New Delhi, August 18, 2020: Hindus feel that recently launched yoga with cows at Vale Wood Farms (Loretto, Pennsylvania) is not a good idea, as it trivializes two serious concepts of Hinduism.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that cow, the seat of many deities, which was sacred and had long been venerated in Hinduism; should not be used as prop for human entertainment. Moreover; this frivolity seemed to be diluting the profound, sacred and ancient discipline of yoga.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, pointed out that objective of yoga, which found reference in world’s oldest extant scripture Rig-Veda and other early Hindu texts, was the state of blissful liberation. It involved withdrawal, inner concentration, focusing of the mind and ensued in self-purification and higher planes of consciousness.
Real yogis should not attend such events where cows were inappropriately used, causing unnecessary disturbance to cows and putting them in stressful situations; as cows should be left well alone and accorded the respect they deserved. Moreover, unpredictable cows could be a distraction in a path of self-discovery that drew the yogi inward; Rajan Zed indicated.
Zed further said that this event, which had been described as “our very first Cow Yoga”, should be discouraged before it became a trendy fad with herds of people flocking to dairy farms to do yoga alongside cows, many visualizing it as an Instagram opportunity. Zed urged Vale Wood Farms to rethink, revisit and reevaluate its yoga class with cows.
This first cow yoga session, which was described as “udderly awesome”, was held on August 15.
Vale Wood Farms, whose tagline is “From Moo to You”, claims to be certified “cow friendly” and committed to “healthy, happy herd of dairy cows”. Although it was launched in 1933, its history goes back to 1816. Besides milk, it also sells various dairy products.
