Because these special souls are working very hard all day pulling Their Lordships, they are very happy to get that abundant food. In the evening again we give them grass to eat. As we walk along the road, we collect grass from farmers or go to big flour mills and get abundant donations of wheat bran that we store it up in the tractor trolley. One half of the tractor trolley is especially for bull food, and only very rarely do we have to purchase it. As different states have different types of grass - rice grass, millet grass, corn grass, etc - the oxen's diet varies from state to state. In Uttar Pradesh there is mostly green grass; in some places grasses are as hard as bamboo, and it is surprising to see how the bulls can chew something like that. In Bengal it's rice grass, and we learned that it was not their favorite diet."
Jaya Vijaya Dasa: " One time we stayed for a few months in Haridwar, where the oxen ate only nice green grass. But when the rainy season started, the green grass stopped and we had to go back to rice grass. The first day of the rice grass diet, the oxen got very angry; they took it out of their troughs, spread it on the ground, passed stool on it and just sat and stood on it. On the second day they made a big protest again and would not eat it. But on the third day they gave in and started to slowly chew it. Animals, especially bullocks, like to have a routine and they don't like changes so much. So it's quite an austerity for them to be on padayatra and have to adjust to different feeds and climates all the time. It was by Krishna's arrangement that in 1984 padayatra started in Gujarat, so naturally the devotees purchased oxen of the Konkrj breed, named after the town of Konkrj in Gujarat. These famous, large towering-horned bulls are very strong compared with other Indian bullocks, just what is needed to pull the two tons carts every day, and they are sweet natured. Unlike other breeds, they are able to easily tolerate changes in food and climate".
Going mad for mangoes, oranges and other treats
Who would think that oxen could go mad for mangoes and oranges? Krishna Vilasini dasi, who walked through all the countries of Central America with her husband, Saunaka das, tells us a couple of humorous stories in this regard: "One time I was in a field and I had forgotten that I had four mangoes in my bag. All of a sudden Yajna the ox started running in my direction. At first I thought how nice it was that he was coming to me, but then, when I realized the speed with which he was coming I thought it best to get out of his way. So I started running, I tried to jump a fence and got caught up in the barbed wire. Yajna caught up with me and went straight for the bag containing the mangoes. He was in ecstasy. Another time in Costa Rica, devotees picked out some oranges in a field. When they came
back with the bag full of oranges I started to transfer them to a bucket, but right at that moment Yajna saw the oranges and he started running towards them. Because I had my back to him, I could not see what was going on, but all of a sudden I could see his horn between my legs. I thought, "Oh, Nooo!" Then he threw me high up into the air; he did not even hurt me, he was just so expert. I was just laughing like anything."
In 1991 in England, young Bhima also showed that oxen can have a taste for all kinds of food. Born at the Bhaktivedanta Manor, Bhima was treated like a pet from the very start of his life. All the kids used to come see him during the holidays; they loved him, kissed him, slept with him, so Bhima grew up thinking that he was a child. When devotees took him on padayatra he was still a young bull, completely untrained, and acted just like a mischievous kid. Wanting to be with the devotees, he would come into their tents and wreak havoc, even passing stool there. Sometimes at night, he would get into the vegetables and fruits stacked away for the next day and
have a nocturnal feast; at other times, he would get in the kitchen pots and lick them off clean. Besides personal tastes, oxen also have distinct personalities: Nityananda, one of the oxen in India, was called "bacha" (hindi for "child"), because he behaved just like a small kid. He was very fluffy, had very soft skin and big ears. A very friendly fellow with a very brahminical nature, he only wanted to drink fresh water which no other bullocks had touched and his grass had to be very clean and proper.
Foot care is essential
Besides a healthy diet, special care and attention must be given to the animals' feet because of the arduous road travel. Traditionally, when farmers work oxen in the fields, they don't need to nail metal shoes to their hooves, but it is a different situation for the oxen pulling a heavy cart on the rough tarmac or stone roads all day long. Without protective shoes, their hooves would wear out more quickly than they would grow.
