Rural Development Preaching Project (RDPP) - English

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This book explains the reasons for degradation of human society during this age of Kali. When people become Godless, they tend to see faults in others and create chaotic situation in the world. That is our current position. You will find information to overcome this situation and attain lasting peace in this book.This book has been published by ISKCON Vrindavan http://www.iskconvrindavan.com and Rural Development Preaching Project http://www.divinecows.com.

Transcript of Rural Development Preaching Project (RDPP) - English

RURAL DEVELOPMENT PREACHING PROJECT (RDPP)

ISKCONVrindavan

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DedicationThis effort is dedicated to the whole vaisnava parampara & the most revered spiritual master of the whole world H.D.G. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada ,the founder acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness(ISKCON), who intensely desires to establish the Vedic civilization based on varnasrama dharma which is nondifferent from the principles of eternal constitutional duties, sanatana dharma of the human being in this material world.

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AcknowledgementFirst of all our gratitude goes to our temple president H. G. Panca Gauda prabhu for starting this very much needed department of Rural Development Preaching Project then for giving us the permission to publish this book. Our special thanks to H. G. Daivi Shakti Mataji for proof reading the document. We are grateful to her for her kind encouragement to print this book as soon as possible. Our gratitude also goes to H. G. Narahari prabhu and H. G. Shantakaram prabhu. We are honoured to get love and support of all the devotees who in any ways made this work possible.

"Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong" (Isopanisad,Mantra-1)namo brahmaya-devya go-brhmaa-hitya ca jagad-dhitya kya govindya namo nama

"Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto Lord Krishna who is the worshipable Deity for all brahminical men, who is the well-wisher of cows and brahmanas, and who is always benefiting the whole world. I offer my repeated obeisances to the Personality of Godhead, known as Krishna and Govinda." [Vishnu Purana- 1.19.65]...(5)

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.....When Krishna comes to establish real perfection in the social order, He personally gives protection to the cows and the brahmanas (go-brahmanahitayaca). This is the first interest because without protection of the brahmanas and the cows, there can be no human civilization and no question of happy, peaceful life. (Srimad Bhagavatam-10.4.41,purport)

We must know the present need of human society. And what is that need? Human society is no longer bounded by geographical limits to particular countries or communities. Human society is broader than in the Middle Ages, and the world tendency is toward one state or one human society. The ideals of spiritual communism, according to rmad-Bhgavatam, are based more or less on the oneness of the entire human society, nay, of the entire energy of living beings. The need is felt by great thinkers to make this a successful ideology. rmadBhgavatam will fill this need in human society. It begins, therefore, with the aphorism of Vednta philosophy janmdy asya yata [SB 1.1.1] to establish the ideal of a common cause. Human society, at the present moment, is not in the darkness of oblivion. It has made rapid progress in the field of material comforts, education and economic development throughout the entire world. But there is a pinprick somewhere in the social body at large, and therefore there are large-scale quarrels, even over less important issues. There is need of a clue as to how humanity can become one in peace, friendship and prosperity with a common cause. rmad-Bhgavatam will fill this need, for it is a cultural presentation for the respiritualization of the entire human society. rmad-Bhgavatam should be introduced also in the schools and colleges, for it is recommended by the great studentdevotee Prahlda Mahrja in order to change the demoniac face of society.

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kaumra caret prjo dharmn bhgavatn iha durlabha mnua janma tad apy adhruvam arthadam (SB 7.6.1) Disparity in human society is due to lack of principles in a godless civilization. There is God, or the Almighty One, from whom everything emanates, by whom everything is maintained and in whom everything is merged to rest. Material science has tried to find the ultimate source of creation very insufficiently, but it is a fact that there is one ultimate source of everything that be. This ultimate source is explained rationally and authoritatively in the beautiful Bhgavatam, or rmadBhgavatam. (From the Preface of Srimad Bhagavatam---1st canto, by H.D.G. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Svami Prabhupada)

CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE VEDIC CULTURE How to Counteract It?The purpose of the Rural Development Preaching Department is to fulfill His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's instructions for rural preaching. Once his divine grace told devotees that we've nothing to do in cities, we are meant for farm(exact reference: (i)Varnasrama Dharma 16 in Folio, (ii)Folio - letter from TKG as Prabhupada secretary to Hari Shauri das). We are in the cities only to preach. Why is this so? Because, cities are in the mode of passion and ideal villages are in the mode of goodness. This mode of goodness is very favorable for all spiritual practices whereas the mode of passion agitates the senses. His divine grace gave innumerable instructions for establishing farm communities. We are also printing a book of the compilation of those instructions of Srila Prabhupada. In an article on The Conception of Gita Nagari published in Back to Godhead magazine on May 20, 1956, Srila Prabhupada very clearly delineated his mission into 4 movements: 1) The temple entry movement, or Arca vigraha seva movement 2) Sankirtana movement, or preaching 3) Spiritual initiation movement 4) Casteless society, or natural caste system movement. He further instructed that devotees should live simply, depending on land and cows. Of course there can be industry, but all those industries should be close to nature. To understand why Srila Prabhupada broke his mission into these 4 steps we'll do good to go through the following brief history. BEFORE YOU READ please note that this history is not written with some racial feelings. It only depicts the arrangement of the Supreme

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Lord, which is a fact. The mission of Krishna consciousness or the vedic society of the India of yore is beyond any bodily conception of life. This consciousness stands on the basic premise that we are all related to each other as members of the same family of God or Krishna, irrespective of nationality or race. If this consciousness is spread in the members of the whole human society then there will be real peace otherwise all efforts for peace in the world by various nations will fail miserably as is already seen by the efforts of League of Nations, UNO and others. A brief history of the degradation of Vedic culture in India : Srila Prabhupada in the 1st canto(SB1.18.24 to SB1.18.50) of Srimad Bhagavatam explains that the Vedic civilization in India degraded starting with the degradation of the brahmana community. In the section of Shringi cursing Maharaj Parikshit, Srila Prabhupada says ( -------But because the age of Kali was seeking an opportunity to spoil the cultural heritage of the four orders of life, the inexperienced boy gave a chance for the age of Kali to enter into the field of Vedic culture. Hatred of the lower orders of life began from this brhmaa boy, under the influence of Kali, and thus cultural life began to dwindle day after daySB1.18.32. -----Herein gi, a qualified son of a great brhmaa, attained the required brahminical power both by birth and by training, but he was lacking in culture because he was an inexperienced boy. By the influence of Kali, the son of a brhmaa became puffed up with brahminical power and thus wrongly compared Mahrja Parkit to crows and watchdogs. The King is certainly the watchdog (servant of the Supreme Lord) of the state in the sense that he keeps vigilant eyes over the border of the state for its protection and defense, but to address him as a watchdog is the sign of a less-cultured boy. Thus the downfall of the brahminical( 10 )

powers began as they gave importance to birthright without culture. The downfall of the brhmaa caste began in the age of Kali. And since brhmaas are the heads of the social order, all other orders of society also began to deteriorate. SB1.18.33------------------) that when the brahmana boy cursed Maharaj Parikshit out of pride and arrogance, it was then that the brahmanas lost their brahminical power as the serpent with broken fangs. When the brahmana community became corrupted, then the kshatriyas started disobeying and insulting them. A vivid example is of the insult of the brahmanas by the kings of Magadha who were living lavishly at the cost of their citizens. It's said that, 'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely'. When the kshatriyas rejected spiritual guidance and began exploiting their dependents, these powerful administrators of the state started fighting amongst themselves for territorial conquest. Attack 1 and 2 - on Education system (Gurukulas) and Rewriting of scriptures as myth : Taking advantage of this infighting the aggressive invaders were successful in defeating the Indian kings. These invaders were barbarous people who were simply interested in desecrating the structures, insulting ladies and killing anyone coming in their way. The first thing they did was to burn the 2 big universities the Nalanda (1193 BC by Bakhtiyar khilji) and the Taxila (5th century BC) - where scholars from all over the globe used to come to study. With these 2 universities, many valuable scriptures which were the guiding torchlights of Indian culture were destroyed. Gradually, as time passed, the whole education system was lost which was the backbone of Vedic culture's strength. Lord Macaulay said the following about India in 1835 in British Parliament: "I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of( 11 )

such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native self-culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation." The spiritual culture of India was based mainly on cow care and agricultural produce. Both these activities raise a person to the mode of goodness which is very important for keeping peace in society. The British Raj also sent Max Muller to study the vedic literature and rewrite them thus establishing them to be mythology. They started the English education system through the patronship of the Indian Kingly states. Through this English education system they became successful in their conspiracy as Lord Macaulay had suggested. Generation after generation of those Indian who went to school were fed that all our scriptures are mere myths, stories that never occurred but were fantasized by some scholars. They impressed upon the Indian masses through education that Lord Rama, Lord Krishna and other incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are not factual. This was successfully done by modern scientific ways and manipulated archeological findings (read 'Forbidden Archeology' by Micheal A. Cremo). Attack 3 - Kill the indigenous agricultural practices by cow slaughter : Once this was done then ensued the propagation of the philosophy of meat eating especially beef. They propagated that beef gives best strength to human body. Again it was impressed upon the Indian psyche that because Indians were not eating meat they were defeated by the western invaders. When the British arrived in( 12 )

