significance of cow worship

[Guest guest]

dear friends

 

in the following post, narration of sage jabali and his preachings

inlcuding the significance of cow are given. in the next post, i

detail about the specific cow worship and all benefits of it.

 

with best wishes

pandit arjun

 

=============================================

dear shiv bhakts

om namo bhagawate rudraya

 

this is a good question, for both the mother jabala and her son

satyakama jabali convey several moral lessons to the humanity. the

story of jabala also appears in mahabharata.

 

jabala was a shudra woman soliciting various men in which process

she begets a son and names him satyakama jabali. she teaches him

all right values and ask him to always speak truth. practicing what

she preached, when the son asks who is he and what is his father's

name, she tells the truth that she does not know from whom he got

him. when satyakama visits sage haridrumata and request him to

accept him as his disciple and teaches all the shastras, the sage

asks for his gothra and father's name. satyakama tells the truth

exactly what her mother tells him. the sage concludes that only a

brahmin can speak truth like this and accepts him as his disciple.

 

but, instead of teaching the shastras the sage asks satyakama to

take a herd of cows and take care of them. satyakama does not feel

this work as a shame and start helping the cows graze the fodder

with love. the number of cows keep growing in hundreds and the task

becomes difficult. at this point, vayudeva, agnideva and suryadeva

enter into the cows and ask him to take the cows back to the sage.

while going back they teach satyakama jabali all shastras. seeing

jabali, the sage appreciates him for illuminating with brahmajnan

and ask him to set up an ashram on his own as he has become a guru

himself. but jabali insists that only a shastra learnt through a

guru has value and requests the sage to teach the shastras. after

learning the shastras from the sage, jabali does a tapas invoking

the grace of lord subhrahmanya (also called as kartikeya, skanda,

shanmuga, saravana, murugan) and learn all the secret

tatvas.

 

afterwards sage pippalada approaches jabali and requests him to

teach his knolwedge. the lessons that jabali taught to pippalada is

known as "jabalopanishad". jabali emphasised that shiva is the lord

of all sentient beings including animals and humans. similar to

animals grazing grass and obeying to their master, humans also obey

to the pashupati lord shiva. pippalada asks jabali how to

get "gnan" (knoweldge or wisdom) to which jabali says that

by "bhasma dharan". he also elaborates how to pick up vibhiti with

panchabrahma mantras, recite "agniriti bhasma" mantra and then make

it wet with "manastoke tanaye" mantra and smear it on head,

forehead, chest and arms. the top first line represents brahma,

middle line vishnu and the lower line near the eyebrows represent

lord shiva. jabali says that whosoever wears tripundra dharana

(three lines bhasma dharana) will attain salvation and has no

rebirth.

 

when rama was in aranyavaas, jabali asks rama to go back and rule

the kingdom (just to test lord rama) to which rama replies that as

the adage goes "yatha raaja tatha praja" he has to stick to the word

given to his parents and if he does not stick to his word, he loses

the right to rule. then jabali worships lord rama.

 

once rutambhara, king of tejopore was not having a child despite

having several wives. rutambhara prays to jabali and requests for

blessing him to have a child. jabali asks rutambhara to worship a

cow saying that all gods and goddesses dwell in a cow. but that cow

was eaten by a lion and then jabali asks him to worship another cow

and donate it to a brahmin. later rutambhara is blessed with a son

named satyavanta.

 

the highlight of jabali is that he suggested that anyone who worship

a cow would get the blessings of all gods and goddesses. godaan is

the best daan. also anyone who beats a cow would get their hands

amputated and consigned to hell.

 

jabali figures in the list of holy 116 sages.

 

in praise of lord shiva and with best wishes

pandit arjun

/

 

, Jabali Muni

<jabalimuni wrote:

>

> I come across two names in Upanishads "Jabala "and "Jabali" . Are

they two different persons? I would like to know more about

Satyakama Jabali.Can any of the Shiva bhaktas elucidate me?

>

regards,

>

Jabalmuni