By Ramlakshman Das
The first course on “Cow care management” was organized by ISKCON Daiva Varnasrama Ministry in association with Mayapur Institute at Sridham Mayapur a brief report below.
20 devotees registered for the course, out of which, more than 15 devotees were regular. After brief introductions, H.H.Bhakti Rasamrita Maharaj suggested to Dr. Sreekumar Prabhu that one presentation should be made using quotes ,conversations and purports from Srila Prabhupada’s books on cow protection. I prepared a presentation with the help of Sreekumar Prabhu and we presented it to the participants. During the noon session they requested me to present my experience with the yathra that I had embarked on couple of weeks ago and exclusively my observations at different goshalas. I prepared a power point presentation on the same. It was motivating to see that almost all the devotees who were present, felt that so many activities are taking place and not many know about them. This highlights the need for better communication from us.
below is the comment from Jnanagamya Prabhu (ACBSP) who is resident of Mayapur and attended all the sessions,
“I just left the first day of a five day seminar on Cow Care given by the Doctor couple Sreekumar and Sreekala of Kerala consultants to the Eco Village Chowpati Temple Farm in Maharashtra and Veterinary Officers of the Gokulananda Goshala, ISKCON Belgaum and GuruvayurDevasvom Goshala, Kerala respectively. Together they successfully attend 1500 cows and 50 elephants with a holistic medicine approach.The talks which allowed a full range of questions and discussions were given by the doctors and by Ram Laksmana prabhu of the Varnasrama Ministry here in Mayapur who is hosting the event. Ram Laksman gave a wonderful slide show of this trip to various goshalas in South India. I found the whole program very professional and well worked out. It was enlivening and asked the listeners to think and contribute questions”.
First Day:
Dr.Sreekala mathaji presented the current situation around the world in dairy farms, she informed us that at what cost these dairy farms are running, these are some points;
1. Starving calves
2. Unproductive cows are sent to slaughter houses
3. Male calves after weaning from milk are also sold.
So devotees asked for solutions to these issues. Mathaji, concluded the session for the day stating that solutions will be provided in the next few days.
Second day onwards they explained revolutionary concepts based on four principles, which are as follows:
1) Social
2) Environmental
3) Economical
4) Spiritual,
They termed it as “Holistic approach to care for cows”. In the following days they gave a presentation on housing, grazing, breeding, milking, and health care based on above principles. From Wednesday onwards Syamsundar Prabhu who is the minister for cow protection also attended all the sessions and finally he rated the training course as “Excellent”, he commented “it is a very thought provoking course, it is presenting so many amazing ideas it will take more time to digest and ruminate the ideas” .Syamsundar Prabhu appreciated the efforts of IDVM in organizing such courses to educate and train devotees.
Aspiring to serve,
Ramlakshman Das