There are many instances in which Srila Prabhupada asked his disciples to use their intelligence in carrying out his orders. The following are two examples:
The idea submitted by you is very nice. I have given my 100% approval, and I have given my opinion as above mentioned. Now you can do with intelligence and depend on the supreme will of Krsna.Letter to Cidanananda, Dec. 24, 1968
I'm sure Krsna will give you more and more intelligence in this matter.
Letter to Hamsadutta, Jan. 11, 1968
Although I feel very insignificant and devoid of the intelligence that Srila Prabhupada wants us to develop and use, I have had some experience with ISKCON cow protection programs, and thus some ideas and observations which may prove useful in the development of Krsna conscious rural communities. I beg the forgiveness of the assembled devotees for any offense I may unintentionally commit, and beg for the guidance of Srila Prabhupada's sincere followers. I hope that these ideas prove useful, as they have been developed from experience in accord with the teachings of Srila Prabhupada.
I would like to present this paper in two parts. The first will be about the practical a community and the second part will give a development of cow protection within ISKCON to date and why it appears that we haven't yet developed what Srila Prabhupada wanted us to develop.
Part I
In a conversation with Allen Ginsberg in Columbus, Ohio, in May, 1969, Srila Prabhupada stated "If one has got a cow and four acres of land he has no economic problem. That we want to start. He can live independently in any part of the world. Simply he must have one cow and four acres of land. Let the people be divided with four acres of land and a cow...All the factories will be closed."
We do not know in what context Srila Prabhupada was instructing Mr. Ginsberg –– if the point was self sufficiency, ugra-karma society, or a basic statement about the importance of the cow. Some of Srila Prabhupada's instructions may appear contradictory to one another, and without minimizing what Srila Prabhupada expected of us I would like to show how this instruction has been overplayed by many persons, and in reality is not possible to fulfill without other factors being present. Four acres and a cow, or five acres and a cow as seen by many nondevotee homesteaders, is not the way to fulfill both practical and philosophical requirements of economic solidity. This instruction -- four acres and a cow, is possible within a certain environment, and I repeat this point to bring emphasis to the fact that I am not trying to decry what Srila Prabhupada told us, only give an overall picture of the circumstances in which it can be fulfilled. My emphasis will be on land use, and I will give a brief explanation of some other factors, also.
We have experience in the United States that to keep large animals legally usually requires one acre of land per animal. This is the common legal allowance, which provides no scope for self sufficiency. In this area of the country (North Florida), one cow actually requires three acres for grazing and hay, and this figure is an average for other areas. Soil type, climate, the individual needs of the animal, etc., must be taken into consideration to come up with a more exact figure. Note that this figure is only for forage, and includes no other feed.
Thus, the "four acres and one cow" may be realistic if the cow only eats grass and hay and does not reproduce. (Three acres for the cow and one acre for house, garden, gains, etc.) but does not allow for the oxen who are to work the land and make the hay. We know that Srila Prabhupada wanted us to keep and use the oxen.
The cow is wonderful and valuable in society. But you should also use the bulls by engaging them in tilling the ground. People may call this the primitive way but it is very practical for engaging the bulls. Let them work in cart loading, transporting, etc.
letter to Kirtananda Swami, Jan. 7 1974
Why artificial insemination? We should avoid that. The physiology is, if the semen is more, there comes bull, So take more land and engage them in agriculture, plowing by the bulls instead of the tractor.
SP letter to Balavanta, Jan. 7, 1977
For a Sanatanist (a follower of Vedic principles), it is the duty of every householder to have cows and bulls as household paraphernalia, not only for drinking milk, but also for deriving religious principles.
SB 1.17.3
Commercially, a milk cow has a calf about every thirteen months to keep her milk production high. A commercial dairy cow is often "burned out" and culled (sent to slaughter) by the age of six years, due to the stress of calving and high milk production. The family cow does not need to be bred every year. Enough milk for at least one family can be provided by a cow bred, and thus having to calve, much less often than the commercial requirements. Of course, how often a cow will be bred depends on the individual cow, her breed tendencies, and other circumstances, but it is safe to say that a family cow can give enough milk for family use by having a calf every two years. We have known of a cow that produced milk for five years after having a calf, but this is extraordinary.
