Why Sri Krsna didn’t mention milk ?

Maneka Gandhi: “Ayurveda actually lists milk as one of the five white poisons’”
“I have written a book on Hindu names for which I had to read every single sastra. Nowhere was there any mention of milk being drunk. There is ghee mentioned and that too for havans. “

“A person who is fully absorbed in Krsna consciousness is sure to attain the spiritual kingdom because of his full contribution to spiritual activities, in which the consummation is absolute and that which is offered is of the same spiritual nature. Bhagavad Gita As It Is Chapter 4 text 24.

Partial purport of His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:
“Krsna consciousness is the process of converting the illusory consciousness into Brahman, or the Supreme. When the mind is fully absorbed in Krsna consciousness, it is said to be in samadhi, or trance. Anything done in such transcendental consciousness is called yajna, or sacrifice for the Absolute. In that condition of spiritual consciousness, the contributor, the contribution, the consumption, the performer or leader of the performance, and the result or ultimate gain–everything–becomes one in the Absolute, the Supreme Brahman. That is the method of Krsna consciousness.”

The karma of modern day cows in not very good, they earned that in their last lives, but refusing to offer or drink their milk does nothing to improve their karma, while offering their milk products to Sri Krishna benefits their souls, those who take care of them, and us. Bhagavan Sri Krishna is a Transcental Cowherd Boy and He loves cows and milk, butter, ghee, milk sweets, cheese, yogurt, cream, etc. So do His devotees.

“Foods in the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one’s existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. ” 17 Text 8-10

Partial purport by His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:

The purpose of food is to increase the duration of life, purify the mind and aid bodily strength. This is its only purpose. In the past, great authorities selected those foods that best aid health and increase life’s duration, such as milk products, sugar, rice, wheat, fruits and vegetables. These foods are very dear to those in the mode of goodness. Some other foods, such as baked corn and molasses, while not very palatable in themselves, can be made pleasant when mixed with milk or other foods. They are then in the mode of goodness. All these foods are pure by nature. They are quite distinct from untouchable things like meat and liquor. Fatty foods, as mentioned in the eighth verse, have no connection with animal fat obtained by slaughter. Animal fat is available in the form of milk, which is the most wonderful of all foods. Milk, butter, cheese and similar products give animal fat in a form which rules out any need for the killing of innocent creatures. It is only through brute mentality that this killing goes on. The civilized method of obtaining needed fat is by milk. ”

namo brahmanya-devaya go-brahmana-hitaya ca
jagad-dhitaya krsnaya govindaya namo namah

“My Lord, You are the well-wisher of the cows and the brahmanas, and You are the well-wisher of the entire human society and world.” The purport is that special mention is given in that prayer for the protection of the cows and the brahmanas. Brahmanas are the symbol of spiritual education, and cows are the symbol of the most valuable food; these two living creatures, the brahmanas and the cows, must be given all protection–that is real advancement of civilization.

I think this is a great position to start from

roughly translated this means “one who worships Krsna must use his head”. Literally “catura” means “cunning”. I share this because I propose the following.

Prabhupada is inviting everyone to employ their discrimination in serving Krsna according to their realization. More than one position can be “right” depending upon the thought process of the sevaka. Krsna is bhava-grahi janardana – he understands our inner motives and receives our service accordingly. Consequently…

- a simple devotee may simply offer milk to Krsna without being aware of the ugra-karma behind it’s production – and Krsna will accept it
- someone who finds the dairy industry abhorrent may choose to shun dairy products and Krsna would appreciate such sentiment
- someone who is aware of but indifferent to the suffering of cows and happy to justify their position may fool themselves but not the Lord – if one’s conscience works then the practices of the dairy industry should be disturbing
- hopefully all who claim to be followers of Srila Prabhupada have taken time to think about the varnasrama vision that he laid down and illustrated through farming communities. We should be exercising our minds how to help bring about such a civilisation. It is one of the seven purposes of ISKCON about which there is scarily little awareness and, therefore, considerable neglect. Srila Prabhupada wanted thoughtful men
- of course, if our veganism or anti-veganism is all part of our wanting to feel better than others – more realized, more noble, more enlightened – then Krsna also sees this

the desire to have one, absolutely “right” position may be a symptom of being somewhat immature in our realization

I agree with all your points, am vegan myself, but don’t object to taking dairy from protected cows (though wouldn’t take much even if available as my cholesterol is high).

