Telepathic Cow Dung and Hot Air
BY: SYAMASUNDARA DAS
Dec 08, 2011 — WATFORD, ENGLAND, UK (SUN) — I am replying to Dusyanta dasa's recent article, "Cow Protection", in regards to his telepathic understanding of what is happening at the Bhaktivedanta Manor Goshalla.
I took over the goshalla at Bhaktivedanta Manor in 1992, after Dusyanta (who was the farm department head) and another devotee took their families to Wales to start their own farm project. At that time (Dusyanta's watch) the barn was a shabby dingy farm building not fit for the purpose, and there was a telegraph pole barn storing the hay and his caravan. The floor was concrete, the walls were concrete, the cows were fed with kitchen leftovers and he was heard saying that the oxen that were brought to the Manor from Ireland were the worst thing that could have happened to Bhaktivedanta Manor.
Now, it is interesting that he has commented that soil floors are better than concrete ones. I don't know of any farm who would design a cow building with soil floors, unless you are planning on not cleaning them.
He gave a half paragraph telling us his qualification to pass comment on ISKCON farming. I am not sure the last time he has done any farming. Certainly there are many farms around Europe that would benefit from his extensive experience and knowledge in farming by him actually going there and walking his talk, rather than his now computer submissions.
I am sure he must have known what he was doing when he was the farm department head at the Manor, but I could not understand why he was burning out the calves horns when they were only young. I also could not understand why the calves were not allowed to drink milk from their mothers, but were drinking out of a bucket. I suppose he just did what he learned from his farming past, even though it upset a lot of the members of the community.
He wrote the following in regards to New Vrindaban's cows: "Firstly, I would not trust for one second that New Vrindaban's cows are doing fine without seeing it firsthand" and yet now it seams he is writing about Bhaktivedanta Manor Goshalla without "seeing it firsthand", but telepathically. Has he been to the new farm buildings at Bhaktivedanta Manor, or has he just seen a picture? I say this because he writes suggesting that the floor of the cow pens has not been designed properly and the cows are perhaps sitting on undrained floors with no bedding straw. If he had actually "seen it firsthand" would he not have noticed that the floors slope to a drain? Did he not enquire where the drain was connected to? Had he done so he would have been told that the bed seepage is collected and directed to a lagoon (as required by law). If he was actually "seeing it firsthand", looking at the cows' bedding areas he would surely have noticed that they were lying on a
deep straw bed which is replenished daily.
Obese cows. Now this is an area of concern for the team at the goshalla also. On one side we want to allow the cows to eat vegetables from visiting hands and at the same time we want to keep their weight down. As he will know from his experience around Europe and elsewhere, ISKCON cows get fat from just eating grass without even eating a vegetable. I am surprised he did not mention this. For the oxen, they eat straw rather than hay and this keeps their weight in check. With the milking cows, we feed them hay and they get a mix of vegetables and grain at milking time. So yes, some of our cows are chunkier than we would prefer.
It seems that he criticizes all the ISKCON farm projects, so why does he not get off his computer and show us how to do it? He informs us of his credentials, and yet he keeps his expertise to himself and does not actually show us how to live with cow protection. It is so easy to point out faults, but it is another thing to show how it should be done.
Regarding cows "fed rubbish from the kitchens in plastic buckets", yes we used to feed our cows kitchen leftovers, as indeed did Dusyanta dasa as department head at Bhaktivedanta Manor. He knows more now, clearly. He may not be aware, because it has been a long time since he did any farming, that the law has changed since BSE and kitchen leftovers cannot be fed to cows anymore. We feed cuttings, we do not feed cooked food leftovers.
Sometimes there is the comment, why we did not spend the money for building this goshalla on buying a farm elsewhere? There was nothing stopping anybody from raising funds and buying a farm in Wales if they had the mind to do it. The devotees and community around Bhaktivedanta Manor wanted to build something that would last a long time and that would represent the importance of Cow Protection. So they did it. Why not appreciate what they have done rather than criticise them for not doing something that somebody else thinks should be done.
Why has Dusyanta not "established a real example of dependence on Cows, Bulls and Land?" (At least he has included the bulls this time).
Another telepathic observation he made was in regards to the building materials. He somehow did not notice the shingle roofs on the main building. He did not notice the cedar shuttering. He did not notice the green oak beams. He did not notice the strength of the supports and walls to give the building a longevity of many decades and perhaps centuries. He did not notice or ask about the rain water harvesting. He did not know about the surface water collection. He did not know that all the dirty water is collected for use on the land. I don't know if he is looking for anything favourable about the Bhaktivedanta Manor Goshalla or if he is just looking for something to criticise.
In conclusion, there is not any doubt that there are things to criticize, but why just be a lazy criticiser? Why not actually do something and show us all how to live a "real example of dependence on Cows, Bulls and Land?" Or is he resting on his past participation, content on throwing cow dung? Do something, help Srila Prabhupada's mission in this area if he knows as much as he tells us. Grow some food, protect some cows, show us all how to do it and maintain himself and his family from it.
