Drew Conroy: *OXEN - A TEAMSTER'S GUIDE*

[Guest guest]

Whilst it is certainly inspiring to hear of the professionalism of such

distinguished persons as Drew Conway, in presenting some of his statements

to these conferences I fear we may be shooting ourselves in the foot.

 

During the last year there was substantial work done to draw out a set of

standards. In those standards the use of leads was acknowledged as ok. We

know also that Srila Prabhupada has mentioned as such in his works. The

technique of driving oxen by leads or reins or ropes fits into the natural

Vedic picture. Is part of varnasrama and certainly therfore should be

encouraged throughout this conference.

 

The crisis (as I see it) is that there are very few devotees who are

seriously taking up ox power. We have seen that practicaly nobody in our

ISKCON society is dependant on the ox for their living. In effect the oxen

are at best kept as pets that do a bit of gardening. Why then as there are

so few persons using the oxen do we constantly make an issue of using nasal

harnessing. If the oxen are being used successfully surely this must

overshadow any issues on preferd methods.

 

If devotees can find the process of using oxen easier by nasal harnessing

rather than the longer process of voice commands then we should be

enthusiasticaly encouraging and supporting them. We do not want to

discourage any body who is utilising the oxen.

 

In the numerous pictures I have seen within our society's publications

ploughing has always been a two man job when the method is voice commands,

whereas it has been shown as a one man job when nasal harnessing has been

used. This demonstrates that in practice (within our society) the nasal

harnessing method is much more practical and efficient. An extra person

being used for ploughing an acre will cost an additional 7hrs x hourly

rate.In other words if you are getting paid $5 per hour for ploughing then

it will cost you an additional $35 because you have an extra person leading

the oxen with a rope and lash.

 

To train a team of oxen to work by nasal control is very easy. It is also

very easy to train a novice how to plough with a team of oxen using nasal

harnessing.

 

My constant request as you all well know is please do not put down the

method of nasal harnessing in your enthusiasm to present successful teamster

work.

 

Let us somehow develop dependancy systems on the oxen. This is the real

challange and crisis in our movement not that we are all not using voice

commands (in other words using a lash and lead rope).

 

Yours in the on going saga of to harness the nose or not to harness the nose

 

Syamasundara dasa

 

Ps please excuse the harshness of the e mail process. Remember 60% of

communication is non verbal. E mail is perhaps not even that