The Difference between a Kitten and a Pig

Thirty-eight years ago I became a vegetarian. In all this time I have not eaten any dead animals, and I’ve avoided any food ingredients derived from animal body parts. No cows, sheep, pigs; no fish, no chicken – and, specially here in London, no jellied eels. Are you impressed?

No, I didn’t think so. Neither am I really. In fact, I hardly think of myself as a ‘vegetarian’ at all. Its been such a long time – all my adult life – that I’ve even forgotten the taste of meat. I just can’t remember it. And I never struggle with the temptation to eat meat. The thought just doesn’t arise.

I’ve arranged my life so that its easy for me to cook and eat only with vegetables and grains as raw ingredients. And I don’t have any friends who chomp on dead flesh, either. If I get invited to dine with other families, which I do often, then they are vegetarians, too. And the vegetarian food I eat is delicious, which makes it even easier to be a veggie.

But I still have to be careful. I’ve been so long living in this pleasant veggie bubble that the psychological processes by which I choose to not eat meat have been somewhat dulled. I don’t actively think about being a vegetarian very much. Like a muscle that’s wasted away, the part of my brain that discriminates between meat and non-meat has partially atrophied due to lack of exercise.

I’ll give you an example of my wimpy veggie brain-muscle: Some years ago I was on a train on my way up to Manchester. I hadn’t had any breakfast and I was hungry. Then a fellow passenger walked by with something mysterious in a brown paper bag from the buffet car. The smell wafted across my nostrils and immediately I became interested. It took me a full three seconds of rummaging through long-lost olfactory memories to classify the smell as ‘bacon sandwich.’ At which point my discrimination kicked in and I made a choice: “Oh, I don’t eat those…”

Which is not good enough, is it? As sleepy as I was that morning, I should have been alert and discriminating. Discrimination is good, you see. Discrimination, for so long abused as a bad thing, is actually a good thing. We all have to discriminate between things we can eat and things we can’t. Only babies and mad people don’t discriminate about what they put in their mouth.

Because if you eat things you shouldn’t you might end up with food poisoning, disease, death, monstrous karmic reactions – or all of the above.

And this is something that has always puzzled me: why do we discriminate unfavourably between kittens and pigs? Why do we term one ‘pet’ and the other ‘food?’ Why do we want to stroke one and make cute baby sounds, then pick up the other, slice its rear end and stick it between two slices of bread? I’ve never quite understood that.

And neither has Melanie Joy, who makes quite a good case for preserving and refining our sense of viveka, or discrimination, in the video at the end of this short piece.

So a word to all my friends, specially those who have been vegetarian for a long time: Statistics from the Vegetarian Society reveal that the main reason given for their members abandoning a veggie diet is the bacon sandwich. Yes, that’s right. Do not underestimate that most humble of non-veg dishes.

And to all my Indian friends: I must remind you that bacon is part of a pig, which is an animal, and if you eat one – or sell one – you are betraying all that your grandmother held sacred. Doesn’t matter that all your English friends think you’re foolish for being a vegetarian for ‘religious reasons,’ or that you don’t want to be different from everybody else. Eating animals is entirely unnecessary, bad for the planet, bad for your heart and colon, and morally indefensible.

Here’s the video:

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1200 Volunteers stage English Janmashtami; Cow Protection featured

Bulls ploughing, or plowing, at the Bhaktivedanta Manor

The special feature of this year’s Janmashtami Festival was the new buildings for Krishna’s cows and bulls. Regular readers will know what an important part cows play in the Vaishnava life, but you may be surprised to know to what lengths the devotees at Bhaktivedanta Manor have gone to care for them.

Srila Prabhupada gave us the idea and the means of course. Without him we would not be caring for cows. Back in 1973 he requested that arrangements be made for 150 cows at the Manor. We are not there yet, but we’ve gone some of the way forward and we hope that he is pleased with our attempts.

There’s still quite a lot of internal work and fitments to be done to ready the new goshalla for everything we want it to be, but the roof was on and the major building work completed so that the 60,000 visitors to this years festival could all enter the festival grounds through the oak-beamed structure.