One thing that I have a problem with is Kurma’s article, eps this part:

“Allow me to explain. Everyone benefits. If the cow’s milk is offered to God in sacrifice she will be elevated to a human birth next life. The cow is one birth away from human birth, and if she is allowed to live out her life, she will move quickly upwards. If her milk is offered to God, she will go straight to a human birth, but not any human birth – a birth in the Mode of Goodness, a happy and peaceful human birth.”

This may be true, yet as you stated at the beginning, if this is the case then we’d be better offering factory farmed dairy to ‘help’ all the cows who are suffering the most. But then why did Srila Prabhupada start cow protection, if it’s benefiting the cows that are being slaughtered – wouldn’t they need the help more?

The argument used time and time again is we’re ‘helping’ the cow, but it’s full of holes and really just justifies not changing our diet which we have for so long got attached to and all the while ignored Prabhupada’s instructions on cow protection. I highly doubt most devotees are thinking of saving the cows whose milk they are consuming. If they did there may be some hint of a case for it, but as I see it it’s often simply wanting to enjoy ice cream and pizza etc with no guilt.

This is proved when the issue is brought up to some devotees, who get angry about it, their only recourse is ‘Prabhupada did it’, and refuse to deal with the issue and just think everything’s fine the way it is. So out of touch with reality, which is that almost anyone that cares for animals makes the step to veganism when they learn of the modern dairy industry – and yet devotees still seem to think they are like demons! I even heard that said in a class one day, with an ‘assumed’ shastric evidence that people who don’t drink milk are ‘demoniac’. It’s very sad, and delusional, for people to think they’re above criticism just because they offer their milk to Krishna. Is Krishna so cruel a God that he DEMANDS milk, even at the price of the calves (and mother cow) being killed?? I somehow don’t think so.

If we really care for Krishna and the cows, we’d make an effort to supply cruelty free dairy, and in the absence of such, offer fruits and vegetables as He states in the Gita. The idea that milk *has* to be offered has crept in somewhere like so many other fallacies and myths and ‘Prabhupada saids’ without thinking about it properly.

When devotees start to face the issue honestly only then will a change happen, and pave the way for farms to do what Prabhupada wanted and supply all the centres with milk that isn’t obtained by torture and death…. peace

Thanks for the info.

I have come across a coupole of different explanations for this.

One is that your body alters it’s intake based on availablity. When you have a pile of incoming B12 your body need not store as much or maintain a high blood level of it. You are going to keep piling it in.

The other is that the main reason for deficiency is not availability, it is low absorbtion.

Something else is that those who decided how much you should have are not the people who do the actual research, but those who use the research. As with most vitamins we are led to believe that the more the better. Which is almost always not the case. In this way most of the ‘requirement’ levels are way overstated.

There is also the issue of analogues. Heroin addicts are given heroin ‘analogues’ that get them high but also at the molecular level hang on to the receptors much longer than the real heroin molecule. This works to reduce their dependence on the actual heroin, the analogue does not cause the same ‘high’ level of dependence that original does.

Scientists trying to prove that you must eat meat to get B12 use this process to claim that analogue B12, such as spirulina*, is a B12 analogue and it hangs on to the receptor longer, tricking the body to believeing it has enough B12, the real stuff is flushed thus causing a reduction in blood B12 because your body alters it’s intake based on availablity.

The B12 debate remains unresolved. The main problem is that most of the reseatch is carried out using money from the powerfully rich agricultural-industrial complex.

*spirulina is a bacteria that makes B12, it is often called blue-green. B12 is manufactured by bacteria in the soil, in water and in the guts of mammals including humans. It is believed tha the destruction of the health of soil reduces the amount of B12 absorbed by plants to almost zero. A great advertisement for organic foods.

I am no doctor so don’t ‘believe’ me.

Sorry for the rant

Our bodies need so little of it, it makes you wonder how much is actually known.

It *is* nice to know a vegan nutritionist (with a degree!)(in nutrition!) …

The normal range is 211 to 911.

I scored 210.

I was surprised it was that low because I am not a vegan. I eat various cheeses and yoghurt and assumed it would be okay. Which basically it is okay and not an issue. I don’t drink fluid milk.

I don’t know how this relates to the subject, just throwing it in.

One thing that has come to mind is how devotees are really, really discouraged from getting jobs where they’ll be working around meat. The idea is that even serving meat ties you up in the karma of killing the animal.

Granted, milk being offered *does* alleviate your karmic reaction, but, as Ghosh said, that’s coming really close to sinning on the strength of the holy name. It’s not like killing cows is the same as pulling up carrots.

It’s all sorts of messy and I’m glad that I don’t really have to deal with it. I’m vegan, problem solved.