Zz Wcau Tv And Baby Calves Poem by Saiom Shriver

Sathya Sai Baba gave a follower a dream in 1980 in which He was on a Greyhound bus which
stopped at a Burger King. At that time Burger King and Greyhound Bus (now owned
by the British company Laidlaw) had an agreement that Greyhound would stop at
Burger King's as the official restaurant for the bus line.
In the dream there was nothing at the restaurant the writer could offer Baba
who ate no animal bird or fish flesh, no animal products.

Shortly after that day she was asked to do media for a small coalition
boycotting Burger King which included Trans Species Unlimited in State College headed by Dr George Cave,
Farm Animal Reform Movement of DC founded by Dr Alex Hershaft, H Schofield's group in Boston, and Calf of Ted Zagar
in Western Indiana.

The 3 year boycott of Burger King was resolved by the company's accession to
withdrawal of veal in 1983. Before that the writer was typing press releases for
Philadelphia tv and redio stations.. and came to Wcau.. which is on City Line
Av. When she went to type 'city' she found her fingers typing 'cave' and
took that as a message to call George Cave, a philosophy professor at Penn State
and an animal rights activist. During the call he told her he had just finished
an interview with Wcau on Pennsylvania's decompression chamber, a painful method
of killing 'surplus' pound animals. A short time later, she wanted to ask a
question of a guest on the Larry King Show on Mutual Radio. (She no longer
listens.) For some reason she could not receive the signal that night on Wtop in Washington,
but it came in clearly on Wcau, a distance away in Philadelphia. The guest that
night was Ray Cave of Time Magazine. A third time there was another Cave
Philadelphia connection, when William Cave of Philadelphia's American
Antivivisection Society was a guest on the radio. Later SG took
her to see Bawa Muhaiyyadeen, a Muslim mystic, whose aura was so
bright it filled the room with white light, whose love was so strong
that babies crawled to him from their mothers. He has since passed on
to God.. but his simple mosque was in a home near City Line Ave. It
occurred to the writer that it was a cave of light. What was God
trying to underline for her with all this synchronicity? One meaning
for her was that cities are projections upon the land.. caves are
recesses. In addition actions take energy, but silence is effortless.
It is also interesting that CAU is how CAV might appear in Roman
script. In addition Wcau could be considered Wcow. The Bhagavad Gita, Gandhi's
Bible, states that the wise see action in inaction and inaction in action. She
thought God was telling her to surrender every action for approval.. just as an
empty flute.. bears music fruit.. so a disciple empty of self will can be
more attuned to God's. This is a lesson she daily needs to relearn.

Burger King since the boycott added a vegetarian burger. For the sake of vegans
as well as factory farmed chickens may the corporation which has been more
responsive than several other fast food chains..give a vegan burger option.

Update: In 2014, Burger King now has a veggie burger, though not a vegan one.
Taco Bell provides vegan burritos (They have announced they are eliminating
the monosodium glutamate in it.)
Subway has vegan sandwiches but not vegan protein sandwiches (e.g. hummus,
tofu, falafel, lentil burgers etc.)
McDonald's in compliance with Indian law has no cowflesh in India, nor does
it have pigflesh. It has veggieburgers in some other countries but not in the US)



Asking GOD Through Chits

Baba had told His devotees if they had a question to which
they did not know the answer He would reply if a. it
was about an individual's own sadhana b. if the devotee
were surrendered in advance to the answer, and if c. it entailed an
immediate fork in the road.

There are many who immediately know in their hearts what
course of action to take, but there are times when one
is not sure. One should meditate or pray before doing this.

Baba said to take 4 symbols of equal size (e.g.4 pieces of
paper) and write on one 'yes', a second 'no', and the 3rd
and 4th 'wait'. Then pray and select one at random. One can also
use coins or open a book to a random page after prayer.

When the writer was asked by a small coalition of 4 groups
to do media for the Burger King Boycott, she asked Baba
by this method and got 'yes'.

Several months went by. Dr Rao of Lawrence Kansas told a friend to tell her that
boycotts were not ahimsan (nonviolent) because they called down corporate
wrath. This was a wise criticism, and she asked Baba again,
and again got a yes to go forth.

More time passed. Bob Pinkus, editor of Vegetarian Living who had convinced both
the writer and Connie Salamone to give up dairy said that boycotts increased
corporate sales
because they operated on the principle 'don't think of
a white elephant', which increases thoughts of white elephants.
She asked again for a third time and got another yes.

The river of life flowed on. Next L Yonish, coordinator
of Vegetarian Action whose group was targeting restaurants
which served veal, said this was the wrong target. Another
casting of the chits (symbols) in prayer.. and another 'yes'.
This time it was Lou Ann on the other end of the phone
who made the selection.

D Giehl, founder of Animal Liberation and Michael Rothschild also participated
in the chits.
Altogether 6 times, Baba or the querant's form of God
was asked, and 6 times a yes was given. The odds of this
happening randomly are 1 in 4096.

All of the criticisms of the boycott were valid. Yet God
is omniscient, and like someone on a hill who can look down
on an intersection and see traffic patterns those in the
cars cannot, God gave guarding and guidance.


-saiom shriver-