On March 7 2016 I took the opportunity to visit the Mayapur Goshala with a small group of devotees from Indonesia headed by Sriman Kisora Krsna prabhu. I had visited the Mayapur Goshala last year at its same location since the early days of ISKCON Mayapur. In 1976 when I had first come to India, the Mayapur Gurukula was also located in the same area and every time one would visit the Gurukula, one would also have darshan of the cows. Over the years the herd of cows has increased to a present population of close to 400 cows, bulls, and calves, making it one of our largest Goshalas in ISKCON.
What I found to be a striking difference from my visit last year is the obvious expansion of the Goshala. From its previous limited 3 acres it has not been extended to 25 acres. This initiative was largely undertaken by Sriman Dayal Mukunda prabhu who has been the new Goshala in charge since last year. I took the opportunity to interview him as part of our on-going OM Sri Surabhi Campaign Video Interview Series commemorating ISKCON’s Golden Jubilee Anniversary Foundation in 1966.
Whereas before one could visit the Goshala within a relatively short period of time, at present one has to take a considerable amount of time to walk to the various stalls where the cows are being taken to be left in pasture during most of the day. The scene immediately reminded me of the Sri Pathmeda Godham Mahatirh in Rajasthan where the caretakers keep and maintain close to 300,000 cows, yes, that’s 3 lakhs cows making it the largest Goshala in the world.
In speaking with Dayal Mukunda prabhu I came to know that they are growing green fodder on 50 acres of land but much more land is needed. He envisions one day the Mayapur Goshala having at least 3,000 cows for which they would need ideally 250 acres of land just for the cows. He is gradually introducing the scientific system of cow grazing where cows are left in some particular area for a specific period of time, thus allowing the soil to become richly fertilized by the natural fall of cow dung and cow urine. For this they have installed movable fences and periodically allow the cows to graze in different areas. He has also introduced large pits for composting with an amazing amount of million kilogram already compost. Bringing Mother Cow and Mother Earth together is the magic formula for Mother Laksmi to manifest herself in the form of abundant milk, abundant grains, vegetables, forest, and cotton all that is needed to meet the basic necessities of food, clothing and shelter.
The Goshala has taken an international flavor with devotees serving from different countries of the world such as Russia, Ukraine, Australia, Canada, India and Portugal. But more devotees are needed to keep up with the on-going expansion. This is thus giving a wonderful opportunity for more devotees to take up this most important service to Mother Surabhi.
Reported by: His Holiness RP Bhakti Raghava Swami from Mayapur India