You know this,
We should love all animals, birds, plants, and trees.
Because they are children of God, just like how we are.
But among these, Gomatha, or cow, is very, very important.
Because Gomatha is so selfless.
She would go, graze, come back, and give us milk so that we all become strong and healthy.
She produces more milk than is required for her own calves so that she can nourish us.
Today, mostly cows are there in dairy farms. They are fed, and they give milk.
But in olden days, it was not like that. Nobody used to feed them. They grazed on their own, produced milk, and nourished us.
Even today, they would do that.
That is the greatness of cows. That is the greatness of Gomatha.
Seeing this, once all the gods decided, 'We will go and sit in her body.' All the gods.
Where do gods normally reside? In temples.
Temples are great because gods live there.
In the same way, gods live in the body of Gomatha also.
Her body itself is a temple where all gods are present.
So, you can pray in front of Gomatha just like how you pray in a temple.
Ask for anything.
Even if you don’t pray, just being near Gomatha or serving her will help you a lot.
That itself is sufficient to give you knowledge.
What kind of knowledge? The greatest of all knowledge—spiritual knowledge.
What you learn in school is a small part of that knowledge only.
Whatever is useful in everyday life is what you learn in school.
You can say whatever you learn in school—languages, science, maths—are just 1 percent of spiritual knowledge.
Spiritual knowledge contains everything.
Spiritual knowledge is not acquired from books.
It comes to you when you do good things.
God would give you that knowledge when he sees that you are a good human being.
I will tell you one such story now.
Once upon a time, there was a boy called Satyakama. He had only his mother. His father was no more.
When he became seven years of age, he told his mother, 'Mother, I want to go to a gurukul and learn. Learn under a guru.'
And he asked, 'What is our gotra?'
Because for admission into a gurukul, the teacher would ask for the name of the gotra.
That used to be the identity those days, and also the mother’s name.
These two things—gotra and mother’s name—this is how people were identified those days.
Mother said, 'I don’t know our gotra. I forgot to ask your father.
You just tell the Guruji that you don’t know the gotra and that you are my son.'
Satyakama went to Bharadwaja Muni’s ashrama and told him that he wanted to learn.
The sage asked him, 'What is your gotra? What is your mother’s name?'
Satyakama said, 'I don’t know my gotra, but my mother’s name is this.'
Maharshi thought for a while and said, 'I will take you in.
Because you are truthful, honest.
You knew that if the gotra was not known, you might get rejected. You could have said the name of any gotra, but you didn’t do that. That means you are eligible for spiritual knowledge.'
Satyakama was admitted into Bharadwaja Maharshi’s gurukula.
The sage told him,
'Here are 250 cows, also bulls.'
The sage had picked the weakest among his cows.
'Take them to the jungle, take care of them well.
When they multiply to a thousand, bring them back to me.
Then I will teach you spiritual knowledge.'
See how it is. It is not like today, that you pay the fees, go to a school, and start learning.
Spiritual knowledge cannot be acquired like that.
Satyakama took the cows to the forest and started serving them. That was the only thing he did for so many years—only taking care of the cows.
Taking them to places where fresh grass was there.
When it was hot, taking them to shade.
Getting them water.
Protecting their calves from falling down hills.
Protecting them from wild animals.
One day, he realized that they had multiplied to a thousand as the Guruji wanted, and he prepared to take them back to the ashrama.
At that time, one of the cows walked up to him and said,
'You have taken care of us with dedication, very well.
Spiritual knowledge has got four parts—I will tell you the first part now.
The next part, fire will tell you.'
And the cow gave him the first part of spiritual knowledge. It was just a few words.
He started taking the cows back to the ashrama. Grazing the cows, he had come far away from the ashrama.
It would take him days to get back.
At night, when they halted, it started getting cold. He lighted a bonfire to keep the cows warm.
After some time, the fire started speaking.
'I am impressed with your selfless service.
I will give you the second part of spiritual knowledge,' and told Satyakama a few words.
And fire told him, 'The third part, a swan will tell you.'
On the next third day, when the cows were resting near a lake, a swan swam up to Satyakama and gave him the third part and said,
'The next part, a water hen would come and give you.'
The next day, at night, when they were resting under a banyan tree, a water hen came and told a few words to Satyakama.
That was the fourth part.
But Satyakama had not realized the importance of what had happened.
He reached back to the ashrama and told the sage,
'The cows have multiplied to a thousand now. Please start teaching now.'
But looking at the brilliant glow on Satyakama’s face, the sage had already realized what had happened.
He told Satyakama,
'Son, you have already received complete spiritual knowledge through your selfless service of the cows.
They are already planted as seeds inside you.
They are like keys to huge treasure chambers of knowledge.
These seeds will grow inside you on their own, and you will soon understand everything on your own.
I don’t have to teach you anything.'
This Satyakama achieved through selfless service to cows.
That is the greatness of serving cows, serving Gomatha.
When the greatest knowledge, the spiritual knowledge, can come by serving cows, your maths and science are nothing.
You should find an opportunity to go near cows, be with them, feed them, give them water, play with their calves.
You will become 1000 times more intelligent and knowledgeable than now.