India, there were no slaughter houses. In fact, all mughals including Babar, Akbar, Aurangzeb and Tipu Sultan banned cow slaughter in their kingdom. Whoever slaughtered cow was punished by cutting their hands. Robert Clive - the so called Founder of the British Empire in India and twice the Governor of Bengal, on entering India was astonished and amazed to see the success of the agricultural system here. He researched the reasons for the success of the Indian agriculture and discovered the root - The Holy Indian Cow. The entire life style of the population revolved around the cow, not just religiously, but socially as well. Cows were an integral part of a family as was any other human member in the family. He even found that in many places the total number of cattle was more than the number of humans living there. OK, so he decided, to break the backbone of agriculture in India - the holy cows have to be targeted. And thus was opened the first slaughterhouse of cows in India in 1760 by Robert Clive at Kolkata. It had a capacity to kill 30,000 cows per day. And anyone can guess within a year's time how many cows would have been killed. And within a century India had very little cattle left to sustain its agricultural needs. And Britain as an alternative started offering artificial manure, and in this manner urea, phosphate etc started getting imported from England - GREEN REVOLUTION. Indian agriculture had started becoming dependent on west invented artificial products and was forced to give up home grown natural practices based on cow urine and neem solutions. Up until 1760, most of India had banned not only cow slaughter, but also prostitution and drinking wine. Robert Clive made all three legal and removed the ban.( 13 )

Now the British had hit two birds with a single stone by this move. The first was to break the backbone of the Indian agriculture ie making cattle not available for agriculture. The second? Well, obviously Hindus did not work as butchers at the slaughter houses opened by the British. True to their repute of using divide and rule policies which they practiced throughout their colonial kingdoms the British again applied it. So what did they do? Well, they hired muslims as butchers and this was done in almost every slaughterhouse they opened. And this slowly pushed the muslims into believing that beef eating was their religious right. What the Mughal empire had banned had been turned into a practice by the British empire. What Babur and Akbar termed as a crime was converted into a norm by Robert Clive. Today the soil of India is filled with artificial fertilizers and pesticides while the holy Cow cries in the slaughterhouses. While there were over 70 breeds of cows in the country at the time of independence, today we have only 33 and even among them many breeds are facing extinction. While there were only 350 slaughterhouses before independence, now there are over 36,000. Both Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru declared that after independence the first they would do is to stop all slaughterhouses but they didn't fulfill their promise because of vote bank. [[Guess what happened to the man who started all this? Robert Clive became an opium addict and later committed suicide by stabbing himself with a pen knife after being unable to withstand the pain caused by the illness that had resulted from opium addiction.]] In India, very few are aware of the fact that Article 48 of the Indian Constitution (Directive Principles of State Policy) says clearly that the government must protect the cow, its progeny and other cattle used in agriculture.( 14 )

Cutting down of jungles: When the British arrived in India they found that people were satisfied tilling a fixed tract of land for farming. All villagers only grew for their needs and not for selling. As a result, there were extensive jungles throughout India. There was no need of farming for the animals since they would be taken to the jungle for grazing. For this reason, keeping cattle was not at all expensive or laborious. East India Company destroyed this through an education system that fed commercialization in the minds of the students and by giving a market in the cities for the goods that were produced locally in the villages. SP in one conversation VD 43: "So the local produce was not exported. Everything was cheap in the village because you have to consume. Whatever is produced in the village you have to consume. And these Britishers, they introduced railway and drew everything in the village to the town. And they would not sell in the village because they would get good price in the city." Being driven by greed villagers started cutting down the jungles for growing more and more crops. Gradually farmlands started to grow in sizes whereas grazing grounds for the cattle started diminishing. Then came mechanization of farming with tractors in mid 1940s with war surplus tractors and bulldozers. With commercialization and mechanization of farming the farmers occupied more and more area for cultivation. Also tractors replaced the bull, but milk remaining the staple diet of Indian population they kept breeding cows for milk. Bulls being now only a burden for the farmer started to go to the slaughterhouses then, also the dry cows. Previously when jungles were in existence there was no worry in keeping a non-working bull or a dry cow as it incurred no extra cost for the farmer. There was another lucrative market from the jungles that was, paper industry. With the mass media in the form of news papers,( 15 )

