I am writing this to hopefully stir some practical steps to re-ignite a better place for the oxen.
Lord Caitanya told Chand Kazi that the bull is like our father because he helps us produce grains ***vrisha anna upajaya tate tenho pita*** CC Adi 17.153. I am sure we have quoted that or paraphrased it in our presentations about the importance of the cow and the bull and that they should not be killed. Do we really believe it is relevant for society? For Lord Caitanya it was a significant argument about why bulls should not be killed. If we share the view that it is relevant to the society we may ask how are we demonstrating that to the world.
Try this in your next meeting with devotees. Ask this question “How many of you have any connection at all with a bull or an Ox?” Does any of your food at all come from a gorakshya ox? Do any of your grains come from an ox? Does any of your transportation come from ox draft? Is there anything we can do about that?
So what are to make of Lord Caitanyas statement to the Chand Kazi, it does not seem to have any practical application in our own ISKCON society apart from something we read and note. Recently I attended an on line conference about animal traction wherein one of the contributors noted that in some of the groups he had been part of where they are talking about sustainability when he brought up the topic of animal traction as a practical step in sustainability he felt like he was “The alien in the Room”. I suspect that if you as an ISKCON follower tried the same thing in a management meeting or a think tank about sustainability or other temple related activities and you wanted to bring back the oxen to a needed role in the society you would feel that you were the “Oxen in the Room”, with the likely outcome that the topic would be quickly changed.
Here we are 55 years on and we don’t have any practical message to the world about how using gorakshya oxen can benefit society. I say this because if in our own ISKCON society we cannot find a role for the oxen how can we suggest an ox for them. In ISKCON how many oxen are engaged full time. How many farms even have working oxen and have work for them. How many people are being maintained by their work with oxen. In the places that use Bos Taurus oxen the picture is very dire and practically only tokenism. In the places that use Bos Indicus Oxen again it is only tokenism, some things are going on but only relatively minimal compared to the potential. At this time there is no real demonstration of a serious attempt to engage all our current oxen what to speak of developing work that drives us to want more oxen. Where are the brave leaders to help change this lack, to help find a practical place for oxen in the life of ISKCON.
The world population are looking for answers to the world’s problems. We read how by taking care of the cow and bulls one earns happiness. Surely we should be working to practically demonstrate this to ourselves first and then express that working model to the world. If we don’t talk about the oxen then the ox disappears from our society as we can see practically. Occasionally you may come across a working ox, but mostly they are kept as zoo animals and work by raising donations, but surely we are meant to be in close synchronization with the words of Lord Caitanya and be eating our grains that come from bulls (oxen).
Six Challenges were highlighted in the use of animal draft at the on line conference I attended. I will list them here, and comment on them, because they are completely relevant to where we are at with our own very modest oxen draft endeavours. Image, Economics, Equipment, Training, Strategy, Abolitionism
1. *Image. Working with animals is nostalgic and obsolete for this day and age.* Well this is something we are really struggling with. There is an attitude that using oxen is part of a nostalgic past and it is not relevant to today. Hence, we are not trying seriously to use our oxen as part of the 21st century Bos Taurus domain lifestyle. Even in Bos Indicus domain where we think they should definitely be doing it they are also moving towards the mechanical prestige farming tools. For usiIt is in the books but they are not in our life. To address this will require a concerted endeavour to re-emphasise and re-praise ox work and particularly those who are doing it
2. *Does not fit within the current economic system.* To me this is a key challenge in that it is not widely known how to make a living from using oxen. Those who are using their oxen in their farms are in general not dependent on them for their living but it is more of a hobby and novel interest. If we as a society of devotees are committed to employing thousands of oxen on our farms and in local transportation we are going to have to work on an economic model that sustains the ox workers as well as the oxen and their resources.
3. *Accessing professional manufacturers for implements suitable for oxen.* On a global focus there are very few companies making suitable modern equipment for use by oxen. There are some manufacturers (especially amish) who are making equipment suitable for horses and sometimes the gearing is aslo applicable for ox work. In my mind to remain relevant ox teams will need to be larger in that a man/woman will be driving teams of 4 or 6 to be able to achieve more work with less people. This is certainly the direction you see advertised in the regular ‘Horse Progress Days’ staged in the USA. Amish farmers showing modern, engine equipment being pulled by multi teams of horses. In relation to oxen we note that most oxen exhibitors show a team of oxen with two people, one holding the equipment and one walking next to the oxen. Surely the way forward are large oxen teams driven with reins from behind on a ride on cart/plough completing a number of acres in a day.
4. *Training.* It takes time to train a team of oxen ready for hard work. In the USA teams begin their training at only a few weeks old and the training has to be maintained until the team are at working age of 2.5 year plus. Even if you start training after 2.5 years of age then you are dealing with stronger candidates and you still have to invest a certain amount of time to get the team to be broken to the yoke and more time to get the oxen to ploughing fitness. One need is to have people who know how to train oxen and the next is the financial mechanism to support the people while the team is being trained. Perhaps in our donation based gorakshya farms some money can be allocated for training teams of oxen.
5. *Seeing animals used in national strategies.* This we can note is something our current upper-leadership teams have not put in place as yet. There are no national or regional strategies to prioritise oxen use in our farms what to speak or local or regional transportation and load moving capability. Srila Prabhupada writes 10 miles this way and 10 miles that for outreach, yet apart from being in our book records there are not practical plans even being discussed to bring this to a practical shape. From lord caitanya we read using oxen for growing grains. In practice using oxen for manure handling and pasture management works well. There is also the common use even today in USA Bos Taurus land of using them in forestry. Without a plan and a plan to keep to the plan there will be no change to this challenge. But it can quickly be turned around with the right attention.
*6.* *Animal Rights Movements.* There are some very vocal animal use abolitionist organisations that are against the work of animals in practically any capacity. We see that often their arguments are infecting the gorakshya of our society. In many it is better not to have cows and oxen. That cannot be our position. Lord Krishna descends to relieve the distress of the cows ‘Govinda go dvija sura arta hara avatara’. To me that means having cows and in the study of this paper to have oxen. Our contribution to the world is to show how you can have gorakshya cows and oxen, can derive food and transportation and at the same time make significant social contributions to the wellbeing of the people and the animals. The world needs solutions even in such solutions don’t necessarily fit into the modern direction. With Srila Prabhupada as our founder and direction pointer we have a duty to find out ways of re-prioritizing the use of the oxen and building ox dependency on our farms and in local transportation. If solution finding teams work together and regularly no doubt oxen will be re-centred in ISKCON in practice and not just in the books.
Source: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=95639
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