Sacred Cow

I saw a cow yesterday. Tied to a pillar under our building. He was pretty young (months older than a calf I guess) with big dark mascara eyes, dusk-rust skin and a bit underweight for some reason.
Looking at him roused an instant affection in my mind. :) The kind we used to feel while feeding cows or looking at them lazing in the middle of roads back home in India. They have religious significance just like every-living-born from nature or nature herself in the society where I come from. Showing gratitude-towards or praying cows as a part of tradition. They are considered to be sacred.

May be my affection for him was more so being in country where you don't see animals except in a zoo or a sanctuary. We do get to see some street cats, the survivors of the extreme climate (and extreme traffic) in the Dubai and Sharjah. Anyways, getting back to my topic... So while I stood next to my cow, I almost had an instant non-verbal dialogue with him out of delight of seeing one after almost a year, as if saying "oh! how are you!" But the very next second my joy vanished with a realization too sad to pronounce here. The cow was not a part of a nostalgic fairy tale to give me greetings from my country but was brought here for a reason.

It's Ramadan month here and the cow was tied outside the tent where the religious groups gather for the occasion. When I came back later that evening, the cow was gone and the group had just finished eating and was heading for their daily prayers.

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" Most religions isolate, formalize and shrink our relationship to the world rather than to expand and immortalize it"

" Our assumption that micro-organisms, plants and animals exist without the capacity for contemplation of the divine is to assert that our concept of divinity is the only one there is. We do some harm to plants and animals when we kill and eat them; yet, our assumption that they are not intelligent enough to contemplate, is a greater injury."

- The mechanics of God


" No sacrifice can be performed without the aid of curds and ghee (clarified butter). The very character of sacrifice which sacrifices have, depends upon ghee. Hence ghee (or, the cow from which it is produced) is regarded as the very root of sacrifice. Cows have been said to be the limbs of sacrifice. They represent sacrifice itself. Without them, there can be no sacrifice. With their milk and the Havi produced therefrom, they uphold all creatures by diverse acts. Cows are guileless in their behavior. From them flow sacrifices and Havya ( fire) and Kavya ( Hymn ), and milk and curds and ghee. hence cows are sacred."
- Mahabharata, one of the two major Sanskrit epics from ancient India,

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Image, courtesy wikipedia

More on sacred cow in Hinduism> cattle in religion
Some facts on cow meat here >

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much love, respect & peace
R

Individualistic Perception Meter: IPM!

I recently had a brief experience being allied with ‘a group’ and as usual found myself analyzing observations & distinguishing my impressions from therein on the ever-loved-subject & one of my deep concerns ~ ‘Individualism vs Groupism’.
(Wow, to my delight! Groupism is not a word in my Microsoft Word dictionary! )

Let’s see. We have two kinds of individuals in general.
One- Individual himself/herself, of course & two- groupies who collectively define one approach which could be an outcome of a naturally-refined-generalized common interest or could be an outcome of one-person-interest for the group or even both.

Out there, I did like focus on the ‘groupie approach’ rather than the ‘individual’s approach’ since former needs our analytical eye & understanding while the later being self-conscious/aware/motivated/driven with information-experience-learning, can surely take good care of itself.

So what do groupies look for, wanting-to-be or being part of a group? Yes, like any other dealings it’s pure give & take!

Give: They render their presence in numbers & recognition to (or ‘have-faith-in’ as said so in) the Guru – their shared icon.
Take: And what they get back is a united base of belonging to a mass. A secure feeling of being associated to a set of already worked-out, existing, popularized-branded & accepted principles, which otherwise being an individual they would have to prove with time/s and action/s. Their one-person inaction can easily be eclipsed by the automated group-action in any case.

It is symbiosis and it is simple. This would reason it being an attractive deal for the takers (followers) and the whole trend of mushrooming Gurus-groups/Guru-brands around the world.

Now most of these groups are non-profit. NPGs (non-profit-groups).

“Being non-profit is neither necessary nor sufficient for an enterprise to be good and useful. I suppose you are for-profit entity and yet I would guess that the work you do adds value to society, just as the work of the corner shopkeeper or the baker who are also in it for profit. Hence it is not necessary to be non-profit to help improve welfare.
Many entities who are non-profit are distinctly harmful to society. For instance, most terrorist organizations are non-profit. Clearly being non-profit is not sufficient for human welfare.” ~ Atanu Dey on India’s development.

This takes us to our next question. How do these NPGs get the ‘fuel’ to fulfill the (spiritual-materialistic-physiological-etc-etc) needs of their benefactors?

Charity!

Surprisingly, yet again we see two kinds inhere. ‘Given charity’ & ‘taken charity’. Former surfaces while the later is recessive and often spelt as ‘goodwill service’ or ‘Seva’.

Most of such NPGs fuel on both kinds. Although the percentage varies depending on the kind of people-gurus in charge & codes/principles they follow. In fact the very ratio can help us with some needful insight on the functioning, purpose/s & reliability of any of these NPGs.

‘Given charity’ comes from the richer lot of the society. While ‘taken charity’ is physical & cerebral services expected from the remaining lot. These include volunteers-usually students & those chosen ones with professions beneficial for the group’s good, followers & their families, their friends, everyone remotely associated with the group & even the curious outsiders who get pulled in right away along with their vulnerabilities.
“We welcome all with open arms & love all as our own! Jai Guru”

To promote the guru-brand, these NPGs efficiently ‘take charity’ in any form possible. Be it manual labor, arranging mass support with being physically present in gatherings, printing thousands of t-shirts, documentary-photography, video-production, post-production, designing campaigns, shooting, editing and studio facilities so on so forth.

“Nothing is impossible! Jai Guru” And everything (everyone) is for free.