magazines there came a big demand for paper, so for this, huge amount of wood was taken from the jungles. The best quality paper goes for real estate magazines, gossip magazines, illicit and automobile magazines. There is no need of these in a sane human society. Paper should be used, but only for the printing and distribution of Krishna conscious literature. This will bring about, much sought after peace and prosperity in society. This added with railway tracks and urbanization. In essence the modern enticing urban way of living reduced the jungles to the following statistics: "Forests & Wildlife Statistics, INDIA, 2004" 2.8 STATE OF FORESTS - ASSESSEMENT OF FOREST COVER (1987 to 2001) (In square kilometer)Assess- Year ment No. Data related to the year Resolution of Sensors (Meters) 80 30 30 30 36.25 36.25 36.25 23.5 Forest Cover Sq.Km 640819 638804 639364 639386 638879 633397 637293 675538 % of Geographical Area 19.49 19.43 19.45 19.45 19.43 19.27 19.39 20.55

First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh Eighth

1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001

1981-83 1985-87 1987-89 1989-91 1991-93 1993-95 1995-97 1997-99

Attack 4 - Creation of factory life and introduction of paper currency : This was another conspiracy by the shrewd British Raj. Very systematically over decades they executed this plan and thus giving false wealth in the hands of the Indians. Srila Prabhapada explains how this currency is based on cheating in his purport to SB 1.17.39 - "Gold-standard currency is based on falsehood because the currency is not on a par with the reserved gold. The basic principle is falsity because currency notes are issued in value beyond that of the actual reserved gold. This artificial inflation of currency by the authorities encourages prostitution of the state economy. The price of commodities becomes artificially inflated because of bad money, or artificial currency notes." How they did it, was actually very intelligent on their part. The amount of strategic planning that they did clearly shows that this act of their's was specially empowered by Kali raj. The British policy for conquering was the famous 'divide and rule'. Whenever they saw any conflict between 2 princely states they supported the powerful, made a deal for trading their ammunitions to the princes for some precious commodities. These commodities included jewels, spices, grains, cloth. Etc. Back then India had the best of these things and in abundance whereas the western countries due to being covered by snow for 6 months never had these luxuries. Krishna hasn't made every place on earth equally gifted with natural resources. Since Indian subcontinent is punya-bhumi that is where pious are born, therefore, for their performances of sacrifices the Supreme Lord has provided the natural resources like minerals, fruits, pleasant weather, milk and milk products, grains, etc in abundance. So, due to lack of spiritual advisors in the form of qualified brahmanas these princes agreed to their proposals. Only a few Krishna conscious kings like Maharaj Shivaji or Maharaja Jai Singh who fortunately had spiritual guidance could understand the plans of East India company. Thereby, East India company was able to establish industry for manufacturing ammunitions in these princely states. The officers of the company always approached the princes in a very humble manner of a servant or well-wishing friend. These British were very few in( 17 )

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number so they asked the princes to send some of their men to work in the factories. Of course these men came from villages either by force or pursuance. In time cities with factory work as the basis of livelihood sprung up. At this point we must note that before this time there were cities like Dwaraka, however, if we closely study then we understand that the definition of a city then was not factories rather a place where more administrative offices were situated but even in these cities there were farm lands and cows (unlike today where cows are banned from cities). To entice the young men from villages into the factory work, they provided the factory workers with wine, women, tea, coffee and tobacco, though secretly. These days we can see that these are the main attractions of a city - night clubs, bars, restaurants, casinos. In villages where there was social pressure young men had to keep control over their senses but these cities afforded them freedom. So, more and more men poured out of their villages. As these men had to take leave from factories for bringing grains and vegetables from their villages, British developed another ploy. They had fear that if these youngsters had to go to their village then they may get influenced by their own divine tradition in the village, which still existed though there was no education given about the scientific reasons for that tradition. They made a proposal that they will take the responsibility of transferring the goods which will save time for the making more ammunitions. It was liked very much by the princes because of their imperialistic attitudes. For setting up this system they again got men from villages. Stores were established in cities where all the goods - grains, cloth, spices - were kept for the workers. Workers had to now purchase these goods as opposed to a time when they got them free of cost from their home. Now they removed the bartering system by proposing the issuing of a promissory note which was valued against the gold reserve. This system was also very nicely welcomed because of it's userfriendliness - no one has to carry big loads of goods rather they can just keep a piece of paper in their pocket.( 18 )

