animals and moksha.

[Guest guest]

Animals and Moksha, by Sri Ramakrishna

 

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>Fwd: [sri Ramakrishna] Animals and Moksha.

 

 

>Sun, 6 Jun 2004 23:49:21 +0100 (BST)

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

This subject reminds me of a cow, Lakshmi, in Sri Ramana Maharshi's

Ashram. The saint was particularly fond of the cow and when the

animal was in its death throes, he held its head on his lap and

guided the soul to liberation. This was in the presence of many

devotees.

 

In Hinduism we find all Gods having an animal escort. Interestingly

near Siva temples we find the presence of bulls and snakes, in

tantric pithas we have dogs and near Ram temples we inevitably have

monkeys.

 

We know from the Jataka tales that Lord Buddha had to pass through

many animal lives as well.

 

In Orissa we have many substantiated tales of animal devotees. In

front of the Jagannath temple at Puri, there used to reside a

majestic bull which took no food except the Mahaprasad of Lord

Jagannath. Devotees who knew the peculiarities of that bull

(including myself) used to offer it pranam after coming out of the

temple which the bull used to graciously accept with a nod of the

head. When this bull died the people of Puri gave it a human funeral

and all rites fit for a sincere devotee were performed.

 

There is a tantric temple within the Jagannath temple premises. As

non vegetarian prasad is not allowed within the temple, the prasad

ceremony here is performed outside one of the gates of the temple.

Just as the ceremony ends a single dog appears and partakes of the

prasad. No other dog dares disturb this particular dog. This routine

has continued since centuries without a break.

 

Near Bhubaneswar a monkey used to regularly visit a hanuman temple.

It used to take bath in a nearby tank and sit with folded hands

before the deity. Whatever prasad the devotees gave it used to

accumulate in a corner and used to feed on it only after the deity

was offered its prasad. Needless to say this monkey too got a

funeral befitting a human devotee.

 

There is a vaishnav math, Radha Govinda Math, near Cuttack in

Orissa. A dog used to reside in the temple premises and used to also

attend the evening religious discourses. The founder of the math

used to make sure that the dog never missed a discourse, claiming

that the dog was a devotee and was going through an animal life.

When the dog died its funeral rites were performed and brahmins were

invited to the feast. The brahmins felt insulted and refused.

However the math went ahead with the feast which was attended by

thousands of dogs who seemed to appear out of nowhere, partook of

the feast in a very disciplined manner and vanished after the feast.

There is a devotee of this math, whom the math believes to be the

reincarnation of the founder vaishnav. His name is Lokenath Baba and

he still lives. He plays the flute very beautifully and dogs and

cows gather around to listen to the flute. I did not believe this

till I saw it with my own eyes. It is from this Baba that I learnt

about

many secret rites performed in the Jagannath temple.

 

In South India we have the Pak****eertha where two pigeons appear

every evening to partake of the prasad. They seem to come from a

very long distance. In North India we have a temple dedicated to

rats. Inspite of the teeming rat population in the temple and the

town, there has never been a single case of rat plague anywhere even

near the town.

 

One also wonders what happened to Kalia, the favourite dog of

Mahapurush Maharaj; the favourite cow of Raja Maharaj at Belur Math

and also the many animal devotees that Swamiji had acquired during

his last days. One also wonders what happened to the cat that Sri

Ramakrishna fed while performing Puja at the Kali Temple of

Dakshineswar.

 

India abounds in such things and sometimes we feel that there is no

distinct line between the human and animal devotees of the Lord.

 

Regards,