What We Can Learn From the Bulls

[Dhanesvara Das]

"All living bodies subsist on food grains, which are produced from
rains. Rains are produced by performance of yajïa [sacrifice], and
yajïa is born of prescribed duties." (Bg. 3.14)
(Videos of Petras training the bulls are posted with this same post on
my blog: http://gitagrad.blogspot.com)

Bg 18.26 - One who performs his duty without association with the
modes of material nature, without false ego, with great determination
and enthusiasm, and without wavering in success or failure is said to
be a worker in the mode of goodness.

Bhakta Petras, is the teamster at the Gitagrad community New
Gaudadesha, in Lithuania. He has made a commitment to simple living
and has focused his attention on growing grain using the bulls.
Krishna Katha Dasa, the leader of New Gaudadesha purchased one cow and
two bulls, all newly born, and of a breed indigenous to their region.
Padma, the cow arrived first, almost a year ago, and she is taken care
of by Bhakta Narada. In quick succession, about a month apart, came
Balai, and then Kana, who are cared for by Petras.

When the bulls were about four months old Petras began training them
to respond to voice commands. Every day he would take them to a ring
and sitting in the center instruct them to walk around the perimeter,
gently encouraging them with a touch to their flank with a branch.

In October this year ISKCON’s minister of cow protection, Balabhadra
Prabhu (ISKCOWP) visited for three days to give Petras and Narada
further lessons in caring for and training the animals. Around this
time Petras began to yoke the bulls together and train them to work as
a team. Most recently they have begun to pull a wagon or sled, with an
increasingly heavier load.

Last week I asked Petras what he was learning by working with the
bulls. Here is his reply:

1. they do not learn quickly; he must go slow as they learn slowly day-
by-day
2. therefore great patience is required. A local man told Petras early
on that he would have to be patient, but that man himself did not even
know how patient one must be. Srila Prabhupada has said that patience
is the most important quality.
3. as you are training them, they are also teaching you.
4. because they are very regulated in their actions, they force you to
be regulated in yours.
5. the bull teaches you sattva; he is an animal of a sattva nature,
and he will not go to rajas—you cannot make him get passionate.
Instead, you yourself must come to sattva if you want to work with
him. Moreover, he will bring you to sattva.
6. working with the bull may be compared to working with children or
women, in that, if you get angry with them they will refuse to
cooperate with you. If you are calm and reasonable they will work with
you.
7. rajo-guna (increasing speed) and tamo-guna (negative reinforcement—
hitting them) does not work with these animals.
8. Petras recently read from very old records how if a person had been
drinking and the bulls smell that they will refuse to work with the
man. Indeed, they will even try to gore him. They don’t want to
associate with such people.
9. the bulls and man are a team; they work together. Unlike driving a
car or tractor, where the driver simply controls the machine. With the
bulls one must learn to cooperate and work as a team.
10. there is mutual dependency between the bulls and the teamster; the
bulls depend on the man to feed and care for them, and the man depends
on the bulls to provide necessary power for accomplishing things.

Petras’ comment gave me many realizations. The first is that Petras
himself is not just training the bulls but they are training him. By
his effort he is receiving valuable personal training in sattvic
qualities, conditioning him to sattva-guna. Such training is difficult
to come by in a world that is driven by passion and ignorance. Srila
Prabhupada has taught us that we must come to the platform of sattva
before we can progress to suddha-sattva, or the transcendental plane.
How valuable are the cow and the bull to help us stay fixed in sattva-
guna.

I also realized how our dependence on the cow and the bull teaches the
entire human society sattva, and keeps them in sattva. Having
abandoned the bull we have lost our tether to sattva and are the
entire human race is drifting inexorably to rajas and tamo-guna, with
the attendant terrible consequences that we are now beginning to reap,
economically, socially, politically, etc.

