the Lord's compassion on animals

[Guest guest]

poojya acharya,

i am an animal lover. i want to know whythe poor

creatures

are made to suffer so much. my mother gave me the explanation when i

was

a child that they were men in their past birth and that they were

suffering from the karma of their previous birth. now, somehow i

cannot

accept that theory. men are fully aware of their actions being right

or

wrong and deserve the result of their action. but animals who do not

commit any action knowingly are made to duffer so much. swami, this

question has been troubling me constantly and i have not been able to

find

the right answer. kindly guide me on this aspect.

your humble devotee

venkat

 

 

venkat malempati

[Guest guest]

? i am an animal lover. i want to know

> whythe poor creatures are made to

> suffer so much.

 

As Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita (8.6)

yam yam va~pi smaran........ whatever a person

is thinking of when he leaves his body, he gets

that body in his next birth without fail. Now

if someone has only thought of animals and lived

his life as an animal i.e. by being only engaged

in eating meat, sleeping, defending, and mating,

he will definitely get an animal's body. Also,

in the process if one develops a desire to enjoy

like animals, the Supersoul in the heart will

guide that soul to take up an animal's body.

e.g. if one desires to drink fresh blood, he'll

get the body of a tiger, and so on. Now as part

of the package, one goes through the suffering

and not-so-suffering (which we refer to as

happiness) pertaining to that body. So the real

intelligence is to devote one's human life to

understand God, and how to love Him and to go

back to Him instead of taking up another birth.

But out of millions of people who try to understand

Him, only a few can do so, as Krishna says in

BG (7.3). Nevertheless the process of devotional

service is so potent that even if one doesn't

finish it in this life time, one starts in the

next life where one has left off.

 

By the way, its good to love animals but its

better to love Krishna. That way you'll love

everyone and all His creation and your love will

be complete. The only good part of being an

animal is that they don't incur any karma, as

whatever they do they won't suffer in their next

life for that. But for human beings, they are

accountable for all their actions. So better to

act for Krishna, and hence won't get any bad

reactions for that, but at the same time will

go back to Him.

 

Humbly yours

Vikas Arora