I have often said no one should think that serving the cows is an ordinary kind of job. There is a very famous pandit in Vrindavan—I even have some of his books here—Haridas Shastri. He gave up everything to serve the cows. If we can serve the cows then we will give pleasure to Krishna. We have an expression, go-manyu. Manyu means anger. If the cows are displeased with our behaviour, then there will be inauspiciousness in the household. All the gods dwell in the heart of the cow; that is why she is called sarva-deva-maya.

This is why I say that service to the cows is not a commonplace activity. One of Krishna's names is Gopal. This is a special aspect of Krishna's pastime. He has so many cows, black ones, white ones. There are seven notes on the scale that Krishna plays on His flute—sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha and ni. So when He plays sa, then all the syamali or black cows would come running. When He plays the dha note, all the dhavali, or white cows come running to Him. They would come up to Him and start licking Him, and Krishna would rub and scratch them.

When Krishna left for Mathura, the cows completely lost their appetite. They stopped eating altogether. The mothers of the cowherd boys said to their sons—Sudama's and Sridama's mothers said to them, "Go and take the cows out to graze a little. Eat a little something yourselves and then go." Then they answered, "Mother, we stopped feeling hunger and thirst the day that our brother Kanai left us. You're telling us to take the cows into the fields, but they won't even look at the grass. They simply look up and moo for our brother Kanai to come back. Tears pour out of their eyes in torrents. That is the state the cows are in."

Krishna's friends go on, "And what will we eat? We cannot feel either thirst or hunger." Everyone is feeling the same way.