Bhaktivedanta Manor’s goshala, New Gokul Farm, is dedicated to the welfare of a beautiful herd of cows, oxen and two bulls. Beyond meeting their everyday needs, the goshala team love preaching to our community about Śrīla Prabhupāda’s teachings of Cow Protection! We enjoy delivering courses on Cow Protection with the School of Bhakti, hosting retreats, and doing workshops. But for the very first time, we headed to a school to preach about Cow Protection to young students!
Friday 8th July 2022 was a very exciting day. At 8.30am we loaded up our beautiful ox, Ram, into the trailer and we began the 1.5 mile journey to the sweet Gurukula – The Hare Krishna Primary School!
When we arrived, 3 year-old Ram proudly marched into his pre-made enclosure in the playground and was ready to say hello to the school community!
The students were treated to a range of activities and had an opportunity to ask lots of questions about cow husbandry. We spoke on the glories of cow dung and then the students made some dung patties and sowed some flowering seeds into individual pots using cow dung and soil. They even got to see dried dung being burned to boil a saucepan of milk! But the highlight was most definitely the opportunity to brush Ram – the students loved getting up close and personal with him! We ended the activities with a Go-Puja ceremony and some blissful Kirtan lead by the students.
In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.6.19) Śrīla Prabhupāda said “There are so many facilities afforded by cow protection, but people have forgotten these arts. The importance of protecting cows is therefore stressed by Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā (kṛṣi-go-rakṣya-vāṇijyaṁ vaiśya-karma svabhāvajam).”
Helping instill a deep love for cows at an early age is no doubt a powerful tool in the Cow Protection mission as young students will grow up knowing the importance of Cow Protection service.
We’d like to thank Visakha Prabhu and the Bhaktivedanta Manor management team for their support in making this event happen. We’d also like to thank Gunacuda Dasi and the Gurukula teachers for welcoming Ram and the goshala team onto their grounds. Finally, we’d like to extend our deepest gratitude to Dean for taking the time out of his day to drive Ram from New Gokul Farm to the school and back – thank you!
We’d like to invite all readers of this post to New Gokul Farm – a place where devotees are sincerely trying to serve cows, oxen and bulls to the highest of standards. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda!
Source: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=100211
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