The Cow Dung Conversation

Sitting in an apartment in Mussoorie with a bunch of ferengi (a Hindi word that refers to the white tourists, with a similar connotation to the Spanish word gringo) doctors, lawyers and Fulbright scholars ("American ambassadors") who are discussing the impossibility of using cow dung as an antiseptic. I am the youngest person in the room, and the only one arguing with them.

There is some ambivalence from one of the Fulbright scholar ladies, who credits the long time tradition of using cow dung as a medicinal as some proof, however weak, that it works, at least for Hindus. The others are more embedded in their western mindset and are more critical of the practice, claiming that any medicinal benefit would be offset by the negative effects. When asked, the British doctor in the room said yes, she would indeed try to prevent someone from using the dung as a medicinal, and when asked if it was possible for there to be any antiseptic qualities to it, she corroborated their already-held doubtful belief. I piped in by saying that even using the word "antiseptic" is approaching the issue from a framework that doesn't fit- using the western medicine terminology to evaluate traditional medicine is basically invalidating the practices from the outset because you are essentially holding the traditional medicine to the standards of western medicine, thereby placing western medicine on a higher plane. I said, if you really want to evaluate the traditional medicine, you have to do so within its own context. Furthermore, I said, we have been raised within the framework of western medicine and therefore hold certain beliefs about infection and cleanliness that are most likely not shared in this culture. Those beliefs affect whether or not we respond with confidence or fear to a particular medication or remedy, and thereby affect its effectiveness. If one grows up hearing and learning and knowing that cows are sacred, then one's physiological response to the sight of a cow, or its dung is going to be inherently different than mine, or the British doctor's.
Later, when talking with a Punjabi man about the conversation, he responded somewhat excitedly, and asked if these fullbright "kids" knew anything about the preparation of the dung before use; clearly the whole story needs to be taken into account. Before the dung is used on the body, it is first burned for fire or fuel for cooking, and the ashes are then made into a paste with ghee and applied externally, but not on open wounds. I smiled. Okay, so the burning would cleanse the dung of whatever negative or harmful qualities that are present in dung; yes the full story is important.


Here, in Bhagsu, I went walking with another yoga student and Bhima to a waterful a couple of hours away. When we arrived, we sat down on a rock to look at the scenery. The rock was nearly covered with cow dung, and the other student and I sat down on the small portion of the rock that was somewhat clean, while Bhima sat on the dried dung. The other student urged Bhima not to sit there because it is dirty. He, knowing that she is not a vegetarian, said, "if you don't like it's shit, how can you like it's meat?" He continued, "this is good for food too- you put it in the soil, and it makes good vegetables."


Good point.


It's an interesting issue of invisibility that extends from food and animals to medicine and waste as well. There is not infrastructure to collect and handle waste. The garbage produced is thrown into rivers, ditches, the side of the road, etc. and burned, usually. To some extent, we have the same problem in the US. Sure, we recycle, but the trash we accumulate, which is MUCH more than here in Bhagsu, we also throw in the Earth- we just throw some dirt on top of it, and make it invisible. We do the same with our food- hiding the animal carcasses and slaughters behind steel walls, accessible only to those with government permits. In fact, one man, Joel Salatin, a biodynamic farmer in Connecticut, has been slaughtering his chickens in the open air every Saturday and invites his costumers to come to see the slaughter before they purchase their chickens. The government continually tries to shut down his operations, and I believe he's been jailed at least once. He recounts his stories in a number of books, including "Everything I Want to Do is Illegal," and he was highlighted in Michael Pollen's "Omnivore's Dilema." This is just one poignant example of the invisibility of the whole system, or whole story in the US. This seems, at least, more honest, however unappealing to the senses.


In medicine, we also have a tendency to prefer to view the superficial aspects of disease, as opposed to the whole story- covering up symptoms with pain-relievers and harsh medicines that operate on the molecular level, and thus have effects on higher levels that are almost always unintended, and negative "side-effects," (I have a hard time with this term- just because it was not what the drug intended to do, it is still an effect, and may even be more prominent than the original disease the drug was meant to alleviate. It is, simply, an effect.) Holistic systems of healing have a tendency to bring out the disease; make it more prominent, in order to treat it from it's root cause. The tendency in the States to keep our diseases or sufferings secret (i.e. the taboos of speaking about cancer, sexual diseases, eating disorders, depression or mania etc.) is also a reflection of this invisibility issue. Community based healing, like community acupuncture, public yoga classes, energy healing circles, and plant medicine (bringing us back into our context in the natural world) are essentially opposed to the idea of keeping our suffering a secret (see http://whalesandberries.blogspot.com/2011/05/remedy.html for my thoughts on community based acupuncture). 


So, I am here with open eyes, open mind, open heart, and a closed nose.


Moo.