As they did, they could not fail to see how nice it looks and how central caring for cows is for us. If they didn’t quite get the message, then one of our major exhibits this year was dedicated to cow protection. By strolling around the large tent visitors could see the differences between cow protection in Lord Krishna’s day and cow exploitation in 2009. The exhibit avoided any graphic depictions, but attempted through displays and a custom-made video featuring an Indian actress, to get the message of ahimsa, or non-violence, over to the public. People were asked to demand ahimsa milk – milk produced without harming the cow, from the supermarket chains and by doing so to stimulate the market to source such a commodity.

BBC Radio 4′s Sunday programme featured the cow protection theme and you can listen to it here (until 22 August 2009). Listening figures for this show are around 400,000. The festival itself was part of the live nightly television news for London, watched by 5 million people in the capital and just beyond. For us, that was good news!

And, in addition, the entire festival went out live on the MATV channel, enabling devotees living at a distance to enjoy the festival in their own homes.

It took around 1,200 volunteers to stage this years Janmashtami. It is any ISKCON centre’s dream to be able to call upon such an amount of dedicated helpers. Such a volunteer body grows slowly, but steadily, as a result of good congregational care – and repeated happy experiences at the member’s local Hare Krishna temple. Here are some video clips of all the devotional service activities that went on up until the Janmashtami Festival.

India’s Imams urge religious respect

A reader of this blog sent me in a news item today. It regards suggestions by a leading Muslim in India which might help to reduce community tension. His suggestions concern increasing mutual respect between Hindus and Muslims, specifically by respecting each other’s religious sensitivities. I think he should be praised for his noble consideration.

Years ago, before the British partitioned India, it was still quite common for Hindus and Muslims to take part in each others religious functions. Dietary choices were another thing, but mutual respect of each other’s path was more common. Let’s hope it returns. Here’s that news piece:

Leading Islamic seminary Dar-ul-Uloom has suggested to Muslims in India that they avoid slaughtering cows on Eid-ul-Azha as a mark of respect to the religious beliefs of Hindus.
The appeal has been supported by the All India Organisation of Imams of Mosques (AIOIM), which had earlier asked Muslims to put black ribbons on their shoulders as a symbol of their solidarity and grief for the victims of the Mumbai terror attacks.
In a booklet detailing the concept of ‘qurbani’ or sacrifice on the occasion of Bakri-Eid, brought out by Deoband-based Dar-ul-Uloom, the seminary has advised Muslims to refrain from sacrificing cows to avoid hurting sentiments of the Hindus.
“They (Muslims) may slaughter other animals that are approved by the Shariah,” the booklet said, asking Muslims to respect the sentiments of other Indians.
Established in 1866, Dar-ul-Uloom is the most respected school of Islamic teaching in the subcontinent.
AIOIM President Hazrat Moulana Jameel Ahmed Ilyasi said slaughtering cows hurts the sentiments of Hindus and ‘we should not do anything that will disturb communal harmony in the country.’

British satire magazine examines RSPCA

I couldn’t resist sharing this new piece from the satirical magazine Private Eye. The publication is well known for lampooning powerful figures and organisations within the British establishment. Here, they take to task – and not for the first time – the animal welfare charity the RSPCA. They mention the double standards that came into evidence after the killing of Gangotri, on the Hare Krishna farm in Hertfordshire, England.

Hindu Cows at Kings College, Cambridge

Gatehouse and chapel of the Kings College, Cambridge

One year on from my cancer operation. I celebrate by going to Kings College, Cambridge and giving a talk entitled:
Do Hindu Cows reincarnate? Shambo, Non-violence, and Modern Animal Welfare. The attendance is good and there are some students of philosophy there. I didn’t know that until the end, so it’s just as well that I choose to speak on the philosophy which underpins ethical treatment of animals.

Animal rights is a perennial hot topic in Cambridge, not only because there are 20,000 students in the town, but because there is a large animal research facility just outside the town in which rabbits, dogs and monkeys are the unwilling subjects of experiments. Over the years the students have made many protests outside this place. Two years ago, when Michelle organised the Monday night vegetarian cafe, there were 80 students coming to eat every week. Vegetarianism and Veganism are very popular lifestyle choices.