Jaya Vijaya Dasa: "The most important detail when choosing new oxen is their feet. Their step must be straight, flat and square, otherwise the shoes will not properly wear. After proper shoeing and training, their legs and hooves actually become much stronger. We had to look at hundreds of different bulls: some were extremely beautiful, but their feet were crooked."
Sanak Sanatana das: "In India, one of our biggest problems used to be finding the walla to shoe the bullocks. On horses you put only one nail for each hoof, but bulls have a split, so you need two for each hoof, which makes a total of eight nails for each ox. Every village used to have has a man that knew how to shoe oxen, but in many places the tractor has replaced the bullocks and this art is kind of slowly dying out. There are still many such wallas in South India, but they are mostly from the Muslim community ; so many times they did not want to help us or it was difficult to get hold of the man. We had to argue for the price while trying to get a decent job done. It was very difficult. After much frustration and being cheated many times, we finally learned how to shoe oxen ourselves. Jaya Vijaya started it
in emergency situations. I also learned to do that myself and with Ekadasi prabhu, we kind of perfected that art of shoeing to some degree. In order to be self-sufficient we purchased all the necessary equipment and we developed a system by which we could bring and keep the ox down while nailing the shoes on. Now we are even better than the local shoe wallahs, even though we are very slow at it. It takes me a long time to put these nails right, but once they are in, they will stay on for about a month. "
Around 1993, padayatris in New Zealand developed the use of the "shoof", a malleable plastic shoe surrounding the whole hoof structure. They even got the company that produces these shoofs to sponsor their walking oxen for more than 5,000 kms. The company also used photographs of padayatra for its advertising. Ingenious devotees even improved the shoof by fixing a slab of car tire on the bottom, giving it greater durability and comfort. With the added feature of felt socks, the finished style appeared like spring footwear, making the animals even more attractive. It does take time to put the footwear on each day, but it gives the padayatris an opportunity to
touch these great four-legged devotee's lotus hooves.
Protection from diseases
Generally oxen are quite healthy and rarely get sick, but vaccinations against various diseases may be necessary in certain parts of the world. Devotees on padayatra India have learned how to identify local diseases, how to give injections and how to administer the proper medicines, as Indian veterinarians are not always so dependable. However, despite the best care given to them, oxen also get serious diseases. In 1977, during the walk from Vrindavan to Bhubaneswar, one ox got so sick that blood was coming from his back, and he died shortly after in our Krishna Balaram foundation area in Bhubaneswar. Twenty years later, Balaram left his body with terminal horn and brain cancer once he retired to the ISKCON's organic farm near Bangalore, after having performed nine years of service on the road.
Devotees had called him Balaram because he was completely white, and walked with his head held high in an aristocratic manner. He was a wonderful friend of all the devotees and will be remembered for his healthy appetite and the sweet sugar candy smell of his forehead which always won him many friends. Balarama left his body on the auspicious appearance day of Srimati Radharani.
Freedom from birth, disease, old age and death
In 1977, the padayatra party travelling from Vrindavana to Bhubaneswar met Srila Prabhuapda and his followers at the Kumbha Mela in Allahabad. Atmatattva das recounts that over the cart, the devotees had hung a sign in a semi-circle that read, "Bhaktivedanta Bullock Cart Travelling Sankirtana." When Prabhupada came to inspect the cart he happily stood in front of the cart and looked up at the sign. With his eyes fixed on it, he put his head down on his left shoulder and then moved his head gently in a circular motion as he read the sign aloud, "Bhaktivedanta Bullock Cart Travelling Sankirtana". As he read the last word, his head was resting on his right shoulder and he said a victorious "Jaya!". Then he walked a few steps away, picked a bundle of grass, and began to feed the oxen. Patting them on the cheek, he turned to us and said, "They won't take any more births because they are carrying Gaura-Nitai from village to village."
If we truly love oxen and have their highest welfare in mind, let's engage them in our ISKCON farms and on the road with padayatra. Otherwise, as Srila Prabhupada said, "If we don't work the oxen, we'll think of killing them some day."