This gave an opportunity to the East India company to secretly transport the collected goods in the stores through the sea route to other colonies and to England for selling. This they accomplished again by bribing the Indian store keepers. Thereby artificial droughts were created. India started to become poor day by day. Here is a list of famines in India under the British Raj: Chronological list of famines in India between 1765 and 1947[1]Year Name of famine (if any) 176970 Great Bengal Famine British territory Bihar, Northern and Central Bengal Indian kingdoms/ Princely states Mortality

10 million[2] (about one third of the then population of Bengal).[3] Disputed as excessive. [citation needed] Kingdom of Mysore See below.

178283

Madras city and surrounding areas Chalisa famine

178384

Delhi, Western Oudh, Eastern Punjab region,Rajputana, and Kashmir

Severe famine. Large areas were depopulated. Up to 11 million people may have died during the years 1782-84.[4] One of the most severe famines known. People died in such numbers that they could not be cremated or buried. It is thought that 11 million people may have died during the years 1788-94.[5]Table Cont...

1791- Doji bara famine 92 or Skull famine

Hyderabad, Southern Maratha country, Deccan,Gujarat, and Marwar

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Year Name of famine (if any) 1837- Agra famine of 38 1837-38

British territory Central Doab and transJumna districts of theNorthWestern Provinces (later Agra Province), including Delhi and Hissar Upper Doab of Agra; Delhi and Hissar divisions of the Punjab

Indian kingdoms/ Princely states

Mortality

Year Name of famine (if any) 188889

British territory Ganjam, Orissa and North Bihar

Indian kingdoms/ Princely states

Mortality

800,000.[6]

150,000 deaths in Ganjam. Deaths were due to starvation as famine relief was not provided in time.[11] Northern and 5 million in British eastern Rajputana, territory.[6] parts of Central India and Hyderabad

1896- Indian famine of 97 1896-97 Eastern Rajputana 2 million.[6]

186061

Upper Doab famine of 1860-61

Madras, Bombay Deccan, Bengal, United Provinces, Central Provinces Bombay, Central Provinces, Berar, Ajmer

1865- Orissa famine of Orissa (also 67 1866 1867) and Bihar; Bellary and Ganjam districts of Madras 1868- Rajputana famine Ajmer, Western 70 of 1869 Agra, Eastern Punjab Rajputana

1 million (814,469 in Orissa, 135,676 in Bihar and 10,898 in Ganjam)[7] 1.5 million (mostly in the princely states of Rajputana)[8] An extensive relief effort was organized by the Bengal government. There were no mortalities during the famine.[9] Mysore and Hyderabad 5.5 million in British territory.[6] Mortality unknown for princely states. Total famine mortality estimates vary from 6.1 to 10.3 million.[10]Table Cont...

1899- Indian famine of 1900 1899-1900

Hyderabad, 1 million (in Rajputana, Central British territoIndia, Baroda, ries).[6] Mortality Kathiawar, Cutch, unknown for princely states. Bundelkhand 235,062 in Bombay (of which 28,369 attributed to Cholera). Mortality unknown for Bundelkhand.[12] 1.5 million from starvation; 3.5 million including deaths from epidemics.[12]

190506

Bombay

1873- Bihar famine of 74 1873-74

Bihar

1943- Bengal famine of 44 1943

Bengal

1876- Great Famine of 78 1876-78(also Southern India famine of 1876-78)

Madras and Bombay

References for these are given in another article by the name "references for famine stats' Conclusion from this historical description: Hence, successfully the self-sufficient Indian village economy was turned into being completely dependent on the western industrial complexes, through education system, cow slaughter and currency notes. Diagrammatically, the chain can be explained as follows:( 21 )

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East India Company took people out of the self-sufficient farm and into the factories in cities. C r e a t e d Max Muller Thomas Macaulay Robert Clive artificial scarcity through paper and Attack-1 Attack-2 Attack-3 money transportation of Indian goods to their country