But Cambridge is also well known for the sciences – Physics in particular – and the presence of Stephen Hawking gives extra prestige for the study of science here. So although there are many vegetarians, there are also those who cannot regard such a lifestyle choice as having anything other than a sentimental foundation. So debate is lively here.

I began by describing the unfolding drama of the Justice for Gangotri campaign, and how it has practically highlighted the hypocrisy evident in British animal welfare law. I continued by highlighting that we humans have an ambivalent attitude towards animals. If we like the look of them we class them as ‘pets’ and if we want to eat them we class them as ‘food’. Thus one species of life becomes ‘mans best friend’ and another becomes ‘burger’

Not only this, but sometimes the same animal is viewed in different ways, and susequently protected or exploited according to whim. A rabbit, for instance, when it is a pet, is protected against cruelty yet the same animal can be subjected to torture in the name of drug trials or research. The very same animal can be eaten.

Last week I was invited to join an online debate in the New Statesman concerning the views of Colin Blakemore, the well known protagonist of animal research who reasons that animals have no rights because, he asks: “Who would give them rights?” Since we would be the ones to give them rights, we can also take those rights away when need to.

He is right that animals have no intrinsic legal rights. In my talk I argued that civil and legal rights are given to a citizen, usually because of some ethical framework enshrined in Judaeo-Christian literature, or, more recently, some other humanist notions of ethical behaviour. Yet either way there is some sort of philosophical foundation, some way of looking at reality and how living things interact, that helps us to sort it all out. Perhaps by investigating philosophical traditions beyond the more customary Judaeo-Christian understanding, we can have a different perspective that will help us.

I then spoke on how consciousness, the very symptom of life, is not universally regarded as a manifestation of the neural functioning of the brain. Nobel prize winner Brian Josephson, also at Cambridge, is now researching consciousness and a talk he has given on this subject can be found on the internet.

The eastern philosophical perspective is that the atma, the ‘spark of life,’ is the same quality in all living beings. From this point of view – and from the understanding that every action has a reaction – we can create a world where there is fairer treatment of all, including animals.

Afterwards everyone had an enjoyable vegetarian dinner. I met one young man, a student of astronomy, whose family comes from Melkote in Karnataka, and who are followers of Sri Ramanuja. He found that these discussions, of which mine was the latest, were a good way for him to re-enter his family’s tradition.

I stayed the night with Sushant and Prachi, a young couple from Mumbai who are both physiotherapists working at the nearby Addenbrookes Hospital. Today was also my daughter Jahnavi’s birthday, who has now reached the age of 21. My congratulations to her as she worships Pancha-Tattva in Mayapura and will be there until Gaura-Purnima, the full-moon birthday of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Ploughing with Oxen, and Congregational Development

Oxen ploughing at Bhaktivedanta Manor

This morning the BBC Radio aired a 20-minute programme about the Bhaktivedanta Manor farm. It was a very good piece, revealing to listeners the thoughts behind cow protection, ploughing with oxen, sustainable agriculture, a working spiritual community, and a little of the philosophy behind it all.

The programme was “On Your Farm” and is a regular look at one particular farm in Britain. It goes out at 6.35 am on a Sunday morning. Early birds and farmers listen to it and now you can listen to it by clicking here.

The extra bonus for us is that the programme concluded with reference to Gangotri, our cow who, at the time the show was recorded, back in September, was being cared for and who attracted the attention of the interviewer.

After listening to this pleasant boost for our ongoing campaign I gave an online Caitanya Caritamrita class to 20 devotees and after breakfast came to the temple.

Today has been a day of meetings and discussions. First was the Congregational Council Meeting, a gathering of devotees from ISKCON small groups around the country. We chalked out 2008, scheduling the six Rathayatras, retreats, festivals and training days the year holds. The Council is comprised of a diverse range of devotees and we have been meeting for many years now. I’m very appreciative of their service in their local regions and their immense contribution to the movement over the years.

Next, I began meeting the teams that comprise our Eight Petals for this year’s “Year of the Congregation.” Senior leaders got things moving for the year by stating their ‘wish list’ for congregational development. After we created the Vision and Mission Statements for the year, we drew up some eight initial Key Result Areas and the teams assigned to them.

