ISCOWP's famous Vraja ox passes away

See at bottom.
>
> When Vraja fell, all the cows came down the hill to see if he was okay.
> Ujala was moaning. Vraja got up and Ujala stopped moaning. The next day
> when Chaitanya went to feed Vraja, the herd came down the hill at a trot
> to see how he was feeling. They were stretching their necks over the
> fence to talk to him. He seemed to be assuring them that he was okay.
> Shelda Bloomingdale, a volunteer, was there and wrote about it in the
> blog. Please read that to know more. It is entitled "Cows Love one
> Another."

> The night before last, Vraja must have fallen and
> could not get up. When we woke up in the morning, Chaitanya heard Ujala
> moaning and quickly got out of his cabin and ran in the direction of the
> moaning. Vraja was down near the apple tree. He was by the fence line
> and all the cows were around him. He had struggled in the night to get
> up, but could not. His face was looking up at the herd. He was very
> weak. Chaitanya chanted the Maha Mantra and two names of Krsna (Govinda,
> Gopala) in his ear. He then told Vraja he would be right back. Then he
> left to get me to see if there was something we could do. When we got
> back to him, he had left his body. The herd was still there.

> 10/30/06
> Today we buried Vraja in the field. Ray tried to do it while the herd
> wasn't looking, but near the end when Vraja was being covered with dirt,
> they figured it out and ran over to the spot bellowing. That bright moon
> evening they returned to the spot where he was buried. Bhima, Nanda,
> Gita, Surabhi, Vishaka, and Kalki sat in a circle around the spot where
> Vraja was buried. They were mooing and crying in memory of Vraja. It was
> if they were holding a memorial service. Chaitanya Bhagavat joined them
> and the memorial service went on for several hours. The next morning
> Ujala was bellowing and Chaitanya Bhagavat found her kicking the dirt at
> the highest point of Vraja's mound and rubbing her face in the dirt.
> Then she looked up and joined the herd moving past Vraja's burial place
> and onto the barn.

Thanks for the heart rendering but wonderfull inspiring write up. Here we
could see how cows really have wonderfull emotions.

I also had fortune to have a similar experience only differrence was that
the occasion was of joy.

Once I had been to a farm of my devotee friend HG Dayanidhi pr. We reached
there early morning. He has few cows which were disowned by their owners and
were left at veternary hospital. The owners got them admitted and never came
to take them.

So he got some of the cows as the hospital authorities were or could not
take proper care.

Now the cows were happy as they had enough to eat and place to graze.

We reached the farm early morning and were doing our prescribed duties. We
could also see that the pregnant cow would give birth today. So that cow was
not sent for grazing on the day. At around 10am the cow gave birth to nice
calf. As the calf lay on ground and the cow was licking the calf one cow who
was grazing with the herd around 200 meters away came close to shed and saw
that a baby has been born. She started jumping and dancing in happiness
seeing the new baby just as we humans celebrate. Then while jumping she did
circumbulation of cow and calf and ran off to graze on been shooed away from
new born calf by us.

We thought it was over. No but within few minutes the whole herd came
jumping and galloping to shed and after seeing that cow and calf were
alright performed a group dance for few minutes. The herd(only of few cows)
but was just jumping aroung the cow and calf and we could see it was sheer
joy on their faces.

All of us were just as joyfull seeing the cow dance. This dance was like
devotees dance at climax of Kirtana.

But after some time they to had to be shooed away and all went to graze
happily after having seen and welcomed the new one.

I hopes this helps all to develop their love for Sri Krsna's most dear
animal and human's friend.

Your Servant
Madan Gopal Das