It's Either Cow Protection or Cow Slaughter
BY: DUSYANTA DASA
Mar 09, UK (SUN) — I took up the Cow Protection programme at Bhaktivedanta Manor in the early eighties, and at that time I assumed that this is what cow protection is all about. The Cow Protection programme at Bhaktivedanta Manor has made significant steps forward since those days under the guidance of Shyamasundara Prabhu. It's definitely a feather in his cap, well done.
My attempt herewith is not a critical analysis of cow protection but rather an idea, explanation and defining written overview of my conceptions of what I think we must establish to achieve the level of input and understanding from devotees globally to properly achieve cow protection. For my part, I believe faithfully in Srila Prabhupada's teachings and instructions on this matter and that He has set out an overview and outline understanding of cow protection, and why it is so important.
When we come to perceive and accept that our lives literally depend on the cows and bulls, then we may have reached the point in time that we can establish cow protection in all its glory. For us to survive, exist and nourish ourselves in this world we have to sustain our bodies. And this is where our symbiotic relationship should be with cows and bulls. In symbiosis there is a two-way type relationship, the first being a personal one-to-one relationship with each cow and bull, and the second being an Economical Community spirit based relationship with integral internal economy-community.
The dynamics of community life would easily fill a book and there are many component parts in establishing community. But our business is not just community, but the whole deal is basing our community on a symbiotic cow protected economy. It's not having cows hanging around with red handmarks on their sides, with old maha garlands around their necks. We really have got to move away from this concept and label.
In community all component parts are integrated with each other, otherwise community is just a bunch of people living in physical proximity. For devotees not familiar with the idea of community dynamics, there are books out there to indicate the definitions of how community exists. It's rather similar in ISKCON to what we call sadhana. At 4.30 am there is Mangala Arati and so forth, chanting 16 rounds, Deity Greeting and Bhagavatam Class, and of course Prasadam. We have established regulative activity all set up, and we follow this on a daily basis.
Community is similar to this activity. Firstly we have to define the dynamic of community and establish the activities we follow on a daily basis. Community is not something indefinable, something spontaneous, that may come later but initially we have to outline the definition of community -- issues such as problem solving, inclusiveness, type of management and organisation, how the economy runs, communication and participants. In community the responsibility for cow protection is shared by all the participants and so the economy is fluid enough to expand, the community is dependant on itself for all its requirements. It's like a mini-society, self-reliant, self-sufficient, and the participants depend on the cows and land for wealth and the skills and techniques to function. It's defined by Srila Prabhupada as "self-independent". Community depends on cows and land to exist. That's a massive important dynamic of community.
The alternative to community, based on protected cows and land, is to just follow the ordinary society that is established on capitalistic and democratic values. This means that the majority are exploited by the few and that animal slaughter is a key factor. Either we fit into that capitalistic, exploitative, industrialised society that exists around the globe, where countless animals are slaughtered everyday for all sorts of reasons, or we establish cow protection and base our economy on cows and land in a symbiotic-relationship with the community at the heart of it.
The agrarian lifestyle is more simple, less technological, using reusable energy, organic foodstuffs, more community centric, less traveling requirements, self-reliant and self-sufficient, community spirited depending on each other's contribution, responsibility, techniques and skills, which are all handed down to the next generation. All these skills are not lost but enrich our lives and we view each other in a more inclusive way because we all depend on each other for all our requirements. Nothing is lost, but all the wealth circulates around the community and increases.
The capitalistic way means money comes in and money goes out and no real wealth is ever generated because only a few ever benefit from the capitalistic way, and the many are always poor. In community there is only equality and even meetings are held in an open, circular way.
For many of us devotees who have been in Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON for many years now, it may be that community and cow protection have passed us by and we have not really understood, defined and experienced community, cow protection and agrarian lifestyle. Many devotees accepted the path of just dovetailing their propensities in Krsna Conscious activities without fully realising the foundational life style of "simple living"! We have two paths that we are trying to establish simultaneously, but one path has been over-emphasized to the detriment of the other.