Next I realized that the reason that Petras has had so many wonderful
realizations because he made room for, and a commitment to Dharma (the
bulls) in his life. He gave the bulls a place in his world. Giving
them a place means giving them a duty, and that is the birth of yajna
(yajna is born of prescribed duties), as stated in the quote from
Bhagavad-gita above. Only interested in what they can take from
others, modern man does not realize what the cow and bull have to give
to us. Neither does modern man understand sattva-guna or the
tremendous benefits that accrue to society as a whole by giving these
animals their place in human society. Indeed, that is the case with
all living beings in this world since, Om purnam ada purnam idam, this
world is perfectly equipped as a complete whole.

Instead we think we can do better by killing the bull and exploiting
the cow. You may know that we have a very old bull here, Nandi. The
neighbors ask why we bother to keep an old bull. They tell us we
should kill him. Such an anemic and impoverished mentality to not
recognize the value of the bull, dharma.

Petras has found a goldmine—following the instructions of Sri Krishna
Himself, as well as that of our acharyas, protecting dharma by giving
the bulls engagement. There is no question that he will receive the
blessings of that Supreme Cowherd. Later, in his maturity, after
decades spent in learning from the bulls, he will have a wonderful
future traveling around and instructing others how to heal the damage
done to Mother Bhumi by employing the services of Dharma, the bull.
There is no other place in today’s world to acquire such benefits.

What is their economic progress? That means busy fool. Fool, they do
not know how to satisfy the economic problem. That is recommended in
the Bhagavad-gita, You grow food grains. Then all economic questions
are solved. But why you are not producing food grains? Why you are
producing iron stools and instruments and motor and tire and
collecting petrol far away from Arabia? That is... Krishna never says
that “You do all this nonsense.” He said, “Grow food grains.”. . . No,
that is waste of energy. Because you are eating the bulls, therefore
you require a tractor. Otherwise you don’t kill the bulls. This animal
will do the business of tractor.
October 19, 1975

[niscala dasi]

