinent is the land of spiritual realization. Here, the cow is revered. The cow is the abode of 3 crore deities and is worshipped daily. Every ingredient provided by the cow is consumed. It is only natural to reminisce about Sri Raghavendra Tirtha when the thought of a cow comes to our mind. All Vaishnavas venerate him with the term ‘namatAm kAmaDhEnavE’. Sri Raghavendra Tirtha bestows devotees with all that they wish for just as the wish fulfilling celestial cow kAmaDhEnu. It is only natural for the intellectual mind to seek, what Sri Raghavendra Tirtha has said about the cow. One wonders if he has referred to the cow in any of his compositions. The answer to that can be found in jyOtirupakramAdhikaraNa of tAtparyachandrikA prakASha. In jyOtirupakramAdhikaraNa, Shri Vyasarajaru refers to the commentary on mantrADHikaraNa of pUrvamImAnsa to justify the existence of dual meanings for words. Later, the duality has been asserted. Sri Raghavendra Tirtha in his commentary on jyOtirupakramAdhikaraNa gives us an explanation highlighting the importance of the cow thus:
yABhiryajatE yAscha dadAti tAscha gAvO na nashyanti, na taskarO harati, nacAmitrakrutO vyADhirupadravaha pIDayati, gOswAmI ca tABhissaha jyOk cirakAlam samsaktO BhavatIti gOstyutyarThatA lingEna
One who worships the deities, one who worships Indra and others through the cow will never be destroyed. Bandits will not kidnap him, enemies will not trouble him with witchcraft. The cow and its owner will live forever. The praises of the cow are thus outlined in prakAsHa. For those who set out to interpret the meaning in pUrvamImAnsa, Sri Raghavendra Tirtha has exemplified the cow, despite having the possibility of other meanings. The importance of the cow can also be seen in the vEda vAkya “na tA nashyanti na daBhAti … saha”. It is not very surprising to note that with a nature like that of kAmaDhenu, Sri Raghavendra Swami’s words from prakAsha increase the clarity in the meaning of the vEda vAkya. It shows the involvement he had for the wellbeing of the cow. We live in times when cow slaughter has become commonplace across the country, and Sri Raghavendra Swami’s message appears to tell us not to kill cows by showing us its importance and greatness.
Let us bow to Sri Raghavendra Swami who is synonymous with kAmadHEnu for enlightening us with the message from candrikA prakASha, signifying the importance and greatness of the cow.
