Back in the Autumn of 2009, we were excited to hear that a herd of 7 Jersey cows was coming to live on our Mother Divine Program(TM) campus. This herd started out in North Carolina at the same time that the Mother Divine and Thousand Headed Purusha groups were living there. Later, the herd moved to Goshen, NY where they were not milked daily and so they all went dry. But soon after Mother Divine moved into the facilities at Livingston Manor, which is about a two and a half hour drive from Goshen, a cow named Lalita started letting out her milk. When Mother Divine’s friend Katherine heard this news, she organized to bring this herd of Jersey cows to Livingston Manor for Mother Divine.
We googled for a traditional way to welcome the cows to our campus. We heard that in ancient India, and even now for a certain part of the Indian population, people still worship and highly respect cows as they believe cows are boon givers. Cows aren’t considered animals in India to say the least. Though I am not Indian, everyone in my family had been taught since childhood by our grand parents not to eat beef because cows work hard and give so much to human beings. Believe it or not, I’ve never touched beef in my whole life, even before I became a vegetarian.
In the afternoon of a sunny cool autumn day, we prepared bells, colorful scarves, flower garlands and other traditional decorations for the cows. Most importantly, we had buckets of chopped apples and carrots with us. As soon the truck pulled up, some of us moved closer, trying to give the first cheers and welcomes to the cows. When the truck gate opened, a beautiful cow named Lalita walked gracefully down the ramp into the pasture.
Then followed Lakshmi, Vedi, Narayani, Devi and Kavita. Only 6 not 7 cows came. Gopi, Vedi’s daughter wasn’t on the truck that day and we would find out why later. We walked forward with our buckets of treats and cow decorations. The cows graciously allowed us to put colorful scarves around their shoulders. But the banging of the big bells put them off somehow, they didn’t let us put bells on them, nor did they let us put flower garlands around their horns. We learned later that cows are very sensitive and don’t like loud noise.
To our surprise the cows weren’t very interested in the apples and carrots. What really excited them was their new home! They started running around in all directions, exploring every corner of their new pasture.
We had prepared a big old shed bedded with straw that served as their temporary barn. There were also troughs of hay and water by its side. We started planning a beautiful new vastu barn for them right away. The cows looked cheerful and they soon settled down to enjoy the treats that we put out for them.
During the next few days, we visited the cows every day. We could feel a very tangible atmosphere of silence and peace around them especially when we caught them reclining with their eyes closed and chewing their cud. We could tell that the cows were pleased with their new home on our Mother Divine campus.
This story continues in the post entitled, Bovine Group Dynamics (https://www.moomatri.com/blog/bovine-group-dynamics)
It's great to think back to that day when the cows first arrived. I had never met a cow in person before:-) Getting to know them over the years was a wonderful learning experience.