View source for There is a class in India, cobbler. Their business is to take away the dead animals, especially cows

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[[Category:There Is]]
[[Category:Class]]
[[Category:India]]
[[Category:Cobbler]]
[[Category:Business]]
[[Category:Taken Away]]
[[Category:Dead]]
[[Category:Animal]]
[[Category:Especially]]
[[Category:Cow]]
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<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
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<div id="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="0" parent="Lectures" text="Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures"><h3>Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonBG167HyderabadDecember151976_0" class="quote" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" book="Lec" index="393" link="Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Hyderabad, December 15, 1976" link_text="Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Hyderabad, December 15, 1976">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Hyderabad, December 15, 1976|Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Hyderabad, December 15, 1976]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">There are two kinds of cleanliness. Outside, externally, we take bath by soap or by soda, by oil. We cleanse external body and internally by cleansing the intestine, the heart, the mind, the consciousness. That is internally cleansing. And external. Both cleansed one must be. Bāhya abhyantara-śuciḥ. Yaḥ smaret puṇḍarīkākṣaṁ sa bāhya abhyantara-śuciḥ. Because they are not śuci... Śuci means brāhmaṇas, always cleansed, hygienic. That is śuci. And muci. Muci means cobbler. There is a class in India, cobbler. Their business is to take away the dead animals, especially cows. Other animals, they do not care. They are taken by the vultures and others. But when a cow is dead, that is very important. Cow is alive important and dead also important. It is so important. When the cow is dead the skin is valuable, the hoof is valuable, the horn is valuable, the bones are valuable. Everything is valuable. Just like elephant. Dead or alive, it is one lakh of rupees. The price is the same. That is the... Because elephant is very costly, everyone knows. You cannot... One lakh of rupees. Unless one is king or a big zamindar he cannot purchase elephant, neither he can keep. And if the elephant is dead, that is also one lakh of rupees because it contains the ivory bones, very, very costly. So there are animals; either dead or alive, the price is the same. Similarly, cow, dead or alive, the price is the same.</p>
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<div id="LectureonBG167HyderabadDecember151976_1" class="quote" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" book="Lec" index="393" link="Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Hyderabad, December 15, 1976" link_text="Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Hyderabad, December 15, 1976">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Hyderabad, December 15, 1976|Lecture on BG 16.7 -- Hyderabad, December 15, 1976]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">So this cobbler... Just like we are protecting cows. We cannot kill for the skin, but these asuras, they are killing thousands and thousands of cows for getting the skin, only for the skin. So if you are interested in the skin, if you are interested in the flesh, so at least wait for the time the animal will die. There is no doubt about it. So at least let him, let her die natural death. Why you should kill? You can take at that time the skin, the bone, the hoof. Whatever you like, you can take, the flesh. So in India there is a class. They are called cāmāra. They are called opposite, muci. Śuci and muci. The first class is śuci, brāhmaṇa, and the last class is the muci. The last class men, muci, they... As soon as your animal is dead you give them information. They will come. They'll take the animal. They will get the skin for nothing. So they'll tan it and make shoes for selling. So they will get the raw materials free of charges, so they can make shoes. Tanning with oil and keeping it in the sunshine, the skin becomes soft and durable, and then you can prepare shoes. A class of men, muci. So there was no problem. And the bones you gather together and keep in a place. In due course of time it will become very good fertilization. And they can eat the flesh also. Only the cobbler class, the muci class, they eat this cow's flesh after taking the dead animal. So after killing, everyone eats, so why not wait for the natural death and eat it?</p>
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<div id="Sri_Caitanya-caritamrta_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="3" parent="Lectures" text="Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures"><h3>Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures</h3>
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<div id="LectureonCCAdilila71AtlantaMarch11975_0" class="quote" parent="Sri_Caitanya-caritamrta_Lectures" book="Lec" index="20" link="Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.1 -- Atlanta, March 1, 1975" link_text="Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.1 -- Atlanta, March 1, 1975">
