Hindus worship Cows?

Hari Haran shared World Hindu 

3 mins · 

World Hindu Updates

Q) Why do Hindus worship Cows?

Answer: )
We really don't pray to cows. 

We respect, and when we greatly respect out of love, we call it worship. Worshiping means paying particular attention, care and concern.

Hinduism is based on the concept of omnipresence of the Divine, 

and the presence of a soul in all creatures, including bovines.

 Thus, by that definition, killing any animal would be a sin: 

one would be obstructing the natural cycle of birth and death of that creature, and the creature would have to be reborn in that same form because of its unnatural death.

The cow has been a symbol of wealth since ancient Vedic times.

 However, they were neither inviolable nor revered in the same way they are today. 

India, being an agriculture society in its early days, found the cow useful not only for milk but also for plowing the land and for transportation. The cow was very important to the Older People, so they gave more importance to cows than the other creatures.

 Like you are more important to your parents than other people so they serve you more. So to respect cow is just like we respect automobile today. We care for the cars because it is a necessity. So instead of word "care", we might use the word "prayer" or "worship."

The cow was venerated as the mother goddess in the early Mediterranean civilizations. The cow became important in India, first in the Vedic period (1500 - 900 BCE), but only as a symbol of wealth.

the cow is considered a manifestation of God.

 It represents all the helpless animals that cannot talk. By respecting them it means we should not take advantage or harm them, but be lovable to all creatures.That's why We worship cows, we worship people, we worship our mother because we simply respect them all. We sincerely love them. We don't want to hurt them.

Worshiping does not mean that they have become God, but that God has manifested in them. To worship a cow means to worship all the helpless ones including the sick, poor, and old. The life of a worldly person will show that he is always worshiping where he finds himself as a benefactor; it is a selfish attitude. He will worship all that he has -- a house, a car, or money. To make more money some will want to study more; they will become doctors to make more money rather than to serve mankind.

There is nothing wrong in respecting or worshiping all creatures, including cows. We should really be worshiping the entire universe as the Gita teaches us. To worship means to respect, to love, and to dignify everything -- including ourselves.

Cows in Religion/Vedas:

The Puranas, ancient Hindu scriptures, have it that nothing is more pious than the gift of cows.

"There is no gift that produces more blessed merit." Lord Rama was given a dowry of thousands of cows and bullocks when he married Sita.

In the Mahabharata, we have Bhishma saying: "Cows represent sacrifice. Without them, there can be no sacrifice…Cows are guileless in their behaviour and from them flow sacrifices…and milk and curds and butter. Hence cows are sacred..."

The Earth (Prithvi) as, in the form of a cow.

Cow is Favourite animal of LORD KRISHNA.

"The cow is the mother because just as one sucks the breast of one’s mother, human society takes cow’s milk" - (Srimad-Bhagavatam)