516 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 1, Ch. 10
PURPORT

The basic principle of economic development is centered about land
and cows. The necessities of human society are food grains, fruits, milk,
minerals, clothing, wood, etc. One requires all these items to fulfill the
material needs of the body. Certainly one does not require flesh and fish
or iron tools and machinery. During the regime of Maharaja Yudhisthira,
all over the world there were regulated rainfalls. Rainfalls are not in the
control of the human being. The heavenly King Indradeva is the controller
of rains, and he is the servant of the Lord. When the Lord is obeyed by
the king and the people under the king’s administration, there are regu-
lated rains from the horizon, and these rains are the causes of all varieties
of production on the land. Regulated rains not only help ample production
of grains and fruits, but when they combine with astronomical influences
there is ample production of valuable stones and pearls. Grains and
vegetables can sumptuously feed a man and animals, and a fatty cow
delivers enough milk to supply a man sumptuously with vigor and vitality.
If there is enough milk, enough grains, enough fruit, enough cotton,
enough silk and enough jewels, then why do the people need cinemas,
houses of prostitution, slaughterhouses, etc.? What is the need of an arti-
ficial luxurious life of cinema, cars, radio, flesh and hotels? Has this
civilization produced anything but quarreling individually and nationally?
Has this civilization enhanced the cause of equality and fraternity by
sending thousands of men into a hellish factory and the war fields at the
whims of a particular man?

It is said here that the cows used to moisten the pasturing land with
milk because their milk bags were fatty and the animals were joyful. Do
they not require, therefore, proper protection for a joyful life by being fed
with sufficient quantity of grass in the field? Why should men kill cows
for their selfish purposes? Why should man not be satisfied with grains.
fruits and milk, which, combined together, can produce hundreds and
thousands of palatable dishes. Why are there slaughterhouses all over the
world to kill innocent animals? Maharaja Pariksit, grandson of Maharaja
Yudhisthira, while touring his vast kingdom, saw a black man attempting
to kill a cow. The King at once arrested the butcher and chastised him
sufficiently. Should not a king or an executive head protect the lives of the
poor animals who are unable to defend themselves? Is this humanity? Are
not the animals of a country citizens also? Then why are they allowed to
be butchered in organized slaughterhouses? Are these signs of equality
and fraternity or nonviolence?