DUNG, MILK… AND ALL THINGS COW…    (...some thoughts that I put on a cow protection forum)   Dung  I think we underrate dung, I really do. I mean, you have something which turns grass into such high-grade organic fertilizer, why get rid of it? The female form of it also turns grass into food. The male form also turns grass into biofuel, by munching on it, then plowing the field. And when both male and female are too old then they simply produce high-grade organic fertilizer, again, from grass, right up to and including the day they die. Simply by smelling this fertlizer, produces all the good effects on health, both physical and mental health, that are mentioned at the bottom of this page (see appendix). Got a cut? Use dung. Feeling down, use dung. Asthma? Dung. Can’t afford cement? Dung. Sick of trees being cut down for construction? Use dung. Gas too expensive? Cook with dung. Love makes the world go around. Dung, too. We’ve all heard of “black gold”, which is oil. It tends to turn the wings of pelicans black, and darkens the hearts of those who depend on the sea for livelihood. Dung is the “green gold” it is not only green, it turns everything nice and green and thriving. Haven’t got a "green thumb"? Try dipping it in the dung!   Milk As regards Srila Prabhupada recommending milk for developing finer brain tissues for understanding philosophy, only on a gross level can one equate milk from protected cows with milk from unprotected cows. One is the product of love, the other the product of exploitation. It is like the difference between a meal produced by a fast food chain and one cooked at home, or at the temple, with love, for Krsna. Even if the fast food meal is vegetarian, say veggie burgers, and the temple meal is also veggie burgers, still, one has a good effect on consciousness, not the other. Only externally, they may appear the same.   When the sastra was written, all the milk came from protected cows, to my knowledge. The finer effect on consciousness is not due to any gross property of the milk. It may be argued that vitamin B12 is required for the brain to function well, and it is found in milk, but it is found in greater concentration, actually, in mushrooms, which are not supposed to be eaten. So it is not that any particular gross element of the milk cannot be found even in meat, for example. The good effect on consciousness is due to the fact that the cow produces milk out of affection for her children, including humans. It is said that the consciousness of the cook enters the meal, and a meal produced by a greedy person, only for profit, tends to turns one’s consciousness towards greed. Similarly, milk produced from affection and reciprocation of kindness infuses the consciousness with such vaisnava qualities, placing one in goodness, or pure goodness, whereby the philosophy is very easy to understand.   As regards Srila Prabhupada recommending milk, even before the farms were set up to produce protected milk for the city temples…. For preaching and establishing Krsna consciousness, many concessions can be made- apparently Prabhupada told Harikesa he could even eat meat, when preaching in Russia, if nothing else was there. So, in the beginning he recommended any milk, but later his intention was, as is clear in his conversations, that the farms produce all the milk the city temples required. He clearly did not have the opinion that milk from unprotected cows was the same as milk from protected cows.   I think that cow protection has to be supported not to counteract karma, but to please  Lord Gopala, Lord of the cows.   In regards soy milk, Venkatesh wrote: this will further encourage devotees to NOT try cow protection by apparently making cow-cruelty a non-issue for devotees.   I doubt that devotees becoming ethical vegans will discourage cow protection projects, as we are all aware that abstaining from milk products is not as good for the consciousness, finer brain tissue, as partaking of milk from protected cows. We are all aware of the glories of milk – but it is not the same when it is not from protected cows. It may be used for preaching, converting meat-eaters to a diet of lacto-vegetarian Krsna prasadam, but a step forward in ethical consciousness, is not to just be aware where meat comes from, but milk as well. Prabhupada said that even meat is OK- it should just come from animals that have died naturally (which poses a challenge to get the carcass frozen immediately after death) So he viewed not all meat is the same- some can be eaten albeit by lower class men as it is untouchable, but in no case, except for emergencies, should animals be killed.   All things Cow (from a cow forum) “…mentioned that following trees can be planted so the cows can eat them; sesbania grandiflora; subabul; glyrecedia; sisu; piccacolobiumdulci; Ficcus because they are protein-rich” It would be nice to plant lots of those trees that cows can eat in Vrindavan, as cows have practically no grass there to eat- they eat a lot of rubbish. Of course, it would take a lot of commitment to keep them alive in the Vrindavan summer, until their roots are deep enough to get ground water.   I once read a book called “Dung is Gold mine” and it was a fascinating account of the problems caused by cow slaughter in India- not because of the milk, but because of how the dung used to power the whole Indian economy and protect its delicate ecology. It was used in everything, but most importantly, for fertilizer, and building mud and dung houses. Without sufficient dung, farmers now have to pay for very expensive fertilizers, which also deplete the biodiversity in the soil, and householders have to pay for expensive gas or electricity. Also without the bull, tractors compact the soil, and are impractical in the monsoon season. Also, due to the shortage of dung, there is a housing crisis in rural India. Now cement is required, where dung was used before, or timber is used, which contributes to deforestation. Timber is also now used instead of dung for cooking, which also contributes to deforestation, consequently erosion upstream,, silting up downstream and the disastrous floods that immerse Bangladesh. Anyway, it is worth a read for anyone interested.   Appendix: There has been a recent account from the BBC news service confirming the Vedic injunction that everything about the cow is auspicious and beneficial. It was a piece on research being done in Australia on a particular bacteria found primarily in cow dung or “gobar” as they call it in India. Turns out that this bacteria, when inhaled (as would happen naturally in a rural setting or village life) helps generate serotonin, a chemical which acts in the brain to regulate moods and creates a sense of well-being. Even more so, this bacteria is found to reduce the effects of asthma and a host of other diseases and bodily distresses. The commentator said “The benefits are especially true for children who grow up playing in such natural surrounding, where they would inhale this bacteria. That children are increasingly cut off from this type of natural environment may well be one of the major causes of the growth of allergies and attention deficit disorder in children”.