Though it is difficult to exactly translate it to English, here are the meanings of the words — vishwa – universe/universa, mangala – propitious/conferring happiness, go – cow, grama - village, yatra - journey/trip.

The objective of the yatra is to to scientifically explain the masses about the economic value of cow in agriculture and medicine. And more importantly, to create an awareness among people of India about the dwindling cattle population. Cow has ever been considered divine in the Indian culture, but as time passed, cows have merely become a source of revenue. Worse still, once a cow ceases to be productive, it is sent to a Slaughter House.

‘Viswa mangala go grama yatra’ aims at:

1. Saving cattle from slaughter houses.
2. It also aims at improving the situation of farmers across the nation through dairy farming as the cow shelters set up in various locations are not in a position to accommodate all the aged and disabled cattle.
3. Creating a mass memorandum to urge the union government to form a separate ministry for conservation of cattle, to enact laws for the conservation of its indigenous species by preventing artificial insemination from western species.

The yatra is being promoted by Sri Raghavendra Bharati Swami of Ramachandrapur Math. It started on Sep 30, from Kurukshetra in Haryana and covers 20,000 km in 108 days.

There would be upa-yatras (sub yatras) at the district/taluk levels. This unique initiative is being supported by Dr Pranav Pandyaji of Gayatri Parivar, Sri Baba Ramadev, Sri Vidyasagar of Digambar Jain, Mata Amratanandamayee, Sri Dayanand Saraswati Swami, and other eminent persons.

Let us hope this Yatra would bring in the necessary awareness to the country’s masses. We could contribute to the move by saying NO to meat sourced from Slaughter houses.