The 5 pronged action plan to revert back to vedic society: RDPP started with the idea of protecting the cows of Sri Vrindavan dham. To know the pathetic condition of the cows of Vrindavan, read on Treatment given to the cows: All over Vrindavan we see cows wandering throughout the day eating whatever garbage they get. Many times we find them near the Municipality garbage pit searching out for something to eat in the refuse. The natural question that will arise in the mind of any sane person is 'who is the owner of these cows?' and 'why doesn't he protect his cow from eating filth and plastic?' It is terrible that people even in Vrindavan use the cow as a commodity. They simply exploit the cow for its milk but do not feed her plentiful. After the milking is done the cow is left on her own to search out for food and when she has stopped giving milk she is completely dragged out from the home. They argue that they haven't sold her for money but the inevitable fate of such street cows is the abattoir or that they die miserably of some disease caused by eating filth and plastic. ISN'T THIS CRUEL!!, should the owners not be honest toward taking the responsibility of their mother? A Real Life Story After a five-hour surgery on 30/11/ 2010, veterinary doctors removed 30kg of plastic from a cow's stomach. A week ago, animal lovers from IIT Powai called the Bombay Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to tell them about a cow that was unable( 23 )

Attack-4

Flourishing self-sufficient rural economy based on powerful culture propagated through ancient, scientific, vedic education system.

Res ultThese resulted in an India whose economy is completely governed by the west. An India which is poor, devoid of spiritual culture.( 22 )

to walk due to a wound on her tail. A team of doctors visited the area and saw that the problem was much worse. They suggested she be brought to Bai Sakarbai Dinshaw Petit Hospital in Parel for observation. They found that her stomach was bloated and the food she ate would come out of her nose. She also had a deep wound in her pelvic region and showed loss of appetite. These were all indications that she had eaten too much plastic. "First we cured the tail wound," says Dr Ashish Sutar, manager of the hospital, "then we planned the surgery with the help of Bombay Veterinary College." The doctors were surprised to see the quantity of plastic that came out of the cow's stomach during a rumenotomy. During the first hour, they could remove only shreds of plastic. It took four more hours to remove all of it. "Out of curiosity," said one doctor, "we measured the plastic and it weighed 30kg. This is the first time so much has been found in a cow's stomach." "Most cow owners leave their animals out to graze after milking them," explains Dr J C Khanna, chief functionary of the hospital, "These cows eat out of garbage bins - as they are rarely fed by their owners - where food stuff is often wrapped in plastic." "It's sad that owners look after their animals only as long as they are capable of giving milk," says Khanna, "Then they are abandoned." Sutar says, "The cow is now out of danger and in postoperative care." This is the deplorable condition of cow care even in this Vrindavan dham. If one goes to Lalita ashrama on Parikrama marg, toward the right side one will find the cows even eat human excreta. The general conception of cow protection these days is opening of a goshala or dairy farm by some trust or individual. Dairy farms are run on profit orientation so in these the cows which are not giving enough milk are culled for meat. There is an automated system of keeping track of the milk yield verses the weight of the cow. As soon as the( 24 )

cow starts to get dry and before she loses her weight, just at the correct time she is slaughtered to maximize the profits. Same kind of fate is met to the bulls which are born. On the other hand goshalas have to inadvertently depend on the mercy of the donars. Though there is talk of making goshalas self-sufficient through the selling of the cow products like panca-gavya medicines, milk, ghee, etc however a scrutinizing study clearly tells us that this is impractical because of (a)panca-gavya treatment is not known to people, (b)Indian cow breeds' milk yield is less & (c)Indian cow breeds give maximum milk only for 6-7 months after calving so the farmer has to impregnate the cow after the milk yield drops. This makes it very expensive to purchase fodder from the market for the growing herd. Thus these goshalas are closed down when it becomes too expensive to carry on with it. No one asks, where the cow is sent after the closing of the goshala. Of course they are sent to the slaughterhouse. Therefore, in one conversation Srila Prabhupada says that running a goshala without a grazing ground is very expensive. Here comes the ideal perspective for cow protection. During the vedic times we don't have any evidence of people growing fodder for the cows. Rather they used to take cows out for grazing in the jungles from morning till evening then there is no expenditure in maintaining cows. We have the famous go-caran pastimes of Lord Krishna. The meaning of braj itself is 'grazing ground for the cows'. So, in fact the entire land for Brajmandal belongs to cows. Now the question comes of how to maintain such grazing grounds when majority of the population today is sustaining their life on modern city life depending on machines. Industries are taking up more and more land under their custody and away from the animals. It is not possible to protect cows in an ideal way without understanding the ideals of the vedic paradigm. So, let us have a look at the organization of social life during the vedic era (times when the governments were being run according to the injunctions of the vedic scriptures). 1. Goshala is a part of every household. Just like humans have a place in home similarly, cows and bulls have their( 25 )

