Sacred cows

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Local farm becomes a sanctuary for these Hindu-revered animals.

 

 

Friday, June 27, 2003

 

 

By JOHN A. ZUKOWSKI

The Express-Times

 

Krishna can be found at the end of a bumpy, winding dirt road in Upper Mount Bethel Township, on a farm near the small towns and slate heaps in rural northern Northampton County that locals call the Slate Belt.

No, it's not the Krishna that was the eighth incarnation of the Hindu deity Vishnu, the main figure of the sacred Hindu text the Bhagavad Gita and the deity even non-Hindus recognize from the "Hare Krishna" chants in George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord."

 

This Krishna is a tan bull that weighs nearly a ton, has a prominent brass ring through his nose and once briefly chased a 350-pound hefty human he mistook for another bull.

 

As a recent visit demonstrated, however, this Krishna enjoys being talked to, petted and even hugged.

 

"He likes people," said Sankar Sastri, owner of the Lakshmi Cow Sanctuary.

 

Animal sanctuaries dot the U.S. countryside where animals reside in pastoral havens away from slaughterhouses. But in Upper Mount Bethel Township lies one of less than a dozen cow sanctuaries in the nation.

 

Cow-friendly city slickers can donate money to help Sastri operate the 42-acre cow nirvana. Or they can snatch a cow themselves from the jaws of a slaughterhouse and pay a yearly fee to support the animal.

 

Running the Lakshmi Cow Sanctuary -- named after the Hindu goddess of prosperity -- is also a spiritual exercise for the Hindu farmer who was born in India where cows are considered sacred and where a quarter of the world's cow population lives.

 

That's because cows represent good luck and wish fulfillment, Sastri said. All the gods reside within a cow, he said. The four legs of the cow also represent the four righteous qualities: truth, mercy, charity and austerity. Cows are to be served, not regarded as pets or meat, he said.

 

Consider some recent news reports that show the lofty spiritual position of the cow to Hindus:

 

( In Washington, a Hindu attorney bought some McDonald's french fries he thought were prepared with vegetable oil for a Hindu swami. The attorney was outraged when he found out he had fed a holy man french fries with beef extract rather than pure vegetable oil as McDonald's advertised. He successfully sued McDonald's and was awarded $10 million which will be distributed to Hindu and vegetarian groups.

 

( It didn't take Monica Lewinsky or the absence of weapons of mass destruction to rock the leadership of the Indian government. It just took an accusation of eating beef.

 

Earlier this year, political opponents of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee accused him of eating beef.

 

"I prefer to die rather than eat beef," Vajpayee said as he vehemently denied the accusations.

 

( In late 2002, a mob of Hindus in northern India killed five men who skinned dead cows for leather after rumors spread they skinned a cow alive. The accusations were so heated investigators ordered a post-mortem on the cow to determine what happened.

 

( The Indian political party Bharatiya Janta recently approved a party platform of banning cow slaughter everywhere in India.

 

( A legal battle erupted in the New York town of Angelica about a Hindu man who kept a cow in his back yard as a sacred pet. After accusations of religious discrimination, the man recently decided to leave his home -- with his four cows -- and come to Sastri's farm.

 

But Sastri's daily routine is far from the politics of either upstate New York or India.

 

His cow nirvana was a retirement plan.

 

After working for 30 years in New York City as an engineering technology college professor, he wanted to live in the country when he retired. So he looked for land. In March 2001, he located a farm in Upper Mount Bethel Township, near a Hindu ashram in Saylorsburg, Pa., where he now regularly worships.

 

He thought he would be lonely at first. He was a city person. But he noticed the life around him.

 

"It's actually more crowded here than in the city," he said.

 

He means the wildlife he now notices, he said. And the animals that have come to the farm. There was a stray cat, which for a while slept on the stomach of one of Sastri's calves. A blind and deaf dog showed up one day and now has a spot under a shady tree in front of the farm.

 

And the cows came.

 

The first two were donated by a 75-year-old Buddhist monk who had routinely saved other animals but didn't know how he could save cows. When he found about Sastri's farm, he purchased two cows from a slaughterhouse.

