All souls are equal; only bodies differ—surrender to the one God through bhakti is the universal religion.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.16.19 — July 9, 1974, Los Angeles 740709SB-LOS ANGELES [29:55 Minutes] SB-01.16.19_740709SB-LOS ANGELES Prabhupāda: [leads singing of Jaya Rādhā-Mādhava] [break] [04:49] Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse, etc.] kaccid bhadre 'nāmayam ātmanas te vicchāyāsi mlāyateṣan mukhena ālakṣaye bhavatīm antar-ādhiṁ dūre bandhuṁ śocasi kañcanāmba [SB 1.16.19] [08:50] "Dharma [in the form of bull] asked: Madam, are you not hail and hearty?
Why are you covered with the shadow of grief? It appears by your face that you have become black. Are you suffering from some internal disease, or are you thinking of some relative who is away in a distant place?" Actually, the cows... When I was in New Vrindaban, our Kīrtanānanda Mahārāja purchased one cow without calf.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So that cow was actually crying, because the calf was taken away for slaughtering. It is not that they have no soul, they cannot understand, they have no feeling, but they are helpless. Everything is there.
The butchers, the cow slaughterer, or their supporters, they say wrongly that the animal has no soul. This is a rascal philosophy. Why animal has no soul, the question should be. Here Yamarāja is addressing the cow as amba, mother. "Why you are so unhappy, from your face it appears?" So Yamarāja was foolish man, that he is addressing a cow as mother?
This is civilization. It doesn't matter one is appearing as a cow or a man or a dog or a demigod or a civilized man, uncivilized man. One who knows that the soul is there... Unless there is soul, how Yamarāja is asking the cow, "It appears that you are very much bereaved.
So what is the cause, mother, of your bereavement?" So this culture, that Yamarāja is asking an animal, mother... Without any soul? No. Everyone has soul.
The rascals, they do not know it. One has to become paṇḍita. Paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ, in the Bhagavad-gītā it is said. So those who are actually learned, they know.