BY: ROCANA DASA
Apr 21, CANADA (SUN) — A weekly response to Dandavats editorials.
Today's Obeisances is in response to a recent series of articles appearing on Dandavats about the death of the cow, Gangotri, at Bhaktivedanta Manor. The related articles include the following:
The Vaisnava community has been kept well informed of the whole traumatic episode perpetrated by the RSPCA in England, who apparently employed devious tactics in order to euthenize Gangotri. Of course, we're all familiar with the many sastric references about how sacred an animal the cow is. Srila Prabhupada spoke many times on the subject. Many devotees have worked hard to implement cow protection programs, none more successfully than my close friend, Kurma Rupa dasa, who has dedicated his life and devotion to the cows in Vrindavan.
Of course, I personally abhor what took place at the Manor. The situation also brings back some memories that have a direct relationship to the episode. I have written in the past about my experiences with the cows at the Bridesville farm. Interestingly enough, the Bridesville event took place at the time when Kurma Rupa prabhu joined ISKCON in British Columbia. Kurma Rupa was living on the other side of the border, in Washington State around the mid-1970's when we had the rural community in Bridesville. The farm's fence line was actually the border between Canada and the United States.
Bahudak dasa, the Temple President of Vancouver, bought this piece of land in backwoods Bridesville. Back in those days the devotees were young and full of youthful energy, and many had something of an outlaw mentality. As the story goes, Bahudak wanted to populate the community with cows and as it happened, cows were more easily available and cheaper on the U.S. side of the border than they were in Canada.
Bahudak being the colorful character that he was, decided to essentially smuggle the cows through the fence and onto our property rather than going through all the bureaucratic rigmarole of having them clear Canadian customs in the proper way.
Sometime later, I took over the management of the Bridesville community in an attempt to see whether it the project was feasible or needed to be closed down. The latter conclusion was arrived at, and the land was eventually sold. While the project was ongoing, however, we had all these cows. At an elevation of 3,000 ft., the land was not very suitable for vegetarians. All our neighbors raised beef cows for slaughter because they felt it was the only profitable thing they could do on the land.
One day, government officials from the Department of Agriculture made a surprise visit to our operation and proceeded to inspect all our animals. They had a right to do so, and we gave them access. They unfortunately discovered that quite a few of our cows had a disease called Blue Tongue. Across the border in Washington State, Blue Tongue wasn't considered a dangerous a disease, but in Canada the regulations were that any animal with Blue Tongue had to be put down, without any question. The government was going to compensate us for the price of the cow, and beyond that we had little or no choice in the matter.
Given my understanding of the sastra at that point in time, I was in a great quandary about what to do. It just so happened that we didn't have a GBC at the time, so I decided to go and talk to Srila Prabhupada himself about the problem. Coincidentally, he was visiting New York. Upon arriving in New York, it took me a while to get an audience with Srila Prabhupada to present my dilemma. As was the practice back then, the "big swamis" and GBC had to agree that I had the right to meet with Srila Prabhupada directly. I ended up attending on Srila Prabhupada's visit to nearby Gita Nagari, and on that occasion I had an opportunity to talk to privately with Srila Prabhupada about the circumstance with the cows at Bridesville. We discussed not only the cows and the government, but also the viability of the community project.
Srila Prabhupada at Gita Nagarai, c. 1975
First of all, Srila Prabhupada appointed a GBC for our area and asked him to go visit the project. On the matter of the cows, I was taken completely aback when Srila Prabhupada told me very categorically -- do not try to interfere with the government. If the government is going to take the cows, don't intervene. Just accept it and don't protest, but don't take the money that they'll try to give you for the cows. He said this whole society is so contaminated by cow killing, but we don't get involved because our business is not simply cow protection or vegetarianism, but is based on the principle of preaching Krsna consciousness. We don't want the government to get the wrong impression or to persecute us on the basis of our interfering with their established laws. This was Srila Prabhupada's advice on the situation.
Now as the situation that took place at Bhaktivedanta Manor is being presented, it is a different set of circumstances. As for the local ISKCON authorities trying to make political hay out of the issue, I can't say that it's right or wrong. It sounds a lot like a Hindu angle rather than a Krsna conscious angle, however, and that might well indicate whether it's right or wrong. Whether or not the Manor authorities are willing to accept my experience as being some sort of indication of what Srila Prabhupada would say or do in the situation, that's up to them. But basically, I think that the devotees should not get too distracted in this direction, for all the reasons Srila Prabhupada gave.
Our main business is not confronting the government on this particular issue, but rather on so many other more important Krsna consciousness issues. We all know that the government fully supports slaughtering animals by the thousands, and that even milk production is based on animal slaughter, what to speak of the beef industry. That is by far a bigger issue than whether or not a small branch of the government, the RSPCA, did what they did.
Of course, the RSPCA's actions hurt the sentiments of the devotees in the Manor community, and all of us to a lesser degree. But the average English citizens who will read all this in the local paper will, by and large, by meat eaters. I suspect these stories will give many the wrong impression about what Krsna consciousness actually stands. In other words, they'll likely think that we're making a lot of political hay out of what's a relatively insignificant circumstance in their mind. Little of value will be accomplished.
Overall, it seems to me that this is just another symptom of the Hinduization of ISKCON, and I don't think Srila Prabhupada would approve of it.
Obeisances to Dandavats and to the Bhaktivedanta Manor community.
