I recently had the pleasure of visiting PreetiRang Sanctuary and was so inspired by Madhulika's wisdom and passion that I had to share her with you. She has taught me many things about Hinduism and Indian culture and has left me completely inspired.
Can you tell me a
little bit about your background? Where are you originally from? What brought
you to the US?
I was raised by very supportive
and encouraging parents, i.e., parents did not differentiate between sons and
daughters. Realizing that I am very intelligent and wanted to study Engineering,
they agreed though they would have preferred that I follow the common path of
getting a Bachelors’ degree and getting married.
Two more notable
recollections about my parents are:
1. They always told us,
“Do what you want to do and be happy that you are doing what you want to do."
2. Without telling us what
to do or not to do, they made it plenty clear that anything less than one’s
best is NOT acceptable. An example is, throughout school, a Bachelors’ degree
and 3 Masters’ degrees, I have NEVER missed an assignment, actually never
missed even one question on an assignment. I didn’t know it was possible to go
to school and “face” a teacher without completing my assignment.
Our oldest taught me it’s not possible to do every
assignment when he was in High School.
I remember joking with my mother after that, “You and Papa
didn’t raise me right. You didn’t teach me that I could take shortcuts. You
didn’t tell me I could skip assignments.” My mother laughed, “I don’t know to this day that it is possible
to go to school without completing assignments and I would teach that to my
children even today."
Also, I am highly
influenced by the discipline, hard work and integrity of my maternal
grandfather who was the Chief Justice of India. I wish I could achieve a
fraction of what he did.
I am originally from
Kolkata, West Bengal, India. I got married to a
gentleman, settled in the USA, and had just gained admission at Yale University
for a MSEE (Master of Science in Electrical Engineering) degree.
People of color are definitely a minority in the vegan community, how did you find out about veganism? Was it an easy transition? Do you feel your approach and reasons for veganism are different than others because of your background?
Once I stumbled upon the information that even when cow’s udders
are bleeding and painful, they are put on milking machines so milk has blood
and pus in it. The person who said this seemed grossed by the presence of blood
and pus in milk and I was shell-shocked by the extreme cruelty! I told my
husband about this. We started reading and researching and learned about
veganism. We became convinced that on our path to moksha (ultimate aim of Hindus – liberation from the cycle of
birth-death-rebirth) it is absolutely imperative that we become vegan.
It wasn’t/isn’t an easy transition. The virtues of milk/milk
products and the divinity of cows are extolled in our scriptures. Ghee lamps
are more beneficial than oil ones in puja
(personal or collective praying) and satsang
(collective chanting of mantras). We love many desserts made with milk and
yogurt, like gulab jamun, rasagulla, kheer. Tea with soy milk is not the
same, I have stopped having tea.
The way in which my
approach and reason for veganism may be different than that of others is due to my desire for
moksha and to live the Hindu principle of Vasudaiva kutumbakam – all creation
of Vasudeva is one family.
The way in which my
approach and reason for veganism may NOT be different than that of others is that like all
lovers of animals, as soon as I heard about the extreme animal cruelty, it
immediately sparked my interest in learning more and finding out how to end it.
Further research convinced my husband and me that there’s no alternative to
becoming vegan if we want moksha.
There are many paths to moksha but
the path we are on, we hope to gain moksha
through good karma, i.e., by karma yoga. How can one eat the products
of tortured animals and not be a tortured soul? Garbage in - Garbage out.
You recently opened
PreetiRang Sanctuary in South Dixon, CA. What inspired you to do so? What was
the process like? What's your mission?
Regarding the
inspiration to start PreetiRang Sanctuary, I had always wanted to some punya (good karma) in my parent’s name. After leaving my very enjoyable job in July 2011, I spent a glorious 4 months with my parents in India...I finally had the time to "feel my feelings" for the first time in adult life!
Went through a lot of soul-searching about my purpose in life, even though I volunteer at and donate to myriad causes. Have been influenced a lot by the EXTREME abuse and exploitation of "farmed" animals and felt life is passing by. Need to leave behind my grihastha ashram (householder part of life) and, in true Hindu lifestyle, do something worthwhile with this "heera janam amol tha, kaudi badley jaaye"(wasting a life as precious as diamonds and swapping it for shells). Mukul ji and I kept talking about different causes we are passionate about. I have given time or money to all the causes I am passionate about, like, right to primary education, adult literacy, vocational training, self-help groups for women, basic hygiene and health care, rights and responsibilities of citizens; I have even volunteered at at-risk schools and a hospital in the USA, but I had a lot of guilt about not doing anything for suffering animals. As I was growing up in India, I witnessed a lot of animal abuse in daily life. If I requested people not to kick a stray dog eating out of a trash can or beat a cow with a stick, they would kick/beat harder after I walked 10 feet away, so I started to keep quiet and walk away from animal abuse though it used to eat me inside.