The meetings this afternoon were with the first two of the teams, those responsible for ‘Preaching Emphasis’ and ‘Pastoral Care.’ I am pleased to say that all the discussion was relevant, very much required, productive – and well overdue!

The ‘Justice for Gangotri’ Campaign Begins

I started the day with a broadcast to 20 online watchers, then finished the day with a broadcast to 2 million radio listeners.

As I usually do on Wednesday mornings at 7.30, I gave the online Srimad Bhagavatam class via webcam broadcast. Today we were discussing how the leader of society has four duties: (1) To follow dharmic principles (2) To encourage others to do so (3) To protect dharma within society (4) To challenge atheism and sinful practises. Even though it was Boxing Day there were still around 20 devotees up bright and early to catch the class.

At the temple we held a ceremony for the thirteenth day after the passing of Gangotri, our cow. The Vedas enjoin that the cow is accorded the funeral rites of humans. Sri Ramachandra performed the same shraddha ceremony for the bird Jatayu.

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Gadadhara Pandit and Shyamasundara perform tarpana for Gangotri

In Vedic culture the cow is known as Aghanya meaning ‘one who it is forbidden to kill’ and the fire sacrifice was performed both to pray for the continued journey of the departed and to alleviate the burden of sin created by the act of killing.

Simultaneous with the temple ceremony was a protest outside the headquarters of the RSPCA down in Horsham, West Sussex. Surprisingly, a significant amount of media interest was generated by this and local newspapers were joined by national dailies the Sun, Independent, and Mail. Sky News also attended.

This afternoon I was interviewed on PM, the BBC Radio 4 late afternoon news programme with around 2 million listeners. No RSPCA spokesperson was available for comment. You can see many more photos of the two events here.

Myths, Facts, and How you can Help

Away in a manger…

This week there has been a tremendous amount of media coverage of the cow-killing at the temple. The story appeared in newspapers, radio, television, and online as far away as Australia. But now its old news.

Its now been just over a week since Gangotri, a cow at our temple, was needlessly killed while the community members were at prayer – and that’s a long, long, time ago in media terms.

But our campaign to make sure it never happens again has only just begun. And before you get tired of hearing about it, I’d like to ask for your help.

If you’re reading this it means that the spiritual side of life is important for you. A sense of compassion is important for you. You may not have made up your mind whether or not the Krishnas are fussing just a little too much about their cow. You might be unsure about the ethics involved, or just what you might have done in the circumstances.

We all love animals. And the donors who give money to the RSPCA love animals. But we feel a line was crossed last week that cannot be hidden away from public, legal and government scrutiny. You don’t have to be a Hindu to be outraged at the RSPCA’s arrogance, just a decent person who feels that some self-important men took a step too far.

So here’s some facts about what happened. And what the richest charity in Britain is saying. Please take a few minutes to read it, then watch the Youtube video; then please sign the online poll at the Hindu Forum of Britain. It will help greatly in our case. And if you can possibly squeeze in a few lines to your local MP to ask her/him to kindly sign the Early Day Motion 576 that will also be a great help.

After Christmas we shall begin the campaign in earnest.

MYTHS AND FACTS

Myth: The cow at the Hare Krishna temple was suffering.

Fact: The cow was unable to walk. She had bedsores due to the extended period of lying down for fourteen months, and had developed a quickened breathing rate as a result. She was being given painkillers. All other bodily functions were normal and she had a good appetite. She had actually stood up three weeks previously. One of our vets noted the improvement. At no point had either of our two vets stated that the pain was intolerable, merely, in the words of the official statement from the government department Defra, the pain was ‘unnecessary.’

Myth: Animals that are suffering should be ‘put to sleep.’

Fact: It is not ‘sleep’ but an undignified death from a lethal injection of heavy liquid barbiturates – a very different state of existence.

Myth: But killing out of mercy is surely a morally acceptable option to alleviate the suffering of an animal. It’s the only compassionate thing to do.

