Lancashire Farm Dairies apologises to Hindus for yoga with cows session
Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism
Lancashire Farm Dairies (LFD), UK’s third largest natural yogurt brand, has apologised for a recent cow yoga session at its Leyland (England) farm, announcing not to hold it again; after Hindus protested stating that “it trivialises two serious concepts of Hinduism”.
Jack Morrison, brand manager at LFD, wrote, in an email to Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, who spearheaded the protest:
We can only apologise if the recent fitness activity has caused offense, as you can imagine this wasn’t our intent…there will not be further events.
Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, in a statement in Nevada (USA), thanked LFD for understanding the concerns of Hindu community, which felt that yoga with cows in Lancashire farm was not a good idea.
Zed suggested that companies like LFD should send their senior executives for training in religious and cultural sensitivity so that they had an understanding of the feelings of customers and communities when introducing new products, organising events or launching advertising campaigns.
Zed had stated 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; he said this frivolity seemed to be diluting the profound, sacred and ancient discipline of yoga. He had 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, said Zed, 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; Zed had indicated.
Zed had noted that this event, which had been described as UK’s first cow yoga class, should be discouraged before it became a ‘trendy’ fad with herds of people flocking to dairy farms to do yoga alongside cows, as many could visualize it as an Instagram opportunity. Zed had urged Lancashire Farm Dairies to rethink, revisit and reevaluate its yoga classes with cows.