In the ever-tightening race for soft drinks to win the taste buds of the masses, the competition might soon come from cow urine—in India, at least.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist group, is currently developing a soft drink made from cow urine that will be called “gau jal,” which is Sanskrit for “cow water.” A flavor for the beverage hasn’t yet been determined, but the head of the Cow Protection Department, which has overseen most of the planning, has assured us that “it won’t smell like urine and will be tasty too.”
Cows are considered holy in India, and their urine is believed by many to have medicinal properties. Some Hindu groups, including RSS, say cow urine can cure illnesses including liver disease, obesity, and cancer, and it is sometimes drunk during religious festivals.
The new soft drink will mix cow urine with ayurvedic and medicinal herbs like aloe vera and gooseberry, and is intended to help the Hindu group’s effort to “cleanse India of foreign influence and promote its ideology of Hindutva, or Hindu-ness.” Though no release date has been set for the drink, it is currently undergoing laboratory testing and could be ready by the end of the year.
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Image: Flickr / Brian Teutsch
February 17th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
MMmmmmmm! How ’bout a nice tall frosty glass of urine!
February 17th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I’ve been peed on by cows, having lived on a farm. I felt something other than cleansed and renewed.
February 17th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Judaism and Islam have one god. The Church of Rome enjoys three! three! three gods in one! plus saints, angels, and demons pushing past four figures. Hindus have 36 crores of gods – 360 million deities.
http://www.godchecker.com/
Given empirical observation, one might posit that good times are one step to the left of the other side of the curve.
February 19th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Didn’t know the article was talking about how many gods religions had, but yeah. Anyway, Hindus in fact have one god, though he/she/it can appear in many forms. That’s some knowledge for you. Have fun with it.
May 26th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
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May 27th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
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