 Fact: Compassion does not have to translate into mercy killing. We can respond to the suffering of an animal with care so that we help to prolong life. We have a choice.

Myth: But qualified veterinary surgeons had given their opinion.

Fact: Two veterinary surgeons, one who lived locally and the other a specialist based in Oxford, were regularly supervising the cow’s medical treatment. They were administering medicine themselves, and also guiding the daily care being given by the community members.

It is normal farming practise that once a cow is ‘down,’ or cannot walk, she will be killed by the vet because, within a few weeks, physical complications will arise that most farmers don’t have the time to deal with. As a religious community, we made the choice to care, and those two vets chose to support us.

Two other vets, who were unfamiliar with the way we work with animals, one of whom was merely a passer-by, gave different opinions. At first, the chief vet responsible for animal welfare in the appropriate government department, known as Defra, also gave a recommendation that the cow be killed. When he made a personal visit to the temple however, and saw how the animal was being cared for, he informed us that no further action would be taken.

Myth: The Hare Krishna people are sentimental animal lovers, and they don’t know properly how to care for animals.

Fact: We have been looking after cows for thirty years. All our cows are very well cared for, well fed, and protected from harm.

Myth: The RSPCA is a charity that was specially set up to provide animal welfare and to prevent cruelty. Their decision is final in these matters.

Fact: The RSPCA is an animal welfare charity. That means they receive donations from concerned members of the public, and are supposed to spend that money doing things to prevent cruelty. That’s all. They are not veterinary surgeons, neither are they a government department. They have no statutory powers, but function as an agency to bring cases of animal neglect or cruelty – which is illegal – to the notice of the relevant agencies.

Myth: The RSPCA has the power to enter someone’s premises and either ‘put down’ the pet or farm animal, or to prosecute the owner.

Fact: They have no such ‘powers’. Entering anyone’s premises requires a search warrant – a certificate from a magistrate – that must be delivered by an accompanying police officer. The RSPCA may then bring a private prosecution against the owner of the neglected animal, but they do so under the same laws as you or I may choose to bring a prosecution against someone else.

Myth: The RSPCA is well known for saving the lives of many stray cats, dogs, horses and other animals that are suffering or abandoned.

Fact: It is true that they save animals in situations of cruelty or neglect. This is their public face. What the public may not know is that, on average, the charity ends up killing dogs and other pets a mere five weeks after they ‘save’ them. Indeed, they are now killing many more animals than they ever used to.

Myth: The RSPCA officials negotiated with the Hare Krishna leaders for a full three days before taking the action they did. The temple failed to co-operate with them.

Fact: The RSPCA has no ‘officials.’ Their titles of ‘inspector’ and ‘superintendent,’ and their uniforms, have no more significance than the ranks and uniforms given to members of the Salvation Army. We are not obliged, in any way, to co-operate with them. We are, however, obliged to co-operate with the police who represent the laws of the country. The police did not ask us to kill our cow.

The three days the RSPCA speak of are as follows: On Monday, 10^th December, an RSPCA inspector named Mark Mathews came to the Bhaktivedanta Manor looking for Stuart Coyle, our farm manager. Not finding him, he left.

On the morning of Tuesday, 11^th December, he came again and interviewed Stuart Coyle ‘under caution,’ prefacing his words with the statement: ‘You’re not obliged to say anything..’ All this preface actually means, of course, is ‘that if I later choose to prosecute you, I now give you notice that I am recording your words which I may later repeat in court’. But it makes the speaker sound like a policeman, and that can be intimidating for some people.

On the afternoon of the same day, Mark Mathews returned with a local policeman. Stuart Coyle took pains to explain how badly killing a cow in a Hindu temple would be regarded throughout the country, and that it was an issue not merely of the destruction of a farm animal, but of the religious understanding of a large community – a section of the British public – which might have extended political repercussions. That evening, Gauri Das, the temple head, managed to have a discussion with a ‘high-ranking’ member of the RSPCA, Timothy Wass. Gauri Das managed to impress upon him the magnitude of the action the RSPCA was contemplating, and insisted that a dialogue take place between them.

