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If it is a given that Cow Protection’s most efficacious model is in the mode of goodness, the questions must be asked as to what that model comprises, how it works and what is the goal. Cows already exist in the mode of goodness so surely is it not just a question of keeping cows and protecting them from slaughter? If we just associate with anything in the mode of goodness is that not enough? Well, of course the answer is no. If it were that easy and straightforward then Cow Protection would naturally be successful no matter how it is managed and whatever the goals are, but it just does not work like that. Even when we chant Hare Krishna the best way to chant is to chant without offences, to avoid the ten offences.

And how to chant without any offences is an art/science, a mystery and a goal we all aim for. And so it is with Cow Protection, its exactly the same endeavour as chanting without any offence, its no less. The whole concept behind Cow Protection is to include it within the model of Community, Agriculture and Trading. But also, to achieve and maintain our own personal standards with the cows, the mode of goodness. When we operate Cow Protection in a way that shadows and mimics commercial Dairy herds we don’t have any success on any level. Perhaps we have many Cows milking and that milk is then sold to make money to support the project so that it is a business that can go forward without losing any money, so that it can be seen to be successful or at least, thereabouts. That whole model of “commercial cow protection” is but a copy of today’s commercial dairy herds. Here all the milk is sold per litre/pint at a price that makes profits and is under the rules and models of capitalism.

But there are many laws and rules that prohibit and prevent this commercial, capitalistic model moving forward without violence and without slaughtering cows. For a cow to be worthy of going through the commercial milking parlour she has to produce a certain amount of milk to be profitable, so that her milk when sold for the market price keeps a profit coming into the bank balance of the farmer. And this model is how capitalistic dairy herds are farmed and maintained., and what has happened throughout many cow protection herds is a similar story.

The milk is sold for money to maintain all the bills incurred for the cow protection herd to exist, otherwise it’s all downhill, they seek financial help and monetary donations or some kind of subsidies, and the self-sufficiency of the herd is diminished and finally finished. The whole model is dependent on money coming in. In other words, it is dependent on outside inputs, not a self-sufficient dynamic. But all this is cow protection in the mode of passion and ignorance. We don’t want to, and don’t need to sell milk or any of the Cows products or services, that’s not how cow protection in the mode of goodness works, nor how its managed.

What we are seeking is “holistic” cow protection, not to mimic commercial dairies, but to establish cow protection as an integrated part of a holistic model, a lifestyle, where all of the services and products are combinedly related to humans and devotees through economic symbiosis. It’s not that we just relate to cows via their milk, that’s the commercial model that so many cow protection projects imitate, and that’s all they know, we need to ignore commercial dairy herds and how they are run and managed. We have to relate “holistically” to cows…… And then we need to develop the symbiotic relationship……And then we need to include this all, in community life. This holistic dynamic unfurls and unfolds sequentially. It may take many years or even generations to be fully manifest and to execute, or some may even stumble upon the model accidentally, to fully achieve this goal, but this is the goal we are searching for in cow protection. It is a fully comprehensive social and economic model that evolves and serves us all continually. And it contains all the answers and much much more.

As far as this type of model is concerned there is no commercial relationship, but an economic one. The first problem of economic life is solving the problem of food, the problem of energy, and the problem of housing. And these can all be solved easily through cow protection, not through the commercial aspects of supermarkets, mortgages or rentals, that’s a very costly losers route, but through re-cycling, and constructing small cottages with local natural products at very little cost. We have to create our own economy first, and secondly, simultaneously stop supporting and succouring to the capitalistic economy. We actually have to wean ourselves from capitalism, which is a very painful process for many. Although it may appear that modern day living is simple, it’s not, it’s convenient, and that comes at a huge cost environmentally, socially, personally and economically.

