Om Surabhyai Namah

- By His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami

Om Surabhyai namah! Om Sri Gurave namah!
The recently launched Visva Mangala Gou Gram Yatra in Kurukshetra on September 30, 2009, heralds the momentous 108-day historical sacred pilgrimage around India to save our cows, to save our villages, and to save mother earth herself. With the continuous ten-minute shankhnad (blowing of the conch) by world-renowned shankhwadak Shri Shavantha, this unprecedented event is a  tribute as well as a pledge on the part of the organizers and the participants to bring about not only a revival but indeed a complete overhaul against the present misdirected policies of modern leaders towards restoration of the natural traditional village lifestyle upon which the protection of cows and the land is only made possible and for which a total ban on cow slaughter in India and around the word is an absolute must.
Many prominent dignitaries and saints representing different religions organizations from around India gathered at the historical site of Kurukshetra where Lord Krishna officially delivered the perennial teachings of the Bhagavad-gita 5,000 years ago before embarking in what the Founder-Acarya of ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada, referred to as the first World War in Kali Yuga.
The main inspirational force behind this event is Gokarna Peethadhishwar Shankaracharya Shri  Raghaveshwar Bharati Swamiji who had successfully sponsored the national Go-Sammelon two years ago at his Ramachandrapur Mutt in South Karnataka where he safely preserves the only remaining 33 species of indigenous cows in India. He appealed to the countrymen to protect the cow and the villages: “The Gou Gram Yatra is an attempt to create an army of dedicated people who can fight against the atrocities on the cow. In real sense, the First World War was fought for mother Sita. The second World War was fought for Draupadi and the mother earth and the third World War will be fought for the cow”.
Also present for the grand opening was the head of the Madhava Sampradaya Saint H.H. Pejawar Swami Shri Vishveshteertha who stressed the need to protect four things— Gou(Cow), Gram(Villages), Gita (Bhagavad Gita) and Gayatri (Gayatri Mantra symbolizing Brahminical Culture): “One of the reasons of growing terrorism in the country is that we have tiger as the national animal. The tiger symbolizes ‘terror’, while the cow symbolizes peace and prosperity. Therefore, we must declare the cow the national animal forthwith to restore peace and prosperity in the country.”
At the end of the auspicious ceremony, all the leaders present took a solemn oath whereby they pledged to restore peace and prosperity in India by protecting our mother cow and by rebuilding the traditional village life.