Gou Sangama 2021

Team GoPals celebrated Gou Sangama 2021 at Shri Raghavendra Gou Ashrama Malur on March 14^th2021. Aligned with GoPals vision/mission, this event aimed at spreading awareness and applications of Desi cows, specifically focused on importance of Indian Cows in Human Health and Natural Farming.

“Gou Sangama 2021” at Shri Raghavendra Gou Ashrama on March 14th2021, Malur-Bengaluru

Team GoPals celebrated Gou Sangama 2021 at Shri Raghavendra Gou Ashrama Malur immediately after our Gou Sankaranti event which we celebrated on Jan 3rd, 2021. Aligned with GoPals vision/mission, this event aimed at spreading awareness and applications of Desi cows, specifically focused on importance of Indian Cows in Human Health and Natural Farming.

Venue: -

Shri Raghavendra Gou Ashrama,
Gangapura village, Yesvantapura Post,
Malur, Karnataka – 563130

Date: -

March 14th, 2021

Chief Guests

1. HH ViswaPrasanna Theertha Swamiji
35th Seer of Pejawara Mutt, Udupi, Karnataka

2. Shri Parasara Badrinarayana  Bhattar Swamiji
A renowned Philanthropist, Spiritual Mentor & Humanitarian Leader, Founder Srimaan Trust Srirangam

3. Shri Thukaram R Pawar
Cow based natural Farmer, Kaneri Mutt, Kolhapur

Notable Visitors: -

Shri. Sonika ji, Head of Maa Gou Products, Sri Raghavendra Gou Shala, Malur

Dr. Shyam Prasad, Head of Sri Raghavendra Gou Shala, Malur

Shri Shivadeep, Founder eCourierz and National Advisory Board of Team GoPals

Shri Ganesh Karthick, Iyal Foundation, Coimbatore

Event Details:

Nature of Activities: -

The sessions of Gou Sangama were expected to reach people on the importance of Indian Native cows and bulls breed.  In addition, we had goushala cleaning by our event volunteers to give them a first hand experience handling a goushala. Interactive sessions on Gou Kripa Amrutham preparation and knowledge sharing was conducted by Team GoPals.

Event was followed by very valuable Anugraha Bhashanam by our Chief Guests so that our volunteers get a very different perspective on Indian Breed cows/bulls from the point of view of our scriptures and vedas.

Volunteers had delicious lunch. Children enjoyed Bullock cart in the post lunch time. Apart from this the participants of the event benefited from free consultation that we had opened with a doctor specialized in Panchagavya Therapy.  Event ended with valuable volunteers’ feedback.

Event Details: -

Pre- event preparation: -

Organizing the event of this scale requires a lot of background preparation with the following

• Planning for the event date and venue
• Coordination with Chief Guests availability and follow-ups
• Creation of minimum facilities for our visiting volunteers
• Given that we are getting out of the pandemic this required more caution and preparation
• Cleaning up of the venue to create neat seating capacity and provide reasonable experience to our volunteers

People Participation: -

We had about 180 volunteers actively participated in the event. Attendees include elders, farmers, families and youngsters. The main highlight was that we were able to attract NSS students from S VYASA institute, Jigani, Bangalore. This gives a lot of hope to work with that institute and bring in more young people to our initiative. We were blessed by the visit of students from a Veda Pata Shala in Bangalore led by their teacher.

Swachh Goushala: -

When the volunteers landed in the venue of event, the registration desk welcomed them and gave a brief about the first event “Swachh Gou Shala”. It was heartening to note that almost all of them participated in the event very enthusiastically. Presence of young students added more energy to the first part of the program. They also cleaned up the surroundings of gou shala by removing plastics/papers and other items which will be harmful for the cattle.

Native Breeds Introduction: -

Event continued with much awaited introduction to native breeds and answering questions from participants. Everyone carefully paid attention to know the breeds types like Hallikar, Malnadu Gidda, Ongole, Kangeyam, Bargur, Gir, Kankrej etc. People came to know life span, age, number of calves each can give, milk yield, bullockShri pulling capacity of bulls etc.