Actually, all the things that exist in the mode of goodness are mystical, a mystery and altogether harmonious, ecologically sustainable and totally, naturally economical. Cows themselves are the harbingers of all things mystical with inconceivable mystic power that begins with grass. Cow Protection begins with grassland management and bona fide animal husbandry because this is the Cows’ natural inherent raw materials that she has to convert to Milk. In a proper Cow Protection herd and model, grass production is uppermost in the devotee’s mind. To produce Vedic-Milk a cow must be accessible to perfect green, lush leafy grass that is only 6-8 inches tall and is fresh and considerably free from chemicals. The topmost grass is that leafy grass that has been exposed to Moonshine, as Moonshine transforms the very nature of vegetation to juiciness and taste. In the bright fortnight of the waxing Moon the Milk that is produced from this grass is perfect for making into Butter and Ghee, the quintessential truth of Cows. A good Cow herdsperson knows all these details in the Cow Protection yearly cycle. Once any other “feed” is introduced to the milking Cows diet the milk is spoilt for making into Butter and Ghee, as any impurities in the so called “feed” are magnified in the quality of Butter and more so in the Ghee. In commercial mode of passion and ignorance herds these detailed considerations are not even known what to speak of being implemented.

And the other issues of introducing other “feeds” into milking cows’ diets’ means introducing more unnecessary violence. What is known in agricultural circles as “hard” feeds such as Barley, Wheat and Oats, and other concentrates and supplements, when fed to milking cows, totally unnecessarily, just produces huge amounts of violence. The closest that we can ever hope to achieve is by just feeding the Cows fresh leafy grass and then classifying this as “Natihimsrena” or Minimum Violence but certainly not “Ahimsa”, Non-Violence.

One of the huge misconceptions, misappropriations and misnomers in Cow Protection has been to market the milk as “ahimsa”, without violence, which of course becomes less realistic the more the herdsperson departs from the exclusive grass diet. And the longer a milking cow lives she becomes more likely to suffer from violent pains, traumas and diseases. And in my book, that does not make the milk Non-Violent. It may be natural violence but nevertheless it’s certainly not Non-Violent Milk production even in Cow Protection.

“We have to commit violence; that is a natural law.” (S.Bhag.3.29.16.)

The milking cow’s natural constitution is to produce high class fatty milk from purely grass. And the idea behind this is to farm grasslands in a permanent agricultural situation so that the minimum of farming inputs is needed, a simply beautiful natural farming consideration so that these intensive modern applications of farming are by-passed. What modern commercialised dairy herds have introduced is complicated agricultural feeding patterns as if it is some kind of good progressive path, but this could not be further from the truth. Not only does it mean exceedingly high farming inputs into dairies but it also means introducing large amounts of violence, which many cow protection projects also follow and mimic. The mode of goodness means that farming is conducted in harmony with natural symbiotic relationships that have existed since time immemorial. In other words, the judicious spreading of manures in the form of Ammonium Bi-Carbonate after extracting the Methane gas out through the anaerobic process. Agriculturally that’s as complicated or as simple as it needs to get for cow protection milk production, which means no violent inorganic tractors or highly complex machinery worked by tractors, to produce simple milk. Cow protection is the purest and truest sense of self-sufficient organic farming that can exist. Once tractors and highly complex farm machinery is used it can’t be defined as “organic” or “ahimsa” grown food no matter what fertilisers are used, (most fertilisers originate from violent beginnings especially organic ones), factually tractors render that definition as useless.

Now the real trick and secret to maintain cow protection in the mode of goodness is to marry this model up to community. Community and cow protection go together energetically and synergetic-ally and systemically. But the huge issue to combine these two components is that the devotees, the humans, have to be mode of goodness orientated, exclusively. This cannot be overstated. The reason for this is the whole bona fide secret to make cow protection work in its most efficacious model;

“A devotee in the mode of goodness does not have any economic problems, nor does he/she create any economic problems.”

