New calf in Perm, Russia

[Guest guest]

Prema Vardhana Prabhu,

 

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

You were right to tell your new bhaktin that it is a mistake to give

calves to karmis because they will ultimately be killed. Hopefully she

will follow her advice.

 

Thus she will not do something that she might feel very, very sorry

about in the future. Instead, you can have a project which will bring

happiness to everyone.

 

But also, the fact is that it might be economically a little difficult

for her to keep the calf by herself. Is there any possibility that

other temple members could help by providing hay, helping with fencing

-- or even volunteering to go once a week and help with cleaning the

cowshed? Not only would she feel supported in her endeavors, but she

would feel like devotees are her friends in a practical sense -- not

just trying to impose some difficult rules.

 

On the other hand, members of your temple would benefit also -- because

by working with the cows in this way, they can gain insights in how to

understand Krsna. Cow protection can be a nice thing to promote

feelings of friendship and support among a local devotee community. The

best bonus comes at Govardhana puja, when you can decorate your cows and

bring Krsna to see them.

 

But, as for practical information on how to care for the calf -- I am

adding the cow conference as a receiver, in hopes that they will give

you good advice. Balabhadra Prabhu (ISKCON's Minister of Cow Protection

and Agriculture) and his wife Chaya devi moderate the conference, so

they will be able to give good advice. There are a number of other

expert devotee cowherds from many countries around the world. So let's

see what help they can give you.

 

As I say, if there is any way that your whole temple can help in one way

or another to take care of the new cow, it could become a very nice

activity that will benefit the new bhaktin, the cows, and the temple

members -- and also be pleasing to Krsna. So I wish you all good

fortune in this project, and thank you for being so kind as to try to

get help for the new devotee and cows.

 

your servant,

 

Hare Krsna dasi

 

CIS: Prema Vardhana (das) DAS (Perm - Ru) wrote:

 

>[Text 400884 from CIS]

>

>Dear Mataji Hare Krishna

>please accept my humble obeisances.

>

>A few weeks ago a lady came to me at the Sunday Feast in the Perm temple and

>said that she has a cow who is about to calve. She heard in the class that

>it is sinful to give out calves to karmis because they will definetely be

>slaughtered. I told her what I heard - if one wants to get a cow he must be

>ready to take responsibility for taking care of her calves. Because in most

>situations devotees can't handle it they do not take cows.

>

>The lady has just joined and a few months ago she didn't know anything about

>the matter and now she is perplexed - initially she wanted to sell the calve

>but know she is a devotee and ... So she is very much interested in cow

>protection, but doesn't know what to do with a newly born calf. She asked me

>to help her with getting the information on this. Because I know practically

>nothing about art of carring for cows I have to beg you for help.

>Could you please suggest something to her?

>May be you could give some refferences on web-pages I could look or may be

>there are some experiensed devotees in CIS you know who I can consult?

>Thank you

>your servant

>Prema Vardhana das

>

>