We are all involved to some degree in Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's Sankirtana Movement and we understand this path well. The life of Sadhana at the official ISKCON temple is well defined and we all know that path. But have you ever heard a person say, "I love my job". Many non-devotees express their happy feelings of satisfaction just through the everyday accomplishment of their working life, so can you imagine working in devotional service, I mean through your varna. How many of us can identify our varna and define it like we can our asrama, sadhana, Sankirtana? How many of us LOVE our varna?
This is the path we have not established. This path has been mistakenly missed by following the other path in an imbalanced way. This path is the lifestyle of the devotees, their varna, their community where they can depend on cow protection in a symbiotic relationship with cows and land as the basis for their economy. As well as having recognised temples where devotees can come together for the purpose of association and worship, we also in balance have to have community that is separate from the temples, where the community of devotees practise their varna based on cows and land. Simple Living and High Thinking are successfully resolved so there is no burden on the ISKCON temples of worship, and an exemplary example of agrarian lifestyle without cow slaughter is established.
In fact, both scenarios are bold examples for preaching, but business has to be separated from the temples so that economy has its rightful place in the community, and temple devotees are not encumbered with financial activities, and thereby the Purity becomes the Force, not money. As we have seen, mixing financial matters with temple activities has been the downfall of many a devotee. Accountability, support and emotional temptation have all taken their toll on devotees and ISKCON has lost many devotees on account of this.
We have to establish two separate identities that function with different goals for the betterment of the members of ISKCON. There are no protection facilities in place, and so the dynamic of accountability is lost and exploited. The devotees who are raising their consciousness and trying to progress through the modes of nature don't stand a chance of success in this environment. The influence on the three asramas, except grihasta, is just materialistic and the Force of Purity is minimised and the standard is diminished. Essentially this means in practical terms that we need to separate the two paths, the temple worship/preaching with the devotees who run this activity being of the utmost purity and example that we have, and then the second path of community that is based on cow protection and cows and land as the basis for the symbiotic economy.
If we don't set up our own ISKCON economy, then we are implicated into the capitalistic economy, dependant on industrialisation, animal slaughter and exploitation. We have to have economy, but its where we place our faith that matters. Devotees who live in a temple situation are maintained by that temple, but the rest of the devotees are not maintained by the temple and this area has not been addressed fully by ISKCON.
The natural environment for devotees to live in is in the mode of goodness, the countryside, and this ties in perfectly with cows and land as the basis for a devotee economy. What do we need to live? We need shelter, we need food, we need energy, a simple life. We only need technology for preaching purposes and all the concomitant facilities only for preaching, otherwise the tendency, as we have all seen, is that we can be carried away with electricity, technology, money and especially accountability.
We join ISKCON for spiritual life because we have all reposed our faith and love in Srila Prabhupada's instructions, words and His mission. If we are able to become involved in so many facilities that misdirect our independence to take us further away from our original path, then we have to give them up. That is why we must accept the mode of goodness as our living place, as our nourishment, as our way of economy. Then when we come in contact with the technological and monetary facilities in our preaching life, we are not affected by them. Our personal accountability remains high and importantly our integrity, honesty and transparency are pure and incorruptible. With the cows at the centre of our lives, literally, there is way less chance of temptation to supermarkets, cinemas, computers, TV, the opposite sex, intoxication, and so on. And so the quality of devotees lives increases and improves to at least the mode of goodness, thereby maintaining a steady population of devotees and more importantly a continuity, so the "roll-on roll-off" movement of devotees is stopped. At the end of the day we can take shelter of the community that we belong to and recognise our place within that community. The shifting paradigm of devotees as labour entities is redundant because our community is established and our identity is resolved.
We are able to preserve the heritage that has been handed to us from Srila Prabhupada and honestly and earnestly take His mission forward in the Sankirtana Movement as well as establish the real alternative lifestyle of agrarian living with cows and land in a symbiotic relationship based on our own economy, without exploitation and animal slaughter. We then have the perfect community for the devotees to exist peacefully and preach in purity, with the right conviction and genuine eco-friendly credentials.
Purity is the Force.
Utility is the Principle
Books are the Basis.
Preaching is the Essence.
And Cows are the way forward.
your servant,
Dusyanta dasa