The two lower modes of nature are factually the issue in creating economic problems. People situated in the two lower modes of nature actually create the problems themselves. They are the problem. It is because people in the two lower modes of nature have huge material demands. Once having achieved the mode of goodness factually a person cannot create economic problems to be solved, and so mode of goodness humans marries up symbiotically, energetically and ecologically to cow protection exactly, it’s a perfect fit in this case. However, the opposite is also true, if we try to fit together our western lifestyles into a cow protection scenario it will never work. Even if we try to make a business from cow protection by marketing the milk as “ahimsa” and selling it at a premium price and cost, eventually the model will need financial propping up and donations to keep it afloat, in other words it becomes an artificial imposition on to society, to afford to support that model. Factually cow protection is the origin of all wealth generation within society, but only in the right circumstances.

The model of cow protection we are all seeking is cow protection in the mode of goodness. But the sacrifice we have to make is to also factually achieve the mode of goodness naturally so we don’t put artificial impositions on cow protection. The three main items that cow protection facilitates to mankind are;

(1) Milk and Dairy Products,

(2) Grains primarily, and Food, and

(3) Sustainable ecological energy in the form of Methane Gas anaerobically digested from manures and Biomass. And the best natural organic fertiliser on the planet suitable for Agriculture, Horticulture and Gardens.

Of course, there are also many important sub-headings, such as Torque and Draught power, Transportation, and Cow Worship through the Pancha Gavya cow products used in Vedic Ceremonies. And of course, the direct association of the Cows personally. And many more…..

But what has to be stressed over and over is that cow protection has to be married up to community. It is not a stand-alone project that exists over the hills and far away and it’s not reserved for just “cow herd devotees/people”. Cow protection is as relevant as Deity Worship, as chanting Hare Krishna and as important as bead bags. The Goshalla has to be the centre of any village life, socially, geographically, economically and spiritually. And then it takes on the reciprocal energy of the community and it becomes a successful integrated system. And that system of economics is based on two mode of goodness principles;

(1) Giving, and

(2) Sharing.

The idea and concept of Community in this context is based on highly evolved human beings. Community is not a bunch of people living together within a physical proximity, nor is it a group of people. Community is based on being led by the highest mode of goodness systems, and engaging and being empowered to work and co-operate together to satisfy the whole. That’s why Cow Protection when married to Community is a perfect complete system of civilisation. Because it’s based on Pantheistic type understandings of Krishna’s energy being all around and that the environment is sensitively respected as such, the lifestyles of community members reflect that philosophical understanding. That’s what Community is by definition and nature. We share our allotted quota. Greed and excesses don’t exist in community. Capitalistic Community is a contradiction in itself. By nature, capitalism disperses community and acts to defeat community.

And that is how the economic system of the mode of goodness works, that’s how it is lubricated, nurtured, and that’s its goals. Everything in this whole system has to be in the same mode of nature for it to work, just as capitalism works within its necessary systems, like industrialisation, impersonalism, exploitation and now Globalisation.

Conversation Vrindavana October 8th 1977.

Prabhupāda: No luxuries. Live very simple life and you save time for chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Haṁsadūta: Yes, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: That is my desire. Don’t waste time for bodily comforts. You have got this body. You have to eat something. You have to cover yourself. So produce your own food and produce your own cloth. Don’t waste time for luxury, and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is success of life. In this way organize as far as possible, either in Ceylon or in Czechoslovakia, wherever. Save time. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Don’t be allured by the machine civilization.

Haṁsadūta: Yes, Prabhupāda.

Prabhupāda: This is soul-killing civilization, this kind of way of life, especially European countries. Anywhere you can inhabit it. It is not very difficult. A cottage; you can produce your own food anywhere. Am I right?

Haṁsadūta: Yes, Prabhupāda. We will do it.

