Animals and Moksha.

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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 Pakshiteertha 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,

Jagannath.

 

 

 

 

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