HOSANAGAR (SHIMOGA DISTRICT): Sri Raghaveshwara Bharati Swamiji of Sri Ramachandrapura Mutt said that Go Yatra would not stop until the slaughter of cows and crossbreeding come to a halt.

Addressing a gathering at the end of the 68-day State-wide Bharatiya Go Yatra here on Monday, he said, "This closing function is not to wind up the yatra, but it is the beginning of it. Cows should get rights to live naturally and die without any anxious moments."

The swamiji said the yatra, which was started with a motto of Go Samrakshane (cow protection), would now proceed towards the north from Sunday and reach Pathameda in Rajasthan, where a month-long yatra would resume on January 14 and end at Dwarka.

He said this nation-wide yatra would spread the message of cow protection and promotion of Indian breeds and unite people in the movement, he said and added that the cow was the real asset of India and the movement for its survival would be "the second freedom struggle".

He called upon cow lovers to join the world's biggest movement. He also asked the cow lovers to be prepared for any sacrifice to put a halt to cow slaughter.

The swamiji said it was the most eventful day in the history of the mutt because the footprints of the cows along with those of the cow lovers had fulfilled the cherished aim of the programme launched to ensure the proper protection of cows in the State.

He declared that the "Go Bank" (bank for the protection of the cows), which had come into effect with this programme, would take care of stray and abandoned cows under the aegis of the mutt by preventing them from being sent to slaughterhouses.

Sri Dattasharanananda Swamiji of Gopala Govardhana Go Shala of Pathameda in Rajasthan who maintains 2.5 lakh cows at his ashrama, Sri Mookappa Shivacharya Swamiji of Guddada Mallapur Samsthan Haveri and Dharanidharara Das Maharaj of Badri were present.

The Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, B.S. Yediyurappa, the MLA from Tirthahalli, Araga Jnanendra, the MLA from Hosnagar, Haratalu Halappa, journalist Soolebele Chakravarthy, Shafi Maulana U.K. Abdul Azeez Darimi of Mudigere and Fr. Vangu Paul D. Kunha of Sagar, and the president of the SDCC Bank, R.M. Manjunath Gowda, were present.

The Dharmadhikari of Sri Annapoorneshwari Temple of Horanadu, Bheemeshwara Joshi, welcomed the gathering.

More than 20,000 people took an oath administered by the swamiji of the mutt to protect the cows.

Earlier, the Bharatiya Go Yatra procession was taken out from Hosnagar town to the mutt premises covering a distance of six kilometres.

B.M. Kumaraswamy, environmentalist, spoke on cow-based economy at a seminar held as part of the function.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail