The Sanskrit word for cow is Go and the word Shala means a place of shelter. Gopala is a name of Sri Krsna meaning the protector of cows. The first residents of Gopala Goshala, Vrinda and Gauri are calves who have been rescued from the conventional dairy industry and slaughter. At the Goshala, they live in an environment of comfort and safety and are handled daily with loving attention so that they will be comfortable meeting and interacting with many people throughout their lives.

Gopala Goshala was established with the support and blessings of the Hindu Temple Association of Hockessin, Delaware and the cows participate in pujas (worship services) with the temple community.

The beings who have incarnated as our Goshala Cows are not ordinary entities—by requesting their presence in our goshala family, we are making a symbolic request of Mother Earth, asking for Her blessing for Gopala Goshala and its educational efforts. By serving and protecting the cows, we will also be serving and protecting the earth—as well as honoring our sacred connection with all of nature. And by serving Mother Earth and protecting her in her four-legged cow form, it is also said that we will be serving and protecting the four pillars of spiritual life: cleanliness, austerity, satyam (truthfulness), and ahimsa (non-harming).

We have the opportunity to create something quite extraordinary—a real goshala, a place of loving shelter, at first for our two young calves, Vrinda and Gauri—and in the future with support from our generous friends—a place of shelter for more calves, cows, and oxen. Here in the United States, even a small refuge for our Mother Cow and Father Bull is an exceptional thing. We live in the midst of a culture that is centered on the slaughter of millions upon millions of their kin. There are only a few goshalas here in the west, but every time another cow protection project is envisioned and brought into being, more people reap the benefits of Go-Seva (service to Mother Cow), and the energy of the world changes a bit for the better. A goshala is not only a place of refuge for those individual beings who will come to take part in worship with us—a worthy goal in and of itself—but from a spiritual viewpoint, a goshala represents a glimmer of light shining in the darkness of this kali-yuga (age of darkness).