NOBLE COW: MUNCHING GRASS LOOKING CURIOUS AND JUST HANGING AROUND
12.
Basava - An Oracle Ox
Mad Cow vs. Sacred Cow
The rural hamlet of Chikka Arasinakere in the South Indian state of Karnataka is run by an ox named Basava. Not exactly landlord or mayor; more like an oracle. All major decisions, public or private, are put to Basava and he handles them so judiciously that his fame has spread throughout South India. Bus-loads of devotees now arrive from afar to consult the sacred ox.
Judging from the look of the tidy little village - with its few hundred households, its fields of sugar cane and millet, its temple, ritual purification tank and fringe of collectively owned grazing lands - Basava runs Chikka Arasinakere pretty well. No wonder: He’s been at it for nearly 800 years over the course of 25 incarnations. Acolytes identify each successive Basava through a system of dreams and portents, a process akin to finding a new Dalai Lama.
Basava gets handsomely paid for his oracular services. Jasmine and marigolds garland his massive neck and hump. A richly ornamented silver bangle bedecks his right front hoof — the hoof with which he signals his ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ to any question posed. His 30-inch horns are strung with fat bundles of cash, up to a million rupees’ worth (about $21,000) at a time, which are harvested every week or so.
Basava - An Oracle Ox
Mad Cow vs. Sacred Cow
The rural hamlet of Chikka Arasinakere in the South Indian state of Karnataka is run by an ox named Basava. Not exactly landlord or mayor; more like an oracle. All major decisions, public or private, are put to Basava and he handles them so judiciously that his fame has spread throughout South India. Bus-loads of devotees now arrive from afar to consult the sacred ox.
Judging from the look of the tidy little village - with its few hundred households, its fields of sugar cane and millet, its temple, ritual purification tank and fringe of collectively owned grazing lands - Basava runs Chikka Arasinakere pretty well. No wonder: He’s been at it for nearly 800 years over the course of 25 incarnations. Acolytes identify each successive Basava through a system of dreams and portents, a process akin to finding a new Dalai Lama.
Basava gets handsomely paid for his oracular services. Jasmine and marigolds garland his massive neck and hump. A richly ornamented silver bangle bedecks his right front hoof — the hoof with which he signals his ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ to any question posed. His 30-inch horns are strung with fat bundles of cash, up to a million rupees’ worth (about $21,000) at a time, which are harvested every week or so.
So this is a civilization of killing father and mother. All over the world they are killing bulls and cows. In England there is law that you can maintain a cow but you cannot maintain a bull. It must be killed. Yes. When I was a guest in John Lennon’s house the manager in charge, he was telling me. “You cannot keep bull. This is our law.” I learned from him.
Hari-Sauri: Only for breeding purposes. Only for breeding. All the rest are killed.
Prabhupada: This is law in England? So you cannot keep even bull privately. Must be killed. This is the law.
Tamala Krsna: What is the reason for that law?
Prabhupäda: Bull will not supply milk, so there is no use. It must be killed. You have made this law. The cows may be given some time to be killed, but the bulls should be killed immediately. This is their law.
Hari-sauri: Nor do the farmers actually want to keep them anyway.
For them, they are useless animals.
Prabhupada: Simply expensive. But here in India they know how to utilize bulls—for transportation, for plowing and so many other things.
Tamala Krsna: Such a shortage of fuel, but there is no shortage of fuel with a bull.
Prabhupada: No, rather, it will supply you gobar, fuel. Whatever he will eat, he will give you fuel.
— Srila Prabhupada (Morning Walk, February 3, 1976, Mayapura)
The donors of these rupees get value for money, according to a list of Basava’s “miracles” in a pamphlet distributed at his shrine. The ox has been known to cure diseases, dowse wells, find buried treasures, arrange marriages, arbitrate disputes, catch thieves, exorcise demons, render barren couples fertile, ordain priests, survey boundaries, audit financial accounts, convert atheists, purge “witches” and boost exam scores.
It’s not as though every bovine in India performs such feats. Nor does every village boast an oracle ox of its own. But cows, as a species, do provide an array of more modest bounties central to the web of traditional rural life.
It’s not as though every bovine in India performs such feats. Nor does every village boast an oracle ox of its own. But cows, as a species, do provide an array of more modest bounties central to the web of traditional rural life.
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The bull is the emblem of the moral principle, and the cow is the representative of the earth. When the bull and the cow are in a joyful mood, it is to be understood that the people of the world are also in a joyful mood. The reason is that the bull helps production of grains in the agricultural field, and the cow delivers milk, the miracle of aggregate food values. The human society, therefore, maintains these two important animals very carefully so that they can wander everywhere in cheerfulness. But at the present moment in this age of Kali both the bull and the cow are now being slaughtered and eaten up as foodstuff by a class of men who do not know the brahminical culture. |