<div class="heading">In our country, muci, the cobbler, is taken as the lowest of the mankind, narādhamāḥ, because their business is when the cow dies, so the mucis are prepared to take away the dead cow or bull. They eat the flesh, and they take out the skin and the bones for their business.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.1 -- Atlanta, March 1, 1975|Lecture on CC Adi-lila 7.1 -- Atlanta, March 1, 1975]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">You must remain always very clean. Śucīnām, that is called śuci. And muci means unclean, cobbler. Śuci and muci. So don't become muci. (laughter) Yes. Uncleanliness is muci, cobbler. They are dealing always with skin, and bad smell, and no bathing. So in our country, muci, the cobbler, is taken as the lowest of the mankind, narādhamāḥ, because their business is when the cow dies, so the mucis are prepared to take away the dead cow or bull. They eat the flesh, and they take out the skin and the bones for their business. Muci prepare shoes. He gets the skin for nothing, without any payment. He doesn't have to invest his capital, and he nicely cleanses it, tans, and then prepares shoes and sell in the market. So get the money. And the muci class, they eat this flesh, meat. But they are given the opportunity when the cow is dead, not by slaughterhouse. That is not in the Vedic scripture. The dead animal, you can eat. Those who are fond of eating fish and meat, they can eat when the animal is dead. Not killing. That is not very good thing. So the muci class, their business is to take the dead... After all, everyone will die. The animal will die also. Even if we keep the cows, don't kill, it will die. So some cow is dying here, some cow is dying there. Just like the vulture, they eat dead body. So dead body must be there. So they have no scarcity of dead bodies. They can find out dead body. They go three miles above to find out where is the dead body. So that is also sense gratification. So in this way there are classes, śuci and muci. Śuci is the first-class, cleansed internally and externally human being, and the muci means the low class, very unclean, eating the dead meat, cows and bulls. So Kṛṣṇa says, "Even one is fallen, he gets his birth in the family of śuci." Śucīnām. Just like in our society there are small children. You see their behavior. They are coming, offering flower, offering obeisances. That means they are not ordinary children. They have got the opportunity to take birth in the family of Vaiṣṇava, father Vaiṣṇava, mother Vaiṣṇava. And he is getting the opportunity of Kṛṣṇa consciousness from the very beginning of life. This is called śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe ([[Vanisource:BG 6.41|BG 6.41]]).</p>
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<div id="Initiation_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="8" parent="Lectures" text="Initiation Lectures"><h3>Initiation Lectures</h3>
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<div id="InitiationLectureBostonDecember261969_0" class="quote" parent="Initiation_Lectures" book="Lec" index="21" link="Initiation Lecture -- Boston, December 26, 1969" link_text="Initiation Lecture -- Boston, December 26, 1969">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Initiation Lecture -- Boston, December 26, 1969|Initiation Lecture -- Boston, December 26, 1969]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Muci means the most nasty cobbler. He eats everything and does all nonsense. He is called muci. Muci means cobbler. In India, when a cow or bull dies, these muci class are called to take away the carcass. So they take it away and they take out the skin and tan it for... This is the original system of shoe-making. And make some shoes and sell in the market. But not by killing cows. When it dies. So this business is done by the muci class. And they take the flesh also. After taking out the skin, the flesh they take. Therefore they are considered very low class, muci. And śuci means brāhmaṇa. So Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura says, muci haya śuci haya. A cobbler, muci, can become a śuci, yadi kṛṣṇa bhaje, if he's Kṛṣṇa conscious. That's all. If he's Kṛṣṇa conscious, never mind he is a cobbler, he becomes immediately brāhmaṇa. Muci haya śuci haya yadi kṛṣṇa bhaje. Śuci haya muci haya yadi kṛṣṇa tyaje. And even if he's born in a brāhmaṇa family, if he gives up Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he's immediately cobbler. So don't lose this opportunity. Always remember Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa. (laughter) Don't become cobbler.</p>
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<div id="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="section" sec_index="5" parent="compilation" text="Conversations and Morning Walks"><h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
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<div id="1975_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="8" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1975 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1975 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="RoomConversationwithBernardManischewitzMarch51975NewYork_0" class="quote" parent="1975_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="23" link="Room Conversation with Bernard Manischewitz -- March 5, 1975, New York" link_text="Room Conversation with Bernard Manischewitz -- March 5, 1975, New York">
<div class="heading">The higher class, they keep cows, they maintain, but after all, the animal will die. So when the animal dies, they call for this cobbler class, and he takes away the dead cows. So he gets out the skin, hooves, bones and flesh, they eat, and this skin is tanned by them, and they prepare shoes. So they get their raw material without any price.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Room Conversation with Bernard Manischewitz -- March 5, 1975, New York|Room Conversation with Bernard Manischewitz -- March 5, 1975, New York]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Bernard Manischewitz: You know I'm in the food business, so my first question deals with my food business. I'm familiar with the Kṛṣṇa cookbook—I've read the recipes—but I do not see any suggested menus or nutritional information, and I'm wondering if there's any thought that's been worked on that. Is there any background of menus or nutritional information?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. Nutritional information means that we require for balance food: starch, carbohydrate, protein, fat. What else? Starch, carbohydrate, protein, fat. These are necessary nutrition, but these things are there in vegetable diet. Rice, starch; wheat, protein; dahl, protein; then vegetable, carbohydrate; and milk, fat. So if we take food and test it within these four, five groups... Eat according to our conception, sattvikaḥ. Sattvikaḥ means foodstuff in goodness. There are three qualities in the material world—goodness, passion and ignorance. So they are described: these are goodness foods, these are passion, these are ignorance. So these items: rice, wheat, vegetables, dahl and milk is sufficient for nutrition. Above that, you take little fruit, it is very good. And in India this foodstuff is taken by the learned circle—brāhmaṇas, kṣatriyas—and they keep very good health, very good life.</p>