Thus, our theoretical four acres will have to support two cows after two years, and thus transgress the limits of grass/hay self-sufficiency. After four years our four acres will have three cows, after six years, four cows (the common legal limit), and after eight years, five cows.
It appears that a solitary devotee family on four acres of land would not be able to maintain the four acre/one cow standard due to the necessity of breeding. There would be two recourses -- give the calves to like-minded persons, or give the calves to unlike-minded persons, in which case one will be implicated in cow slaughter, which is condemned by the basic tenets of Krsna conscious philosophy.
Either way, a solitary family would have great difficulty maintaining the four acre/one cow standard. And to make things even more complicated, Srila Prabhupada also said that even the poorest of householders keep at least ten cows (SB 1.19.39).
However, Srila Prabhupada did not want it to be complicated for us to keep cows. He told us that agrarian lifestyle would make it easier for us to have time to chant Hare Krsna. What is the solution? How do we institute cow protection and take care of the necessary offspring of milk production?
Regarding keeping the cows, unless there is sufficient grazing land and cultivation it is very difficult.
SP letter to Chandravali, March 28, 1977
For raising crops from the land, how many men will be required? That we must estimate and also for herding the cows and feeding them. We must have sufficient pasturing ground to feed the animals all round. We have to maintain the animals throughout their lives. We must not make any make any program for selling them to the slaughterhouses. That is the way of cow protection.
SP letter to Hayagriva, June 14, 1968
The conclusion is obvious, according to Srila Prabhupada. There must be more land than four acres per family for cow protection and many people must seriously take up Krsna conscious cow protection. Srila Prabhupada gave us the example of how it is to be done, although he left it up to us to fill in the details. He asked us to take the example of Gokula:
Yes, go on acquiring the surrounding lands and in this way we will establish a local self-governing village, and show all the world a practical example of spiritual life as Krsna Himself exhibited it in Vrndavana. Agriculture and protecting the cows, this is the main business of the residents of Vrndavana, and above all simply loving Krsna. The cows, the trees, the cowherd men and gopis, their chief engagement was loving Krsna, and in New Vrndavana we want to create this atmosphere and thereby show the whole worm how practical and sublime our movement is.
SP Letter to Kirtanananda Swami July 27, 1973
In Krsna Book, Volume I page 235, Srila Prabhupada describes how Krsna and His friends took the cows and calves to pasture daily and returned in the evening to the village. In Nectar of Devotion page 254, Srila Prabhupada tells us that Nanda Maharaja had over 1,000,000 cows and that they were well fed, healthy, and even well decorated with cloth and golden ornaments. (In fact, SB 10.5.3 states that Nanda Maharaja gave 2,000,000 cows in charity at the birth ceremony of Krsna! All were well decorated)
The key to Vrndavana cow protection, and the key to present day cow protection (along with manpower, as we will discuss in part II), is community pasture. Four acres and a cow has its place, though.
If each family in a village is using its own land to develop self sufficiency, thus contributing to community self sufficiency, the village will have a solid economic base. (Self sufficiency is not possible without community -- even the Amish will not try to start a community with less than 12 families. This is another issue that is easy to prove.) Yet the community pasturing grounds are essential. That is the conclusion of part I of this paper. Land must be acquired and used as given in the example of Vrndavana. Although this may be obvious, I hope that I have given a valid explanation.
In Gita-nagari on July 15, 1976, Srila Prabhupada toured the farm by foot and by car. To the few fortunate men who were in the car with him, he said "Add some land and let them graze. Don't kill them -- buy land."
Nanda Maharaja met Vasudeva in Mathura when he went to pay taxes to Kamsa. Vasudeva inquired from Nanda Maharaja, "In the place where you are living with your friends, is the forest favorable for animals, the cows? I hope there is no disease or inconvenience. The place must be full of water, grass, and other plants." (SB 10.5.26)
Srila Prabhupada comments:
For human happiness, one must care for the animals, especially the cows. Vasudeva therefore inquired whether there was a good arrangement for the animals where Nanda Maharaja lived. For the proper pursuit of human happiness, there must be arrangements for the protection of cows. This means that there must be forests and adequate pasturing grounds full of grass and water. If the animals are happy, there will be an ample supply of milk, from which human beings will benefit by deriving many milk products with which to live happily. As enjoined in Bhagavad-gita (18.44), Krsi-go-raksya vanijyam vaisya karma svabhavajam. Without giving proper facilities to the animals, how can human society be happy? That people are raising cattle to send to the slaughterhouse is a great sin. By this demoniac enterprise, people are mining their chance for a truly human life. Because they are not giving any importance to the instructions of Krsna, the advancement of their so-called civilization resembles the crazy efforts of men in a lunatic asylum.
As an aside, I feel that if we are to follow the example of Vrndavana, we need leadership that takes it as a priority to follow in the footsteps of Nanda Maharaja, the king of the cowherds. If the leadership does not see this necessity, how will this occur?
Part II
I would like to offer a brief summary of my observations to date in the development of Krsna conscious cow protection. As a society, we have made errors and learned from them in many areas, cow protection is not an exception. I am going to present these things very simply. Cow protection is a concept that we must all understand for the proper functioning of society.
1) A major error was made in the development of Krsna conscious cow protection -- using the dairy industry as an example of what we were supposed to develop. Commercial dairying was, of course, our only example at that time, but it proved to be a poor example, practically and conceptually. In a commercial dairy, the only animals that are maintained are the young females, milking females of a certain standard, and maybe one out of 10,000 bulls who "prove" themselves for artificial breeding.
Dairy bulls who will not be used for breeding are raised for veal and are slaughtered at three months of age. Culled cows: culled cows become what is known as "dairy beef." In Krsna conscious cow protection, we never send to slaughter any bull or retired cow, and thus need a system to use and maintain animals, that is not present in the dairy industry. But somehow or other, as a society, we are still making the error of thinking that milk production is more important than ox power, and see milk production as the measure of success of a cow protection program.
2) Due to taking the dairy industry as the example to be followed, we have begun herds by purchasing too many animals for the available land and breeding them all. It has become obvious that this was a mistake, and this is becoming rectified.
3) Although there are some improvements in the rectification of above, the "burden of love" to maintain the great population of cows that were born as the result of our error of understanding of proper cow protection has fallen on an unrealistically small portion of devotee society. These devotees perform under great stress almost single handedly to milk, train and work oxen, and raise the necessary funds for the support and development of the program.
4) Due to the small percentage of devotees actively dedicated to cow protection, and due to the limited amount of land available, the program seemingly stagnates. Potential milk cows are "retired" in their prime, never having been bred or milked, and oxen are often never trained or worked. The potential of the herd is not used, as there is no room for expansion (calves) and not enough manpower to do all that is necessary.
5) All available land at our farms becomes used for retired cows and none for vegetable and grains, which Srila Prabhupada wanted us to produce.
6) And much dedicated manpower either works under unreasonable amounts of stress or gives up due to the unreasonable demands on them by a devotee community that is not educated as to what proper cow protection means and entails.
I can only offer as a solution that devotees realize the need for more of us to become educated and involved in cow protection and ox and ox power. Srila Prabhupada stated that in Vrndavana that the basis of varnasrama is cow protection. It is not for only a handful of individuals to provide milk and ox services (ploughing disking, etc.) for the general population.
It is urgent for us to realize that this son of centralized program is not the solution to our problems of community development. Every family in the community must begin to take responsibility for at least one animal. Each family that buys land must realize that if it wants at least milk, let alone ox services, it must become active in cow protection.
With limited land and manpower, it is unreasonable for every family to demand these things, and the benefits of the existing cow protection program should be enjoyed only by the Deity and by the families directly involved in cow protection and by those who help finance it.
In the pastimes of Vrndavana we see great community pasturing grounds, and the milking of the cows and working of the oxen was not put on one family. The village was based on cow protection and using the ox and this was the consciousness -- Krsna and the cows. And of course, I feel I must again state that if we are to have villages based on cow protection, the leadership must take it as a priority, following in the footsteps of Nanda Maharaja. This leadership must inspire the devotees who live in the community to take up cow protection and assist and support those who are already dedicated to this important work.
© Copyright 1992, Kamra dasi
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kamra dasi first lived on a Hare Krsna farm at Gita-nagari. After she moved to New Ramana Reti, she married Brajendrananda who works the oxen there. Together this husband and wife team heads up the cow program at New Ramana Reti. Kamra is the editor of the farm's Save the Cow..
This paper was included in the Vaishnava Community Development group's first conference: Rural Community Development: Purpose, Economics & Government, August 1, 1992.