place. Rather the most important place is a goshala. Srila Prabhupada writes in SB 1,19.39 that even the poorest householder would keep at least 10 cows. In fact the word 'shala' means 'a place of education', so goshala means a place where we get to learn from the cows and bulls. Moreover, joint family system allows the family to keep innumerable cows / bulls. 2. Qualified kshatriyas rule under the guidance of the qualified brahmanas. Kshetra belongs to Kshatriyas and thus they divide the land to the cultivators according to the need of the family which is decided by the brahmanas, not according to the family's capacity to cultivate. The brahmanas and kshatriyas are trained to see to the spiritual elevation of their subjects. So, the main function of the society is to progress in Krishna consciousness. 3. Land, cows, grains, milk and education are never allowed to be sold. If land is not allowed to be sold then there will be enough land for everyone. 4. No industries which enhance ugrakarma are allowed in such a welfare state because these machines make people unemployed. Unemployment gives rise to crimes. Emphasis is on growing grains, milk and daily necessities without getting into the production of unnecessary things. 5. There is a local understanding in some villages of Orissa that ideally only 25% of the land should be utilized for cultivation for human use and 75% of the land should be left as jungles for the grazing ground for the animals. Due to this there is no expenditure for keeping cows. 6. Cultivation of land is done only by bulls and not by tractors. Thus taking care of bulls doesn't become a burden on the farmer rather there used to be a celebration on the birth of a bull.( 26 )

By this we can easily maintain any amount of cows or bulls. Men get pure food and milk to consume and thus advancement in Krishna consciousness becomes very easy. The cows which go out for grazing remain healthy and thus their milk is nourishing for the body and mind. Under such circumstances it is not surprising that there will be over abundance of milk and milk products. Then again there will be rivers of milk flowing throughout the world instead of blood. So, this is the ideal standard of cow care. If we do this then only we will be able to really protect the cows. Now the big question is, how to achieve this? We find that Srila Prabhupada in his teachings on 'Cow protection' emphasizes not on making goshalas, rather he in his numerous conversations, lectures and letters asks devotees to establish farm communities. The conception of these farm communities is very clearly given by Srila Prabhupada in his essay on "Conception of Gita Nagari Part 1 & 2". It is based on spiritual communism where everything belongs to Lord Krishna, the brahmanas are selfless representatives of the Supreme Lord and the kshatriyas administer the state under their guidance. 1. Srila Prabhupada put emphasis on starting Gurukulas because children can be moulded into this culture very easily. As we already discussed before in this booklet that the Britishers destroyed this culture by introducing their education system since they understood correctly that it is education which makes a person convinced about a way of living. In the long run this is going to be the main focus for development of this department - we are going to start imparting completely vedic education. 2. As the above mentioned rules will never be applied by the current governments of the world, it is important that devotees buy as much land as they can. Once we have land to ourselves we can administer the affairs according to the vedic scriptures like Manu Samhita. Therefore, this( 27 )

is a very important function that this department has to carry out - either procure or inspire devotees to get land, if devotees don't acquire land then the materialists are anyways going to get hold of the entire land. 3. Mega and persistent propaganda is required. This is the vision of the Rural Development Preaching Project. Thereby we will gradually develop all the lost village technologies like fine arts, dramas, threading, weaving, etc, etc. We need to develop these through the establishment of gurukulas and varnasrama colleges. In SB 4.29.55, "There should be a thorough overhauling of the social system, and society should revert to the Vedic principles,.". In pursuance of this desire Srila Prabhupada started ISKCON as a vedic educational center where there are discussions over vedic scriptures. Also, Srila Prabhupada in "Conception of Gita Nagari" article writes: "Mahatma Gandhi fought with the adamant British Imperialism by his indigenous method with the touch of spiritual strength, and after obtaining our independence by such method, if we simply imitate the mode of western civilization, certainly it will be difficult for us to preserve such independence by some foolish plans made in London. If we want to preserve our independence at all, we must give up the London-made ideas, so scrupulously adhered to by our political leaders. If we eat fire, we must be ready to pass cinders. The mode of western civilization is sure to produce such social upheaval as Bolshevism or Communism, and if India wants to set an example of social peace and prosperity, she must be ready to accept the philosophy of the Bhagavad-gt. The specialty of Mahatma Gandhi's movement was that beginning from Charkha, up to the end of his life singing (Ramdhun) by chanting Raghupati Rghava Rja Rma, all were indigenous methods, and none of them were borrowed from the western philosophers. Even when he had attended the round Table conference in London, he was present in London, he was present there in his indigenous dress without monkeying the Europeans as( 28 )