The next day, Wednesday 12^th December, Tim Wass and two assistants, and two local policemen (invited without the knowledge of Gauri Das) engaged in a 90-minute dialogue, the conclusion of which was that, due to conflicting understandings of compassion and interpretations of Defra’s letter and comments, the matter would be sorted by each party gathering more relevant information, and, if necessary, by taking the matter to court. But both the police and Tim Wass stated clearly as they departed: “You will get some days to think this over.” An application for a warrant was made that very night and by breakfast the following morning, as the community members were at prayer, the cow was killed by lethal injection and the RSPCA drove off leaving a stunned community behind them.

That was the ‘three days of negotiations.’

Myth: But these are exceptional circumstances. This sort of incident doesn’t happen very often with the RSPCA. In general they have a good record.

Fact: Not at all. The charity rescues animals and prevents cruelty, but also has a long history of displaying total disregard for vulnerable farmers and pet owners in the name of compassion. They attract funding by just this sort of high-profile action, and by successful prosecutions of unsuspecting pet owners. It is not just minority Hindus rights at stake here, but people of all religions or none. There is an undercurrent of protest at their mistakes. The sad incident at the Krishna temple is just the latest

By a combination of the 2006 Animal Welfare Act (specifically clause 19 which explains the entering of premises in order to prevent ongoing cruelty), the curiously over zealous nature of the RSPCA in taking life rather than preserving it, and an often too compliant local police force; together with funding from generous animal lovers, the RSPCA has become a danger to any pet-owner.

What their current stance means – and they are trying to increase their powers – is that nobody will be allowed to care for their pets beyond the point of their owner being able to guarantee recovery. Of course, many owners choose to have their pets put down by the local vet, but that is a choice. If reported to the RSPCA you would no longer have that choice.

In their mistaken notion that killing is superior to suffering – and we might be glad, here, that the RSPCA are not bio-ethicists – the RSPCA are transgressing their own stated code which is that all animals be allowed to live a natural life.

Our question to them is: why do you not think that ‘natural life’ also means allowing a pet animal to die a natural death? Is your compassionate concern for someone else’s pet always superior to that of the pet owner, who may simply want the pet to live as long as possible? Which UK charity law has given you the power over life and death?

Watch the Youtube video here

Then please complete the online poll here

 

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Angry Hindu Leaders condemn ‘over-zealous’ RSPCA

Angry Hindu leaders from across Britain massed for an emergency meeting on Sunday following the putting to death of a cow at a temple outside London.

They were united in their condemnation of the ‘officious and self-righteous’ RSPCA, and the ‘unthinking complicity’ of Defra and the police.

Representing dozens of organisations and communities, they converged on the Bhaktivedanta Manor in Hertfordshire and saw for themselves the spot where a temple cow was mercilessly given a fatal injection, despite all pleas and attempts at negotiation on religious grounds.

They were further incensed to learn that the cow’s medical care was being supervised by two veterinary surgeons, neither of whom insisted that the cow be killed, and neither of whom reported the animal as ‘suffering.’

The assembly of delegates expressed their outrage and frustration, considering the killing to be not only an entirely unnecessary waste of life, but also a symbolic attack on Hinduism itself, a religion of non-violence.

 ”Never before have I seen such anger and solidarity in our community,” said Arjan Vikaria of the Hindu Forum of Britain. “We want answers and retribution and we will not stop until we get them.”

Raj Joshi, vice-chairman of The Society of Black Lawyers, angrily commented: “This action is showing complete disregard for the sensitivities of the third largest religion in this country. It is astonishing that the authorities seem to have disregarded all customary tolerance and understanding, and certainly the relevant legislation, in carrying out this unwarranted and inhumane destruction of an animal.”

Research was presented on the previous conduct of the RSPCA, and the organisation’s sorry history of overly zealous ‘mercy killings’ was discussed. “We call upon Hindus throughout the country to withdraw their financial support from the RSPCA,” said one leader, “they are not morally fit to represent the compassionate nature of the British public.”

“We are very upset by the deceptive way in which this charity has behaved and presented the situation to the public,” said another, “they grossly exaggerated the physical deterioration of the cow, and have covered up the plain fact of the matter, which is that she was being very well cared for by a local, highly qualified vet and her carers.”

