Cows - Gho Matha
Of all the species on earth, the cow is the only one who produces enough milk to not only feed her own calf but gives many times than what her own calf can consume. This is her unconditional, giving nature.
Gho Matha
Gho means cow, Matha means mother. The Vedas (the holy texts) praise the cow as Gho Matha. A human mother gives milk to us for a year or a year and a half. But the Gho Matha gives milk from the start of her life until the last year of her life. The cow Gho means cow, Matha means mother. got this special status not just because she gives milk. She is also useful for many other things in the physical life, like manure for cooking and fertilizer.
3 ways to support the program:
Gho Dhaanam
Cow offering
Gho Dhaanam (cow offering) is a project that donates cows to families living below the poverty line. These milkproducing cows not only provide the families with milk for their nutrition and well-being; the excess milk is sold to supplement their income.
Here, Sri Sakthi Amma donates a cow and its calf from the Gho Sala to a family with twin babies.
Gho Samrakshana
Save a cow from the slaughterhouse.
Gho Samrakshana (cow protection) is a project that rescues and takes care of cows. When a cow has aged and stopped giving milk, she is often considered a financial burden by her owner, and is sometimes sold to the slaughterhouse.
Sri Sakthi Amma has often said that no person has the right to end the life of a cow or any other living being, hence the initiation of Gho Samrakshana. Cows are bought from slaughterhouses and brought back to Sri Sakthi Amma’s cow sanctuary, where they live out their lives in peace; in a loving environment, in nature.
Anna dhaanam
Feeding cows
Anna Dhaanam for Gho Matha is providing food for the Divine Mother Cow. Because of her unconditional giving and sacredness, this is considered a very auspicious seva (selfless service)..
“A mother may provide her children with milk for a year or two, but then, from the day she stops through the rest of the children’s lives, it is the cow that provides the milk for them to drink.”
— Sri Sakthi Amma
“So from Kamadhenu we have all the lineage of all the cows. If someone has good character, we say it is from his mother. So the cows, what we are seeing in this world now, their origin started from Kamadhenu. So since Kamadhenu is from Divine, since it is from Amrita quality, all the cows have the quality of the Divine. That’s why we respect, honour and pray to the cow.”
— Sri Sakthi Amma
