Thus Spake the Divine - Man and the Animal

Thus Spake the Divine

Man and the Animal

In this chapter, Poojyasri Maha Periyava, with His inherent compassion for humanity, brings forth the superiority of human beings over animals. He explains how a man should relinquish his desires to become an enlightened soul.

Animals have horizontal growth. As against this, man grows vertically and should hence aim at higher and greater goals. Only by doing so can he experience a better state of happiness than all other

living beings. But, in reality, it is the human beings, who are undergoing more amounts of sorrows than other living beings. Animals do not go through this much of lust, this much of worries, this much of sorrows or this much of disgrace. Over and above all this, they don’t have to bear the brunt of what is called “sin”. It is only we, the human beings, who keep committing sins and undergo all sorrows.

If we look at it from one perspective, it will appear that God has not blessed us with the kind of comforts (happiness) that he has given the animals. If somebody beats us, we don’t have a weapon to fight back. For example, God has given horns to bullocks, so that if hit, it can counter-attack with its horns. God has given sharp nails to tigers. To protect them from cold, lambs have been given body wool. God has created only mankind without any innate weapon to safeguard.

Still, God has placed lot of intellect/ intelligence only in human brains. If the human wants to protect himself against cold, he snatches away the blanket of another animal; he weaves its wool as his blanket. What when he wants to move fast? God has gifted him with cleverness to hook the horse to a cart and make use of its gallop. As he does not possess safety weapons to protect self, he creates different kinds of weapons from external sources. Animals live only in their respective territories. The bear living in cold regions cannot manage to live in warmer places. The elephant cannot live in cold regions. But man can live all across the world.

God has designed him in such a way that he uses his intelligence and creates environments suitable to him, whatever maybe the conditions. This way, using his intelligence alone, he rules other beings and the inactive cosmos.

Despite possessing such high level of intelligence, man still is undergoing suffering and sorrows. Man undergoes ordeals as he has been born into this world. Suppose he does not want to be born again in this world. What should he do? What is the reason for our birth? Say we have committed some blunder in our past life.

As punishment, we have to receive the mandated number of whips for that. We take birth to receive those whips. If the body dies after 10 whips, we have to be born in another body. That body will take the rest of the whips. One is also born onto this earth as a result of seeking pleasure and committing sins. We also commit sins out of anger. The reason for anger is pleasure. First of all, we should eradicate within us the desire to chase pleasure. If one is totally inactive without doing anything, then there will be no birth at all. However, to remain inactive after building attachments towards worldly substances is absolutely impossible. If we relinquish all our attachments, only then can we remain without committing any sins.

What is the reason for desires? The very thought that there exists something other than our own selves breeds desires. But, in reality, it is only the Brahmam or Shivam, who is omnipresent throughout and nothing else exists.

A bullock looks at its own self in the mirror. Though seeing its own image, it thinks that there is another bullock in the front and proceeds to attack it. A man sees his image in the mirror. Does he think that there is another man in his front? He knows that those are one and the same individual and remains calm. Similarly, whatever we see are all one and the same. A desire arises only if only one thinks that there is something else that exists as the second substance. This desire flames anger and anger leads to sins. Once we attain the wisdom that everything is one and the same, and realise that there does not exist any other substance, the desire will get extinct. Then, there will be no anger; there will be no sin; there will be no action; there will be no birth; and there will be no sorrow.

How to attain such a state of wisdom? Our mother feeds us milk for the wellbeing of our body. But it is the Goddess who feeds us the milk of wisdom for our salvation. She is the embodiment of wisdom. If we hold on to Her feet tightly and immerse into Her, we will attain that wisdom. At that stage, man

turns into God.

First of all, man should bring himself above the level of an animal, viz. a man in true sense. Then, he should raise himself to the stage of God. All religions have emerged only with this sole objective. There could be differences in the logic or philosophy of different religions. But their common goal is that man should not live a life of impiousness and vehemence. All religions speak in the same language, which is to fill man with attributes of love, humility, composure, sacrifice etc.

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.

GIRI is Also the Humble Recipient of "The BEST TOURIST FRIENDLY SHOPPING CENTER in Tamil Nadu" Award For The Year 2019.