Quote about Cow Trusts

[Guest guest]

76-11"You say we must have a gosala trust, that is our real purpose:

krsi-go-raksya vanijyam, vaisya-karma svabhava-jam (Bhagavad-gita 18.44).

Where there is agriculture there must be cows. That is our mission: Cow

protection and agriculture and if there is excess, trade. This is a

no-profit scheme. For the agriculture we want to produce our own food and

we want to keep cows for our own milk. The whole idea is that we are

ISKCON, a community to be independent from outside help. This farm project

is especially for the devotees to grow their own food. Cotton also, to make

their own clothes. And keeping cows for milk and fatty products.

Our mission is to protect our devotees from unnecessary heavy work to

save time for advancing in Krsna consciousness. This is our mission. So

there is no question of profit, but if easily there are surplus products,

then we can think of trading. Otherwise we have no such intention. We want

a temple, a gosala and agriculture. A community project as in Europe and

America. We are making similar attempts in India in several places.

Immediately I'm going to Hyderabad to organize the farm project there. We

have six hundred acres. We have the permission from the government. There

is no question of ceiling." (SPL to Yasomatinandana dasa, 28th November,

1976)

 

Hare Krsna wrote:

> [Text 2968295 from COM]

>

> Madhava Gosh is making many excellent points here.

>

> Where is Prabhupada's letter to Yasomatinandana to back up the idea of the

cow

> trust? That should be quoted to preface anything in the book on trusts.

> Important

> to establish that the original suggestion came from Srila Prabhupada, not

our

> idea.

>

> Then the points are this:

>

> 1. A land trust for cows prevents land from being sold or even

confiscated (as

> in

> legal suits) away from them. When developers move into a Krsna conscious

> community, the first thing they do is send a backhoe out to your best

pasture

> and

> dig up holes in it to see if it passes a perk test for house construction.

> Enough

> to turn the stomach of any cowherd.

>

> 2. As long as Krsna's cows don't have their own separate funds, they are

very

> likely to lose them for other purposes. The temple is nicely painted up

while

> the

> cows languish in crowded filthy conditions.

>

> I read an ad lately encouraging people to donate to the Vrndavana

Goshalla.

> But,

> from what we heard -- there is no separate cow trust fund for Vrndavana.

There

> is

> no guarantee that the money will actually be spent for the cows. For all

the

> donor

> knows, it will be spent for luxurious accommodations for some visiting

> Maharaja.

>

> I remember reading in the different letters how the cowherd was requesting

the

> temple president to set up a trust fund for the cows. That was back in

spring

> 1999. I'll bet that the president still hasn't set up a cow trust fund

for

> Vrndavana.

>

> And, once again, this points back to the importance of the cowherd being

able

> to

> have a private 1-hour meeting directly with the GBC to see that something

> likely

> this is actually carried out -- rather than the less articulate cowherd

being

> constantly cut off by the smooth talking temple president, who may claim

that

> everything is just fine as it is right now -- or giving endless excuses

why the

> ISKCON law 507 is not realistic.

>

> your servant,

>

> Hare Krsna dasi

>