Go

Go · go, “cow”

Grammar: feminine (and masculine) noun, go, nominative gauḥ: the cow (and the bull). It begins many compounds: go-dāna (gift of cows), go-pāla (protector of cows), go-kula (the herd and its settlement), Govinda.

Meaning: the cow, honoured as a form of Śrī Hari and, with the Veda and its knowers, as a root of dharma; her milk serves the homa, and her five products, the pañcagavya, purify.

In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa honours the cow throughout, and above all in the life of Śrī Kṛshṇa among the cows of Gokula.

A form of Śrī Hari and a root of dharma. Śrī Hari tells the Kumāras that the best of brāhmaṇas, the cows and the helpless are parts of his body and not different from him (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 16). Brahmā tells Bhagavān Varāha that Hiraṇyāksha brings harm and fear to the devas, to brāhmaṇas, to cows and to innocent beings (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 18). The devas tell Brahmā that his Satyaloka exists to bring increase, welfare, prosperity, well-being and victory to the knowers of the Veda and to the cows (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 3), and Śrī Hari tells the devas that whoever conceives great hatred toward the devas, the Vedas, the cows, the knowers of the Veda, the good, dharma and himself surely perishes (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 4). After freeing Gajendra, Śrī Hari names the cows among his forms to be remembered at dawn (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 8, Chapter 4). Kaṃsa‘s ministers tell him that the Veda, the cows, the knowers of the Veda, tapas and yajñas with dakshiṇā are the roots of the dharma in which Vishṇu dwells, and so they will destroy the knowers of the Veda, the tapasvins and the cows that give milk, the wealth of the homa (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 4). Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that the cows are one of the places of his pūjā, with Sūrya, Agni, the brāhmaṇa and the Vishṇu-bhakta; in cows and bulls he is worshipped with grass, water and the like (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 11).

In the world of men. Maitreya tells Vidura that because rajas predominates in them, humans and the cows and other beings that live with them obtained Bhūloka, and that the vaiśya, who arose from the thighs of the Virāṭ, carries on farming and the protection of cows (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 6). Sūta tells that while Arjuna was away at Dvārakā, Yudhishṭhira saw portents: cows and auspicious animals walked keeping him on their left, the calves did not drink, the cows gave no milk and wept, and the bulls of the settlement were not cheerful (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 14). Pṛthu prays that the knowers of Brahman, the cows and Janārdana with his bhaktas be gracious to him (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 21), and Maitreya says that in humility toward cows, elders, knowers of the Veda and the bhaktas of Śrī Hari, Pṛthu had no equal (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 22).

At the churning and the birth. At the churning of the ocean, when Lakshmī rose, the cows brought the purifying pañcagavya for her abhisheka (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 8, Chapter 8); before the amṛta was shared out, food was given to the cows and other beings (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 8, Chapter 9). At the birth of Śrī Kṛshṇa, Vasudeva made a saṅkalpa to give ten thousand cows (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 3); in Gokula Nanda gave two lakh adorned cows, and the gopas smeared the cows, bulls and calves with turmeric and sesame oil and adorned them with mineral colours, peacock-feather garlands, cloths and gold chains (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 5). Śuka tells Parīkshit that Śrī Kṛshṇa drank the milk of Yaśodā and the other mothers and of the cows; if even Pūtanā reached svarga, need it be said that the cows and mothers whose milk he drank attain the very highest state (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 6).

The calves and the cows of Gokula. When Brahmā hid the calves and the boys, Śrī Kṛshṇa himself became them, tied each calf in its own cowshed, and entered each boy’s home as that boy. The cows came home lowing, licked their calves and fed them. When the cows grazing on Govardhana‘s peak saw the calves far off, they ran heedless of herdsmen and path, streaming milk, and even cows with young calves at home fed these calves and licked them; the love of the mothers and the cows grew every moment (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 13).

The forest fires. Śuka tells that while the gopālas were absorbed in games, the herds, drawn by the grass, wandered into a dense reed forest, thirsty in the summer heat and crying out; the animals were the gopālas’ livelihood, and their minds were troubled. Śrī Kṛshṇa called the cows by name in a deep voice like the roar of a cloud, and they lowed back with joy. When a forest fire closed around them, the gopālas and cows were terrified, and Śrī Kṛshṇa, the protector of the cows, freed them (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 19); the gopas later recalled how he had freed the cattle and boys from the fire (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 26).