Went through a lot of soul-searching about my purpose in life, even though I volunteer at and donate to myriad causes. Have been influenced a lot by the EXTREME abuse and exploitation of "farmed" animals and felt life is passing by. Need to leave behind my grihastha ashram (householder part of life) and, in true Hindu lifestyle, do something worthwhile with this "heera janam amol tha, kaudi badley jaaye"(wasting a life as precious as diamonds and swapping it for shells). Mukul ji and I kept talking about different causes we are passionate about. I have given time or money to all the causes I am passionate about, like, right to primary education, adult literacy, vocational training, self-help groups for women, basic hygiene and health care, rights and responsibilities of citizens; I have even volunteered at at-risk schools and a hospital in the USA, but I had a lot of guilt about not doing anything for suffering animals. As I was growing up in India, I witnessed a lot of animal abuse in daily life. If I requested people not to kick a stray dog eating out of a trash can or beat a cow with a stick, they would kick/beat harder after I walked 10 feet away, so I started to keep quiet and walk away from animal abuse though it used to eat me inside.
We asked Baa (my Guru) for advice - whether it makes more sense to have a cow sanctuary in India or here. She felt it's a great idea; where we have a sanctuary is not as important as having one. We started looking at farm property, we changed our minds several times about where it would be located; the residence of our children, our own financial situation, our support base were the contributing factors.
The process has been
very informative, challenging, fulfilling-- difficult to express. We were
going to set-up a Mom and Pop Sanctuary with 15 cows approximately, care for
them, and retire with them. Of course, we would grab every chance to encourage
our friends (most of whom are vegetarians) to try a vegan lifestyle; educate children about
animals not being food or pets but living beings like us who exhibit the entire
spectrum of feelings that we human beings do and spread awareness about health
benefits of veganism – try and share vegan recipes.
Not getting a loan for
the sanctuary property changed everything. Having used our savings in the
property, we decided to create a non-profit and get tax exemption so we can
raise funds for the operation of the sanctuary. Now we plan to keep as many
cows as we can raise funds for.
So the scale and the
nature of the operations have changed from what we envisioned. In the process
we continue to learn a lot.
Our mission provides a peaceful, supportive and
interesting home where farmed animals can experience life less the anxiety and
abuse of meat industry practices. Where animals can express their personalities and
explore a better side of life. In doing so, facilitate our own learning
and the learning of visitors with the animals as teachers.
Do you feel the culture of your sanctuary is different than
others because of your background?
Being a small “start-up” sanctuary, we don’t have the resources
yet to engage in the rescue and transportation of residents so we are operating
like a backend sanctuary, i.e., caring for animals that have been rescued and
transported to us. Also, we are not as formally set-up with a Welcome Center.
Our visitors are welcomed to our home and “some” of the Indian hospitality.
That cultural aspect may remain even as we grow with time and resources.
Have you felt supported
by the mostly white vegan movement? Have there been times you felt
silenced/ignored/excluded/uncomfortable?
We have received an
outpouring of emotional support for which we are grateful.
We haven’t felt any
negative vibes from the vegan community so far…but we have not started
participating in vegan events yet. We have become a member of a group of North
American Sanctuaries. Hopefully we will start receiving emails about their
events so we can start participating.
I have felt
misunderstood, not by other vegans, but by the non-vegan community. Many people
don’t understand why we cannot treat animals gently and use or sell their
products to meet some of the expenses of the sanctuary.
I
know that you're a highly educated woman, how did your family react to you
decision to do sanctuary work? Have they been supportive?
My
family is 100% supportive of whatever I have done so far. My parents caution us
not to take too much upon ourselves as caring for cows and birds and cats can
be hard physical work and my husband and I are not getting younger. They are
concerned about our health.
The
children are supportive. My in-laws, big meat eaters, have shown a lot of
interest and have given encouragement and no negative comments!
Do
you any have advice for those who have strong cultural ties to food but are
also interested in a veg-transition?
Take
baby-steps. Eliminate one thing at a time and substitute it with something
comparable. Start with things that are easy to give up. For me milk was easy to
give up. I could have cereal with soy milk, instead of cow milk. However, I
stopped eating cereal for b’fast and started making a fruit smoothie. It’s very
time-consuming to wash, peel, cut fruits but I remind myself that I chant while
doing do and that also contributes to my health. Since becoming vegan and
meditating, I have become much more peaceful. My husband may vouch for that ;-)