The importance of native breed cows in agriculture and daily life was given by Shri Ganesh Karthick from Iyal foundations. The session was made very interactive and hence it was liked by everyone

An Introduction to Gou Kripa Amrutham: -

One of our chief Guests, Shri Thukaram Pawar ji gave a very detailed session on the preparation of preparation of Gou Kripa Amrutham. He gave an overview of the harmful effect on the modern days pesticides and insecticides on our health. He touched upon the ease of preparing gou kripa amrutham from just cow dung, urine and other domestic items. This was an eye opener for many of our participants. This session was enlightening and had a lot of questions from our participants which was ably answered by Pawar ji.

Poorna Kumba for HH Swami ji:-

The Veda Pata Shala students and their teacher accompanied us in the Poorna Kumba invitation for HH Shri Vishwaprasanna Teertha Swamiji with the recitation of Veda mantras from Pancha Suktam and Taitriya Upanishad. HH Swamiji arrived at the venue of Anugraha Bhashanam. Gou Pooja & Anugraha Bhashanam:-

The Gou pooja was conducted in the presence of our Chief guests in the venue of Anugraha Bhashanam. Shri Mukesh Gupta ji, Founder of Team GoPals and his wife performed the gou pooja conducted by Shri Sudhakaran ji who is our core volunteer, HH Swami ji blessed the gou pooja and touched upon the importance of cows in our scriptures. He touched upon how every little help and inspired young people and families on how they can contribute to the larger cause of protecting cows by saving small on a daily basis. Shri Parasara Badri Swamiji gave a very inspiring speech to the gathering and he highlighted his association with Team GoPals and how we as a team have positively impacted the life of people who take care of cows and bulls(GoPalaks), He also mentioned that to save Indian Breed cows and bulls it is essential to save people who work on the upkeep of them. All in all, it was a very enlightening sessions by our chief guests.

Team GoPals contributed to our Support A Cowherd beneficiary, Shri Venkat Reddy a sum of Rs 54000 for funding the Gopalaks who take care of the cowherds in Sedam Village, Gulbarga District. The cheque was handed over to Shri Venkat Reddy through his son by HH Shri Viswaprasanna Teertha Swamiji.

Stalls

Throughout the event, stalls attracted participants curiosity. Gou Ganga Product stall displayed a big catalogue of Gau products manufactured in the integrated factory adjacent to Gaushala. Participants were seen busy throughout the day enquiring and purchasing various products.

SAC- Support A Cowherd stall received decent attention and received good response. Many participants opted for the Support A Cowherd movement and showed willingness to continue and spread the word about this sponsorship. They flyer designed for Support A Cowherd attracted lot of appreciation from participants.

Book stalls also received lot of enquiries and participants purchased books for themselves and their friends and colleagues.

Lunch

A very simple Saatvic lunch was served to the participants who relished it and gave good feedback about it.

Bullock Cart Rides: -

Participated younger volunteers (Kids) enjoyed bullock cart rides

Feedback

For many participants, this was an unique experience of celebrating Gou Sangama 2021. Getting opportunity to get closer to Gou mata, serving her. Knowing about cow-based farming systems and cow-based economy, Gou based product were key take ways as per many volunteers.

The session delivered by the esteemed guest were thought provoking, said some volunteer. They committed that these provoked thoughts would lead to actions.

Many volunteers posted selfie with calf’s on social media.

Some volunteers tweeted the activity and spread thru word about the celebration.

At large, participants were happy to cherish every moment of the celebration with family and have shown interest to join upcoming events and volunteering required for the event planning and execution.

Outcome: -

The feedback from the volunteers was very positive. Volunteers learned the various types of fodder, feed preparation, soap preparation and gained valuable knowledge regarding native breeds of cattle.

https://drive.google.com/file /d/1mCb22OI_IXERLeaBky48ckhAw3CUEjT5 /view?usp=sharing

Next Plans: -

The future events from GoPals are under discussion and will be published on our web site https://wegopals.com.

Note:

Please find below link to see the few more glimpses of the event.

Photos Gallery: https://photos.app.goo.gl/2GxGY3w4bPKAw9fk9