The fruit of serving cows, is that you realize the reality of this world. Of this mortal existence. It is full of misery and misery alone. Truly speaking, there is no joy here at all. What we think of joy is also misery, if thought deeply. Same is said in the yoga sutras - ‘दुःखमेव सर्वं विवेकिनः’.
But how serving cows leads us here? If you serve cows, consistently and long enough, you get to understand their nature. They are also living beings with memory and emotion. You understand them, their life, their problems, their condition. And you begin to feel love for just about any cow you see.
Usually we do not look carefully at beings. That is why we cannot see their misery, and that is why we do not feel anything for them. If you look at an injured ant carefully, you can feel sorry for him. But normally we do not look carefully.
So, now you feel love for any cow you see. Btw, this is also a good criteria for ‘love’, that is, feeling love for any and every, and not for selected ones. If you only feel love for your own cow, then it should be called attachment and not love.
Compare it to humans. If a person feels love for any human he sees, then he is verily in love, not in attachment. But this does not happen. Also because humans are very varied. Cows, or any animal, is not so varied. They retain their core nature to great extent. The range for human is too large. He can be below the lowest creatures, and he can be above even the gods (devas).
The current situation in the world is not very good for cows. The most important culprit in this is modernized, industrialized world. In old times, when there were no fast moving cars, no concrete roads, no plastic mess, and less population, cows lived a better life.
All they need is grass and water. They roamed in the villages, in the grazing area around the villages, near the lakes and ponds, and they lived comfortably.
And in the village, they were actually needed. The bull was used for farming and carrying load. The cow for milk. They were very much a part of the family. In South India, in old family photographs, they would include their cow!
The cities, in old times, were not so dense as they are today. Population in the world has sharply risen in last 100-150 years, mainly because of advancement in medicine, and modern agriculture and transport.
Today, the condition of cows in modern cities, especially big cities, is worst of all places. I am talking of India. Outside India, I think the cows don’t roam around freely. They live in decent places. But they are ‘livestock’ for them, and are killed for their flesh.
In India also, they are killed, but not in such organized and default manner as the foreigners. Here, it happens illegally and due to that, in much worse fashion. Cows are trafficked in pathetic conditions in trucks and taken to slaughter areas. The muslim dominated areas are especially known for such slaughter. Before partition, this was much more common in much of Haryana. Because there were many muslim areas. But after partition, things improved greatly.
Slaughter is one big issue, of course. It is direct misery to the cow. No being wants to die. Even an ant runs if it senses danger. This is because every being identifies himself with his body. And when they sense a danger to the body, they think it is a danger to their own existence. If the body perishes, I shall too perish. I will cease to exist. This is what a being thinks. And that is why it tries to avoid it. Why? Because the real nature of all beings is all-existence. Something which never ceases to be. And every thing follows its real nature. So, the being does not want to ‘not exist’. That is why it fears death.
And even at death, there is great misery. Birth and death are spoken of as two greatest miseries in spiritual literature. So, one direct misery to the cow, is being killed. And it is happening at various places even at this moment.
Second misery, which is not as direct, but is much more at scale, is lack of proper food. The cow in cities roams around searching for food. There is no grass here. Just concrete roads, scorching summers or chilly winters. Every locality has some cows around. Unless it is a closed locality with gates. These cows, go around searching for food. Very often, we see them in front of houses, where people offer them some food. This is very common in India. But unfortunately, at waste dumping areas, we see lots of cows. Why? Because the cows are hungry. And the waste, which is mostly polythene containing stuff, has some food. Leftover food, bad food, or whatever. But hungry cows think it better than no food. So, they stay around such waste areas, and eat this food.
But what they do not fully understand, is that polythene is not to be eaten. Even mother earth cannot do away with it in a million years. So definitely the stomach cannot digest it in a few hours. The cows do try to avoid the polythene and get only the food. But sometimes, it is not just too hectic and due to the intensity of hunger, they just eat it whole. Then, it stays in their stomach. Slowly their digestion worsens. And their health deteriorates. Their feces starts giving bad smell (A healthy cow is perhaps the only animal whose feces doesn’t give bad smell).