Prabhupāda: And money, spend for Kṛṣṇa—for Kṛṣṇa’s palace, for Kṛṣṇa’s temple, for Kṛṣṇa’s worship, gorgeous, as gorgeously as… Not for false… This is the human civilization. And to organize this, varṇāśrama will help you to divide the society—brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya—as there is division in the body. That will help. Don’t waste human form of body for sense gratification. I wanted to introduce this. Now I have given you ideas. You can do it. You are all intelligent. For Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s para-upakāra. So you do good to others, not exploit others. Any human being who has been bestowed by this body has the capacity to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Give them chance and make situation favorable. Is that clear?

Haṁsadūta: Yes, it’s clear, Prabhupāda. You have made everything very clear.

This conversation is actually The Final Order for how devotees should live. Its clear Srila Prabhupada wanted us to disengage with the capitalistic model of economic, social and political life we are all surrounded by today and in 1977 Srila Prabhupada emphatically pronounces, “ I wanted to introduce this.”

In other words, after He had introduced the Temple model of Iskcon to get Iskcon up and running, He then planned to introduce the permanent Community, Social and Economic model of Iskcon that was based on Simple Living in the Mode of Goodness, based on Land, Cow Protection and Trading, and Varnashrama. Of course, this model would have longevity because it’s based on solving the economic problems of life, namely food, cloth and housing. The Temple model would never have the legs to exist for long as it depends so much on capitalism and money. And also, the Temple model holds too much of the power for Community, Society and Economic independence to exist in Iskcon. It’s not that the Temple model would disappear entirely but it would operate in an entirely different dynamic.

In this conversation, it’s almost spelt out word for word what we can expect for devotees to find in our Society of Devotees. Certainly, all the trappings of western capitalism would be absent. And a holistic approach to life would be enabled to execute the individually empowered lifestyle that Srila Prabhupada envisioned, desired and instructed. It describes exactly what mode of goodness lifestyle looks like from a self-realized perspective. The lifestyle that we can all aim for which must be based on Cow Protection Agriculture and Trading as found in Bhagavad-gita As It Is. 18.44. “krishi-go-raksha-vanijyam………” which translates as the fully-fledged model of agricultural-cow-protection-and trading, the only sane way to produce wholesome fresh food, not from the market, but fresh from your earth.

But this model of Cow Protection has not yet been seen in modern times, it is still yet to come and it will only become manifest when the humans, the devotees, are in the correct factual situation when they are ready to accept “no luxuries” and be faced with growing their own food, working their own oxen, making their own cloth and constructing their own cottages.

“ If it were easy, then everyone would be doing it.”

When we finally achieve this mode of goodness platform then we will be able to marry up Agricultural Cow Protection and Trading with the universal principle of Community, taking us all the way to Varnashrama Dharma. The parts of the Mode of Goodness that are missing are the social, economic and self-sufficient parts. It’s easy to be clean, it’s easy to tell the truth , its easy to get up early in the morning and swan around in a dhoti and sari, its easy to be gentle, and its easy to forgive, but its really hard to live an economic life in the mode of goodness.

Then, and only then will we have created the “favorable situation” needed for us all to chant Hare Krishna, not just for guests and persons interested in alternative lifestyles but also devotees. Devotees especially need a favorable situation as the one described by Srila Prabhupada, to live their lives by doing good to others and not to exploit. That is why we have to stop wasting our time in capitalistic economy so that all the exploitation and abuse of that model does not fall on our heads as it does today. That is why we have to face up to the challenge factually, to illustrate the symbiotic harmonious alternative to modern society of today, which is the antithesis to exploitation and abuse. Modern society is based on industrialization, animal slaughter in every corner of food production and the ugliest exploitation and abuse that humans can stoop to.

We have to end this pretense that we live by, and stop turning our blind eyes, and face up to our legacy and heritage as Vaisnavas and be proud of it and fearless in our principles to establish the real frontiers of the other 50-70% of Iskcon that is still missing today 40years after Srila Prabhupada instructed us to do it!

Source:http://www.dandavats.com/?p=49455