<p>Bernard Manischewitz: This is on experience, on the experience that they have.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. This is experience. You will find many healthy persons in India subsisting only on these foodstuffs, and they have good brain also. India is still, I think, eighty percent people are strictly vegetarian. Not to speak of the higher class, but the lower class also. The higher class, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya and vaiśya. Vaiśya is via media, between higher and lower. And the śūdras and less that the śūdras, caṇḍālas, they are lower class. So meat-eating is current among these lower class of men, śūdras and caṇḍālas. The caṇḍālas, they have no discrimination, they eat everything, and śūdras, they eat meat, but under restriction. Some of them do not; some of them do, but under restriction, and that is restricted with the goat animal. Less than the śūdras-caṇḍālas, pañcama, fifth grade—they eat everything. Especially they eat—because cow protection in India is very strict—so these caṇḍālas, fifth grade men, they eat generally pigs. Pigs they eat. Outside the village, they have their residential quarters, and they fry live pigs. And they make... Not daily; sometimes. But they eat pigs, and amongst them, there is a class—they are cobblers—they eat this cows' flesh when the animal is dead, not living and we'll kill.</p>
<p>Bernard Manischewitz: He dies his own natural death?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes. Because the higher class, they keep cows, they maintain, but after all, the animal will die. So when the animal dies, they call for this cobbler class, and he takes away the dead cows. So he gets out the skin, hooves, bones and flesh, they eat, and this skin is tanned by them, and they prepare shoes. So they get their raw material without any price.</p>
<p>Bernard Manischewitz: I see, yes. (laughs)</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: They are poor class. So our program, "When he will die," so they wait for the death of the animal and get the skin, hoof, bones, they make trade. (to devotee:) So what is this key, the elmira?</p>
<p>Devotee: No, that is a little spoon for your tilaka.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Oh. So cow is very important animal. So from religious point of view, or from economic point of view, cows are not allowed, in the Vedic civilization, to be killed. The meat-eaters, they are everywhere, all over the world, but in India meat-eating is allowed—the fifth class, fifth grade community, they eat these cows when it is dead. And the śūdra class, they also eat meat restrictively, goats. That is only under certain restriction, means sacrifice.</p>
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<div id="RoomConversationwithDevoteesAugust11975NewOrleans_1" class="quote" parent="1975_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="165" link="Room Conversation with Devotees -- August 1, 1975, New Orleans" link_text="Room Conversation with Devotees -- August 1, 1975, New Orleans">
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Room Conversation with Devotees -- August 1, 1975, New Orleans|Room Conversation with Devotees -- August 1, 1975, New Orleans]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Jagadīśa: Cobbler?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Cobbler is less than śūdra. Yes. Cobbler means when the cows die, the cobbler may take it. If he wants, he can eat the flesh, and he can utilize the bone, hoofs. He can prepare... He gets the skin without any price. So he can make shoes and he'll make some profit. And because he is cobbler, he can be allowed to eat meat, fifth-class... Not that "Professor such-and-such," and eating meat. This is the degradation of society. He is doing the work of a brāhmaṇa—teacher means brāhmaṇa—and eating meat-Oh, horrible!</p>
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<div id="1976_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="9" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1976 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1976 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="MorningWalkJune271976NewVrindaban_0" class="quote" parent="1976_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="168" link="Morning Walk -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban" link_text="Morning Walk -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban">
<div class="heading">Muci, yes. Their business is shoe maker. So when the cow is dead, they take it, they eat the meat and take the skin and the hoof. They make business without any, what is called, investment.
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Morning Walk -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban|Morning Walk -- June 27, 1976, New Vrindaban]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: This business of simply taking economics into consideration...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: They do not. Rascals... How to live, they do not know. Animals. There is a class of men in India, they take, I told you, the dead body of a cow.</p>
<p>Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Cobblers.</p>
<p>Dhṛṣṭadyumna: Mucis?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Muci, yes. Their business is shoe maker. So when the cow is dead, they take it, they eat the meat and take the skin and the hoof. They make business without any, what is called, investment. Harer nāma ([[Vanisource:CC Adi 17.21|CC Adi 17.21]]). That is economic. He gets the skin without any price, and he makes shoes and gets full profit. But that is for a class of men, not for all. Economic gain for a cobbler is not the economic gain for a brāhmaṇa. "One man's food another man's poison."</p>
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