And they slowly suffer and die early.
And finding water in North Indian summer is no easy task. They are often seen drinking from rainwater on the streets, or various sources that are not worth drinking.
All they need is clean water and grass. And it is available plenty on this Earth. But circumstances are such that the cows do not have good access to these.
Part of the reason is that they cannot speak like humans. They cannot ask for water. And they don’t think like humans. They don’t think that it is better to move out from this city to some better areas. They think, but not at that scale as humans. They do not have maps. They are mostly meant to be given correct environment. And then they can stay much happier.
If humans decide to take the cows to better areas, from bad areas, this alone will relieve them of much misery. Just like for humans, a slum is a bad place to live, compared to a posh sector. So for cows, there are good and bad places to be in.
Coming back to miseries. First is direct misery, the cow may be killed. Or harmed. Which is not uncommon today. The poor cows suffer death and pain.
Then, misery of hunger and thirst. And of poor living conditions. No grazing or roaming area.
Then, fear from other animals. Fear from dogs, and other animals who can harm them. Dogs, especially, because dogs are also available in plenty in the cities. And depending on the situation, they sometimes go well with the cows, and sometimes they don’t. When they don’t, cows suffer greatly. The non vegetarian dogs, especially, are harmful to cows. I have seen good vegetarian dogs who used to live well with cows, become non vegetarian and then harming the cows.
This clearly shows the effect of non vegetarian food on the mind. Dogs are a clear example to prove this.
Another misery, is taking care of a small child. The cow gives birth. And the child stays with the mother. It follows the mother. The mother protects the child and loves him greatly. But due to poor circumstances, what could have been a source of joy, becomes misery. Because now, the mother has to feed herself and the child. She has milk to give, but milk forms only when she herself eats well.
In total, there are countless miseries in a cow’s life. And these miseries are much more pronounced in today’s modern world.
Now, given the fact that you feel love for the cows, which btw, is not only in the ‘feeling sorry’ sense, but also as pure admiration. Because, you see, the cow has a particular tendency, a particular way of being. And this particular way is very admirable. She is naturally innocent, curious, dignified, harmless, peaceful, considerate, loving, generous and faithful.
Given the fact that you feel love for cows, how can you be happy? Because at any given moment, the cows are not happy. Certainly not all the cows out there. Infact most of them are not, speaking of today.
At best, you can try to forget about them. Like those living in a gated society, who can forget about the outer conditions of Indian cities. Inside, they can live happily. Likewise, we can just forget about the cows.
But this is no solution. The only solution to this problem, is a shloka from Gita,
नासतो विद्यते भावो नाभावो विद्यते सतः ।
उभयोरपि दृष्टोऽन्तस्त्वनयोस्तत्त्वदर्शिभिः ॥ 2.16 ॥‘The unreal has no existence, and the real never ceases to be; the reality or both has thus been perceived by the seers of Truth.’
The unreal (this mortal existence which changes every second) has no existence, and the real (the changeless Atman) never ceases to be.
So, the cows do face misery. And are even being killed. But what is the loss? The inner Atman is not affected one bit. It cannot be killed.
The body dies, the jiva takes another birth. And the person who does harm to another, faces the consequences in due time. There may be a problem with the justice system in this world. But the justice of karma cycle has no problems. It works perfectly and comprehensively.
But you will need to agree on a few things here,
You cannot state that there is happiness in this world. Simply because the cows suffer constantly. With them suffering, how can you declare happiness?
Second, you must realise the nature of this mortal existence. It is really misery and misery alone. This is true for all beings, not just cows.
Third, if you must declare happiness, you must do it from a different state than this mortal existence.
If this is all a dream, you must get out of it. Inside the dream, there is no happiness. Because the cows suffer in the dream.
That is the fruit of serving cows.