By Advaita Acarya Dasa
Protecting the cows: If we accept the cow as our mother, she deserves our veneration and love. And we should protect her from all dangers. In Vedic times it was the duty of everyone, especially kings, to protect the cows at all cost. In the Vedic literature we find the revealing story of Emperor Dalip (an ancestor of Lord Ramacandra in the Sun Dynasty) and his commitment to cow protection. Once when Emperor Dalip was in the forest, he saw that a ferocious lion had gotten hold of a cow and was going to kill her. The emperor challenged the lion, "If you kill the cow, I will kill you. Let this cow go free!" The lion replied, "O pious king! For my food I must kill animals. If I let this cow go free, what will I eat? I'll die of hunger." Emperor Dalip thought for a few moments and replied, "O lion, if you let this cow go free, you do not have to die of hunger. I offer my body for you to eat! Let my body be your food!" As soon as Emperor Dalip lay before the lion to be killed so that the cow could live, the lion and cow transformed themselves into a divine man and woman. The lion was Dharma, righteousness personified, and the cow was Mother Earth personified. They had been testing the emperor's commitment to cow protection.