HYDERABAD: “Cows teach us the way of life, if we observe them closely,” says thirty-four- year old Suresh Madugula as he feeds and grooms his cow Lakshmi lovingly. A former marketing executive, Suresh now manages his own cow farm or gaushala on the outskirts of the city. “Gaushala is not a dairy farm. We are not here to make business out of the animals but to care and nurture for them. Most of these animals were protected from slaughterhouses and they live here until the end of their lives.
They are like our family,” he says as he shows around the farm where there are close to a hundred and twenty cows and bulls. Hailing from a weaver family from the Srikakulam district, Suresh had moved to Hyderabad in search of a suitable livelihood. “I worked as a marketing executive for a private company for several years before resigning to take on a spiritual on course. I spent two years moving from ashram to ashram across the state to gain as much as yogic knowledge as I could.
The subjects of self-healing, naturopathy and Ayurveda fascinated me and I started studying more about them,” says the certified yoga teacher. His love for cows sparked when he was in charge of the gaushala of one of the ashrams he was staying in. “I grew fond of cows. I studied about the medicinal properties found in cow’s milk, urine and dung and how they cured the most chronic diseases.
This led me to start something of my own. With some help from well wishers and the government, my wife and I started this gaushala and a small yoga clinic named Nitya Arogya Yoga Sannidhi,” says the Lingampally resident. Along with his wife and two other disciples, Suresh looks after his gaushala and makes natural products from cow’s milk like ghee, curd at home. “Day to day products like tooth powder, soaps, shampoos, essential oils, incense sticks are our primary products. We also make medicines for various diseases like diabetes, psoriasis, BP, eczema, thyroid, arthritis and many more. We have successfully cured several patients through naturopathy, massages and our home made products,” he says. It is only word of mouth that brings him customers.
“I regularly conduct workshops across the state where the participants are given their own ingredients to make these products. It is a fun activity and also wins their trust on our products. This is the only way we advertise our products and they are placed at a minimal cost,” says the yogi. He says about the ongoing corona virus pandemic. “Instead of panicking, we should inc rease our knowledge on the disease but also be careful not to take in everything we see on Internet.