Behold Bharats Blessed Bovine!
Rajasthan Cow Festival 2014
Dinodia.com/Arun Mishra
In October of 2014, Hinduism Today's editor-in-Chief, Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami, received an urgent call from India Swami Gopal Sharan Devacharya (Hinduism Today's Hindu of the Year, 2009) to join him and dozens of other swamis for the culmination of a nine-day festival honoring cows at the Shree Pathmeda Godham Mahatirth in Rehsil, Rajasthan, and the nearby Manorama Goloktirth in Nandgaon. He traveled to India with Sannyasin Yoginathaswami. Far off in a remote area of Rajasthan they had the joy or participating in an extraordinary event that revealed the persistent reverence the Hindu community has for the cow, and highlighted efforts to protect the species and to craft a compassionate place for the holy bovine in a threatening modern world.