The flute and the forest. With Balarāma, the cows and the gopālas Śrī Kṛshṇa entered Vṛndāvana; the milch cows, slow under their udders, hurried with milk flowing when he called them (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 20). The gopīs say that the cows raised their ears to drink the amṛta of his flute, embraced him in their minds through their eyes and shed tears of joy, and that Govardhana gives green grass to the cattle (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 21); later they say that on hearing his song and seeing his form even cows, birds, trees and beasts thrill (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 29). The gopālas let the cows drink clear, cool water (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 22), and in the search for Śrī Kṛshṇa one gopī imitated him playing the flute and calling the distant cows (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 30).

The Govardhana pūjā and the rains. Śrī Kṛshṇa proposed to Nanda a yajña honouring the cows, the brāhmaṇas and the mountain with the materials gathered for the Indra-yāga: grass to the cows and naivedya to the mountain; and with the herds in front the gopas circled the mountain (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 24). When Indra‘s rain fell, the cattle, gopas and gopīs, shivering with cold, took refuge in Śrī Kṛshṇa; the cows covered their heads, sheltered their calves under their bodies and came to his feet (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 25). Nanda recalled Garga‘s words that this boy would delight the gopas and cows and that through him they would cross all dangers (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 26).

Govinda. Then Kāmadhenu, the divine cow, came from Goloka with Indra and her offspring the cows, and said to Śrī Kṛshṇa: “You are our protector and our supreme devatā; bring welfare to the cows, to the knowers of the Veda, to the devas and to all the good.” She performed his abhisheka with her own milk, and the cows made a flood of milk on the earth. Indra then gave him the title Govinda, explained in the text as “the one who protects the cows” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 27).

The cow in the Bhavishya Purāṇa. The cow is of the nature of all the devatās and is worshipped even by the munis. One circles Gomātā, touches her with the hand and says: “O Devī, you are of the nature of all the devatās, worshipped even by the munis. So I too touch you. Be the destroyer of the pāpas of me who bow to you.” One who recites this and circles the cow with śraddhā and bhakti has the fruit of circling the earth; this go-pradakshiṇā comes on the way to the homa (Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 31).

Their care. The milk of cows is examined at intervals of a paksha or a month, for land, grass and the time of grazing raise milk and ghee. The cows are milked without troubling the calves. Five kinds of cow are given tender grass equally: the old cow, the cow in calf, the cow in milk, the cow with a young calf, and the cow with a bull-calf a little into its second age. Bells are tied at their necks, and the herds stay in forests free of disease, snakes and evil bhūtas, with plenty of grass and water (Brahma Parva, Chapter 12).

Omens. Cows losing their lustre are a Sūrya-born utpāta. Cows running in the house with tails raised bring terrible suffering for the women of that house, and cows crying out in the house are among the utpātas born of the graha Budha (Madhyama Parva, Bhāga 3, Chapter 20).

Rules. One never passes stool or urine facing a cow, or in a cow-pen or on the paths of cows. One who uses a cow as a draught animal to earn money and then uses that money eats pāpa itself (Uttara Parva, Chapter 205).

The word for a ray. In the Brahma Parva, Nārada names Go among the twenty words for the rays of Sūrya: Heti, Kiraṇa, Go, Raśmi, Gabhasti, Abhīshu, Ghana, Ugra, Vasu, Marīci, Nāḍi, Dīdhiti, Sādhya, Mayūkha, Bhānu, Aṃśu, Saptārci, Suparṇa, Kara and Pāda (Brahma Parva, Chapter 78).

Related terms: Go-dāna · Gokula · Govinda · Kāmadhenu · Pañcagavya · Gopa

Sources

• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 14; Skandha 3, Chapters 6, 16, 18; Skandha 4, Chapters 21–22; Skandha 7, Chapters 3–4; Skandha 8, Chapters 4, 8–9; Skandha 10, Chapters 3–6, 13, 19–22, 24–27, 29–30; Skandha 11, Chapter 11
• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapters 12, 31, 78; Madhyama Parva, Bhāga 3, Chapter 20; Uttara Parva, Chapter 205