Study a Verse

• In India, the cow is considered sacred not because Indian people are primitive worshipers of mythological totems but because Hindus intelligently understand that the cow is a mother.
• As children, nearly all of us were nourished with cow’s milk, and therefore the cow is one of our mothers.
• Certainly one’s mother is sacred, and therefore we should not kill the sacred cow.

The purport's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.

Civilizational dread → Dispassion. Social and cosmic impermanence expose the limits of worldly plans.

Chapters 1–4 of Canto 12: The deterioration of Kali and universal dissolution. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 3: The Bhūmi-gītā

From the chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

In Kali-yuga the legs of religion retain only one fourth of their power, and even that will be lost with the progress of the age. The mode of goodness is predominant during Satya-yuga, and the mode of passion is predominant during the Tretā-yuga.