Head of the temple where the cow was killed, Gauri Das commented: “The RSPCA deceived us and are now attempting to deceive the public. A charity organisation with no powers came uniformed into our temple and enforced the killing of Gangotri, a loved and cared for cow with no disease. Her only crime was that she couldn’t walk.”

Delegates formed a task force and will now demand both the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and Hilary Benn MP, Defra minister, to explain who gave the order to kill the cow, despite ministerial promises that no action would be taken because of the special circumstances. They also voted to register their protest in other ways and are considering prosecution of the RSPCA.

 

NOTES

RESOLUTION FROM NATIONAL MEETING OF HINDUS LEADERS

“We the undersigned, condemn the murder of Gangotri which we as British
Hindus consider to be a fundamental assault on the principles of our faith.
British Hindus call on the Prime Minister to investigate the actions of the
Chief Constable of Hertfordshire Police, the RSPCA and DEFRA to account for
the murder of Gangotri.”

Sudarshan Bhatia – Hindu Forum of Europe

Arun Thakar

Umesh Chandrasana

Madhubhai Shastri – National Council of Hindu Temples

Arjun Vikaria

Kapil Dudakia – Hindu Forum of Britain

Anant Vyas – Hindu Council of the UK

Kishorbhai Ruparelia – Vishva Hindu Parishad

Pravinbhai Ruparelia – Hindu Swayam Sevak Sangha

Ananad Arya – Hindu Seva Sangha

Navinkrishna

Shailesh Govindia – I Foundation

C.B.Patel – Gujarat Samachar, Asian Voice newspapers

Prashant Popat – Indian Business Association

Wenda Shehata – Animal Sanctuary, East Sussex

Day Four: Hindu Leaders plan the next move

Today has been a day for gatherings and plannings…

I’m writing at the end of a long day. I arrived at the temple for the 7.00am darshan this morning, and immediately went to work completing the final details of a Powerpoint presentation on “2008: The Year of the Congregation”. Next year is thus designated so that we’ll all put more effort into developing strategies for ‘Learning, Guidance and Organisation’ for our growing congregation in London and the South.

The senior managers of the temple took everything needed for long-term growth in this important area and formed a strategic planning document for it. Well, at least we completed the Vision, Mission Statements and the Key Result Areas. Our KRAs came to eight in number, so we labelled that the ‘eight petals’ of our lotus and head-hunted qualified devotees for those areas.

The initial presentation, show and discussions following were attended by a good number of thoughtful and talented devotees. We were in the good discussion space of the theatre and with no disturbances, the results were good.

I then met privately with a small number of devotees to show them some other ideas. There seems to be a lot of energy surrounding this and I am excited by the prospects of the new teams.

Jayadeva came in to see me and brought the manuscript of his new book. Its the story of his life as a pop singer in The Rubettes, his seeking for spiritual life, and the many amazing stories along the way. He is going to begin a four-day recording period tomorrow where he will be joined by Irish musicians to complement his singing of traditional Sanskrit bhajans.

While I was busy this morning, Gauri das, our temple president, was with the BBC radio down in London. Several stations do some kind of religious or ethical feature on a Sunday morning so he was interviewed by three stations in quick succession: London, Three Counties (our local radio station) and the thinking person’s Radio 4. Things moved so fast the rest of the day that I have yet to ask him how they all went.

At 2.30 we began gathering in the main dining room where a conference sitting arrangement had been laid out. I talked to Wenda and her partner Mathew, who run a 38-acre cow sanctuary down near Brighton in Sussex. She is a practising Vaishnavi and has more than 30 cows. She’d come specially for the emergency meeting. By 3.00 around 25 Hindu leaders had arrived, the local papers took a few photographs and departed and we began.

A lot of anger and frustration. And a lot of quiet determination and plan making. Some highly placed and influential people. Over the next few weeks I think that things will gradually develop towards a favourable outcome. We cannot bring Gangotri back, but we can make damned sure that she didn’t die in vain.

Had a look at some footage that a witness to the killing wants to put on Youtube, then went to my office to compose the press release for the day. Wrote this.