others do, and for this behaviour, he was never disrespected, but, on the contrary, he was welcomed there as an independant king would have been." In another conversation Srila Prabhupada makes the point of starting village preaching: "Now, our next program will be to organize farming land to set an example to the whole world how people can be peaceful, happy, and free from all anxieties simply by chanting Hare Krishna Maha-mantra and living an honorable life in Krishna Consciousness. In India especially people are religiously inclined. They like to live in village and also like to love Lord Rama, Lord Krishna. This idealism is running through their blood and veins. We have to organize their natural tendency and elevate them again back to Home, Back-to-Godhead. Please think over these points very seriously and as soon as I return we shall take up the program. My beloved sannyasi disciple Swami Pusta Krishna has promised to give me a car, and as soon as I get it I shall move from village to village along with some selected assistants and organize this farming village development program." -Letter to: Kartikeya K. Mahadevia. So the same techniques which were employed by the British to destroy the culture have been told by Srila Prabhupada for the reestablishment of the same, that is Education through regular morning evening discourses on Srimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad Gita and the reestablishment of Gurukulas, Preaching, Setting up of selfsufficient rural communities where natural farming based on cows is done, lastly, he said that within such a community we should abolish the currency notes. Based on these guidelines of Srila Prabhupada we have chalked out the following master plan of execution:

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5 PRONGED ACTION PLANVillage Preaching We are conducting Harinaam Sankirtana and Prasadam distribution in villages. C r e a t i n g College awareness preaching in Devotees This is We are very conducting important seminars in order to and get new workshops age men. in order to Youths are inspire the future more and for any more project. devotees to participate in this effort. Demo farm This would be a small farm, say 1-2 acres, purpose of which would be to demonstrate the benefits of 'natural farming' by example. We would conduct various training courses there for the visitors. Fund Raising We are certain that by seeing our sincere efforts in this direction many kind hearted persons will come forward to help us.

The following is the course curriculum for the vedic schools : All the subjects below will be taught with value education as their basis. That means the students will be trained in specific skill sets through incidents from the scriptures. Sanskrit Astrology. Vedic arithmetic. Marshal arts. Making thread and weaving cloth. Painting. Music - kirtan instruments and devotional vocal. Vedic Geology - science of soil. Vedic Botany - science of plants. Ayurveda. Dramas Can we participate in this effort? And how? After going through you might ask this question. Answer is 'yes, surely'. Everyone is welcome. You can help in the following ways: Join us in Harinaam Sankirtana. Contribute in prasadam distribution. Sponsor vehicle. Sponsor devotional clothing for children in the vedic school. Sponsor printing of brochures, children books and other paraphernalia. Sponsor a small farm for 'natural farming' demonstration.

Other Programs for villages: 1. Spiritual discussions. 2. Educating them about the ill-effects of modern farming and the techniques of natural farming. 3.Vedic education system (below is given the course curriculum)

Those grihastha devotees who are interested can also come together (a few families) and start up a small community based on the Vedic paradigm. ( 30 )

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Devotees can register their name those who want to exemplify themselves living a highly revered, self sufficient vedic village life, based on cow, vedic education, natural farming and fundamentally devotion towards the Supreme Lord Krishna. And by doing this they can fulfill the long cherished desire of Srila Prabhupada to establish an ideal society of "Simple living and high thing". In this way they can be recognized by the Supreme Lord by showing the whole world an enlightened path of practical and natural life style. You can help us in designing and updating our website. Any other help is most welcome. Contact us : e-mail : [email protected] Mobile No. Prana Govind Das +91-9997049759 Madhav Gopal Das +91-9997022302 Indraneelmani Das +91-8273459099 Krsna Balaram Das +91-9897476111 Madhava Krsna Das +91 9045526574 website : www.divinecows.com

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