 

More cows came.

 

A swami bought a cow from a Hackettstown slaughterhouse.

 

A man from Queens, N.Y., saved another two cows from becoming veal. When he went to a slaughterhouse for the first time in his life, he saw 100 calves waiting to be auctioned. A calf walked up to him with the auction tag 427. That was his birthday. So the man rescued that cow.

 

Then came another cow paid for by a local high school student who used part of her college funds to pay to keep the cow on Sastri's farm.

 

Like a proud father, Sastri can list the personalities and idiosyncrasies of his nine cows.

 

There's Krishna. At first Sastri heard bulls could be stubborn. So he put a nose ring there to pull Krishna if he had to. But he hasn't had problems with Krishna, Sastri said. Although Krishna can get a bit impatient if Sastri is late.

 

There's Sita the cow sponsored by a local high school student. Sita prefers the company of humans to animals and will sometimes follow Sastri when he leaves.

 

Then there's another cow with a pattern that resembles a large question mark on its head. That still amuses and delights Sastri.

 

"Where am I?" he said he often thinks the cow may be wondering -- when it comes to reincarnation that is.

 

Most of Sastri's daily life with the cows, however, is less philosophical and more routine.

 

He's up at 6 a.m. for the first feeding of grain and sometimes leftovers from the local ashram. But for most of the day the nine cows roam like pets on one of the farm's eight grazing fields.

 

"It's like having nine lawnmowers," he said. "People spend so much money on landscapers. All they need are some cows."

 

The cows have illustrated some valuable spiritual lessons, he said.

 

He's fascinated by their industriousness. He prefers to call the cows gardeners rather than grass eaters. They are focused on what they do and are good at time management, he said. He's learned to concentrate more by watching their heightened attention.

 

Contrary to popular opinion, cows aren't lazy, he said. He rarely catches them sleeping. When they sit, they often chew on the cud, a process of regurgitating food and chewing the food again.

 

That represents the second stage of spiritual learning, a swami from the ashram points out.

 

"It represents the reflection which is necessary," said Swami Viditatmananda Saraswati of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam in Saylorsburg. "That's an important step between listening and then putting it into action."

 

Hindus believe in reincarnation, which is the rebirth of souls in another life form. Depending on the karma one accumulates by his or her thoughts and actions during a lifetime, one is reborn into another life form. That can be in several forms, which include both animals and humans.

 

Hindus believe animals have souls and people can accumulate good karma from treating animals well. For many Hindus, that also means not eating meat.

 

"It is conducive to nonviolence and the scriptures also recommend and prescribe a vegetarian diet," Saraswati said.

 

The powerful but gentle cow is high up on that ladder of rebirth.

 

"All vegetarian animals are gentler," Saraswati said. "Compared to a ferocious animal, a gentle animal is more highly evolved."

 

In India, even cows that have outlived their usefulness for milk are supported. And they are recruited for special events.

 

"Cows are used on auspicious occasions," Sastri said. "If you want to purify a place, you would send a cow through to purify it."

 

Cows also have other uses. In an agricultural society they can help plow fields. They produce both milk and ghee, which is a purified form of butter. Cow dung can be used as fuel. And cow urine is used as medicine for diseases ranging from stomach ailments to cancer. It can be served up with herbs or drank straight.

 

"Each cow has a different flavor depending on what they eat so it always tastes different," said Irene Dove, a member of International Society for Cow Protection in Moundsville, W.Va. "But it's more commonplace in India where it is acceptable as a medicine."

 

But for many Hindus, the cow is foremost a spiritual creature. But it may also be important to think about the role of the cow in other religions. Even within the details of other religious texts.

 

"Jesus could have been born anywhere, but he was born in a manger," Sastri said.

 

( For information about the Lakshmi cow sanctuary, phone Sankar Sastri at 610-599-8824, e-mail him at sankar1@ or visit geocities.com/cow_protection.

 

 

Reporter John A. Zukowski can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at jzukowski@express-times.com.