Question
“Cows are sacred” & at the same time “It’s only a sinful soul which gets born as an animal” - How to deal with this apparent
contradiction?
Answer
Cow is not animal its more than animal its demi god.. Then there is no contradiction.. similarly idol worship you have to see antaryami in idol as idol itself is not god.. idol in temple is higher because it conscreted with mantra.. similarly saligrama you have sanithana or presence of lord that you can only experience, hindusim is more experience rather than outside physical worship..when worship Cow what effect it creates on you that is experience, based experience of rishi Cow you should worship like mother because you drink milk and nourish from thy blood.
Note: “The question: ‘Cows are sacred’ & at the same time ‘It’s only a sinful soul which gets born as an animal’ - How to deal with this apparent contradiction?” is licensed by Stack Exchange Inc (https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/); user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA.