A peep into the animal world

In Dec 2008, we went on a family holiday to Kenya, Africa, and saw the wildlife in their wilderness that proved to be a very moving experience. We went on 9 safari outings in three national parks- Amboseli, Aberdeen and Masai Mara .

It was a bright afternoon, and we set out in our 4 WD deep into the prairie like jungle – with a few scanty trees strewn in between the vast plains. Long, shiny grass with patches of green spread around watering holes. The great migration of millions of animals takes place every year, through this stretch of green interlocked between two imposing mountains as if it served as a vast gateway, to the Beyond!

Driving through the designated tracks our safari driver Nicolas caught a slight movement in the grass about a km away and drove slowly, closer, and switched the engines off. Beyond his native skills of sight and scent, he was intuitive at spotting the animals. And lo and behold, right across a small bush appeared the Majestic African Lion, with its consort, stretching itself and seemed relaxed in absolute peace. All we could see was a vast stillness, absolute and immaculate. Their golden color in the bright afternoon glare and spotless shiny skin stood out, as if Purusha and Prakriti were lying beside each other! There was a complete and settled peace on its face, and all we could observe was the slow heave of their torsos in sync, with their breath, as if they were practicing “pranayama” as a pair. We were stuck by the sheer beauty, tranquility, and deep silence on its face and it was so much a part of all that was around it, and one with it. A fierce, ferocious and devouring Lion seemed so harmless, unless it was on a hunt or was provoked. It simply dawned on us, no wild animal ever killed another driven by hatred or greed like we men do. It also seemed so helpless, as it could not rid itself of the jungle fly striking at its mane but shake its head in vain!

Amboseli, set in the rain shadow of mighty Mount Kilimanjaro is home to one of the largest populations of Elephants in the wild. We moved along to see swaying groups of slow rhythmic movements of brown, from a distance – families of the great African Elephants marching in. A large group of over 20 closed up to a watering hole, the grand Matriarch the tallest, wisest, and perhaps the oldest was leading the pack.
The elephant family is a picture postcard of what any happy and contented human family could ever aim to be. The little ones were darker and black, and they were barely a few weeks old. They ran around its mothers protective legs and suckled at their whim, and were getting pampered by the rest, rolling into the soft mud. The youth were no different from our ilk, locking onto their tusks and learning to fight and testing their strength. Their easy pace, and coordinated movements were a symbol of such harmony that one sees rarely in a human family.

With all its strength and size, the elephants ate on the staple of a vegetarian diet. The grownups were so conscious of their looks that their long white ivory tusks were pedicured after every meal by rubbing and polishing them against the grass! And they loved washing themselves, over and over. Our final encounter with a full grown large wild elephant was on the day we set off to leave the resort hotel in the jungle. We took a chance to leave earlier than allowed before day break and once we covered some 15 minutes on the dust tracks, there stood a majestic elephant fanning its large ears and looking at us intently with the head lights lighting its eyes like bright stars. We missed a couple of heart beats, if he chose to react with one nudge our 4W could take couple of rolls. Well we stopped and switched off the lights, and he came closer, looked at us, sort of gave a half smile and gently marched away.

Close encounter, and we thanked Ganesha! We were also lucky to have a darshan of Mt Kilimanjaro in its full glory.

Yet at another resort we set off early to catch a glimpse of the black Rhino – we drove amidst hordes of zebras, jackals, deer – all doing their early morning chores. Finally we went around a thicket that was full of thorns. There was a slight movement and there came out a full grown Rhino, which did half a circle of the thicket and went back into the bush. Strength and lightening speed of reaction, for a lazy looking Rhino, seem so unlikely, but true.

That evening we craved and craned our necks on the lookout for the dainty Giraffes and we were rewarded with the sight of watching young and fully grown ones crossing the road; they had such an elegant and sensuous walk. If only they could wear latest fashion, they can put to shame the best of trained cat walkers in the fashion ramps of the world. The frail and fragile fashion models of the world, I guess were inspired by the giraffes.

We stayed overnight at a resort that had a watering hole right within its precincts and was famously known to attract a whole herd of hippopotamuses – old and young, male and females. We found countless of them huddled in a small pond, with simply their backs and bums bumping up and down on the water table. We had a long wait till sun down, and they started climbing out, pulling their rather heavy bodies soaked all day in the cold water out for the night.

Each one like a customary kriya, yawned wide to show their large wide open mouth and their teeth, bother grudgingly walking away, into the receding sun set for a night out to return in the morning to recede into the water! Their discipline and rank and file, was almost army like, when they marched back into the night.

We checked into an interesting jungle resort in Aberdeen National Park, called The Arc. It was inspired by the Noah’s Arc and was a log house hotel, in the midst of a valley in between mountains and thick jungle. Interestingly, they lock the guests in after check-in in the early evening and then open up some of the jungle pathway gates for animals to naturally come over at night for watering. There were different alarms to announce the arrival of different animals, during the night.

Once we were locked in and we went to the viewing gallery. We were blessed with a herd of wild jungle buffaloes that looked pretty familiar, just as their less aggressive cousins we were used to seeing in India. These are part of the big 5 animals that Africa is proud of. With every gesture we made all they did was to shake their heads like a pendulum or they were in a symbolic gesture saying we listen to nothing; we are blissful in our own ignorance!

There was such a variety of color, shape and behaviour in animals. We saw myriad varieties of deer – each one agile, attentive and graceful, with a slight difference in size the black and white Zebras were another ubiquitous sight – we saw them everywhere. Interestingly, there were types of stripes in the same black and white that differentiated themselves into the various breeds and spotting. They were such wonderful creatures that you longed to bring home one – no wonder that Sita fell for one. We also had Neelgais, sporting proud headgears.

When we came to the last leg of our safaris we missed and longed to see the Leopards in the wild. On the return leg, we were driving out of the national reserve and on the way back we had two majestic leopards parading themselves right in front of the vehicle we drove. We followed them on the dirty track and on the wilder side and took a close look at the wonderful pair. They looked at us, gave their darshan and walked away as if they were not concerned with us in any way. We hit back the road and we had some serious adventure. We had a tyre flat and stopped and got out of the 4 WD to replace the tyre. We were hardly 50 meters away from where we saw the Leopards. The Leopards we met had their breakfast for sure as they could have had an easy prey with on us right there.

It was a delightful experience being so close to Mother Nature and experiencing the wonderful world of animal life. Most of these were labelled as close to extinction, and were protected wild life. As part of evolution, these wonderful creatures are creations of the divine and the sheer variety of shape, form, behaviour and habitat, indeed God had a very evolved CAD/CAM design house to make these creations.
The vastness around, and its silence lifted a curtain within to open up the vastness that resides within us, for a few transitory minutes – till we headed back to the Airport where the din and dust of the evolved human race hit us like a rock.
- K.V. Rao

He stood erect, a God like form and force

Her animal experiment began,
Crowding with conscious creatures her world-scheme;
But to the outward only they were alive,
Only they replied to touches and surfaces
And to the prick of need that drove their lives.

Animals are driven by that quality of Nature - Rajas, by which there is “the first light of conscious mind but buddhi or intelligent Will is absent,” says Sri Aurobindo in The Essays on Gita. This is why there is intelligence in them but they are not conscious of it and hence they reply to ‘touches and surfaces and the prick of need” which drives their lives and hence in the luminous words of Sri Aurobindo,

Absorbed they lived in the passion of the scene,
But knew not who they were or why they lived:
Life had for them no aim save Nature’s joy
And the stimulus and delight of outer things;
They worked for the body’s wants, they craved no more,
Content to breathe, to feel, to sense, to act,
Identified with the spirit’s outward shell.

The Mother says that there is an intelligence which acts and organizes animals but they are not conscious of it. Hence they are absorbed in the events happening at the present moment but there is aimlessness to animal existence. That is why sometimes we hear people yell in frustration “Don’t be like an animal!” There is in them the delight in outer things, and they are satisfied if their bodily needs are met and they are contented to just “breathe, feel, sense, act” as they are always identified with their “outward shell”.

The veiled spectator watching from their depths
Fixed not his inward eye upon himself
Nor turned to find the author of the plot,
He saw the drama only and the stage.

The lines above describe so evocatively the animal or man dominated by his lower nature. The “veiled spectator” refers to that capacity in us to detach from the act and watch the drama unfold as the witness, without participating or getting involved in the drama. However, in the animal, the spectator is veiled and hence it does not turn inwards to “find the author of the plot” and just sees the “drama and the stage”. The animal does not ponder on the deep secrets of the laws of Nature, nor is in them a thirst for Truth, but they are content to hunt, “sniff the winds, or sloth inert in sunshine and soft air”

A formless yearning passions in man’s heart,
A cry is in his blood for happier things:
Else could he roam on a free sunlit soil
With the childlike pain-forgetting mind of beasts
Or live happy, unmoved, like flowers and trees

(“Savitri”, Book 2, Canto 4)



However, in man there is a yearning and aspiration to rise above his lower Nature and he seeks to release himself from the chains and bonds which restrain him, if this was not in him he would be like a beast roaming around aimlessly not reflecting or feeling the “touch of the soul within” and be like the beasts in their “childlike pain-forgetting mind” or happy and immobile like the flowers and trees. He also has the capacity to rise to greatness and explore his hidden realms and become a “mind, a spirit and self “

The animal’s thoughtless joy is left behind,
Care and reflection burden his daily walk:
He has risen to greatness and to discontent,
He is awake to the Invisible.
Insatiate seeker, he has all to learn:
He has exhausted now life’s surface acts,
His being’s hidden realms remain to explore.
He becomes a mind, he becomes a spirit and self;
In his fragile tenement he grows Nature’s lord.

(“Savitri” Book 2 , Canto 4)

A spiritual evolution, an evolution of consciousness in Matter is a constant developing self-formation till the form can reveal the indwelling Spirit, is then the key-note, the central significant motive of the terrestrial existence.
(“The Life Divine”, Sri Aurobindo)

The very form of man is thus capable of manifesting the Spirit says The Mother as the upright position is itself symbolic of this capacity to manifest the Spirit. There is a Tamil song in which the poet says “Oh Lord this form itself is created to worship and manifest thee”. Hands held together in prayer seem to at once connect us with deeper feelings of love and togetherness. This human physical form is most appropriate to express the Spirit. If we compare man to the higher living being we will fall short as we have a lot of imperfections but in the words of The Mother,

“…if we put ourselves in the place of the animals which immediately precede him in the evolution, we see that he is endowed with possibilities and powers which the others are quite incapable of expressing. The mere fact of having the ambition, the desire, the will to know the laws of Nature and to master them sufficiently to be able to adapt them to his needs and change them to a certain extent, is something impossible, unthinkable for any animal.”

“You may tell me that I don’t usually speak very kindly about man (laughter), but that’s because he usually thinks too kindly of himself !”

“If we compare him with other products of Nature, unquestionably he is at the top of the ladder.”

In the prone obscure beginnings of the race
The human grew in the bowed apelike man.
He stood erect, a Godlike form and force,
And a soul’s thoughts looked out from earthborn eyes;
Man stood erect, a Godlike form and force,
And a soul’s thoughts looked out from earthborn eyes;
Man stood erect, he wore the thinker’s brow:
He looked at the heaven and saw his comrade stars;
A vision came of beauty and greater birth
Slowly emerging from the heart’s chapel of light
And moved in a white lucent air of dreams.
He saw his being’s unrealized vastnesses,
He aspired and housed the nascent demi-god

(“Savitri”, Book 7, Canto 2 )

Recently, we saw a remake of the old classic, “The Planet of the Apes” on television, in which an astronaut is sucked into a bizarre planet in the distant future where intelligent talking apes are the dominant species and the humans are treated brutally and oppressed. Apparently, the advertisement for this movie said “Somewhere in the universe there must be something better than man “. The humans and apes in this movie have similar capability in intellect and speech but it is the ape’s physical strength, which makes them dominate the planet and treat the humans as slaves. It was a fascinating movie. One highlight was the advice given by a philosophical wise ape to the commander-in-chief. Which went something like this …. “You have no idea what these humans are capable of, we have physical strength but his technology and ingenuity are no comparison to our physical strength. Be careful of the power of the human and what he is capable of.”

It reminds me of what Sri Aurobindo once told a sadhak…..if only we knew of what lies beyond this mental state we would leave everything this very instant and chase after it.

In conclusion, let us reflect on these words of The Mother…..

Can we hope that this body which is our present means of earthly manifestation, will have the possibility of transforming itself progressively into something which will be able to express a higher life, or will it be necessary to give up this form entirely to enter into another which does not yet exist on Earth?

That is the problem. It is a very interesting problem. If you will reflect on it, it will lead you to a little more light.

We can reflect on it just now.

Fear of and for animals

Nature-walks are part of our IEP meet. As part of one of our nature walks, we took the children to McRitchie reservoir. Asking the children afterwards what they felt about the walk, I was surprised to hear a handful of children mention "I felt scared about the monkeys".

On yet another trip to Pulau Ubin, I noticed that many of the children and facilitators alike were afraid of the many dogs lingering in the area, though the dogs were not remotely interested in us.

Why the fear? Is there a reason for the fear? Or is it simply conditioned in us?

My daughter is very fond of cats. She loves to go after the many cats that rest under our apartment block and nothing makes her day so much as petting a cat does. With this attitude, one day, she was playing in the playground, when two cats streaked past her, chasing and spitting at each other. With her fondness of cats, the child, no doubt even more excited by this lively display that her favorite animals were putting up, ran after them and tried to pet the cat that was hissing and spitting. Before I, who was sitting 20 meters away, could react, the tabby swiped once, then twice. The child did not understand the language of the swiping cat as an adult would. Too late, she received a scratch on her finger. She understood the language of cats then.


But as a parent, what was I to do? After putting the obligatory antiseptic, and ensuring (including a call to the emergency) that the scratch was not something very serious, I was faced with a dilemma. Would I have to advice her to not touch all cats until she grew old enough to understand them, or would I still encourage her to play with them as usual, but to exercise caution and to ensure that I shadow her more closely when she is around cats?

We sensibly chose the second option, and I am glad to say that Anjali is once again on friendly terms with cats.

The Mother has written

"... if you leave an animal in its normal state, far from man, it obeys the spirit of the species, it has a very sure instinct and it will never commit any stupidities. But if you take it and keep it with you, it loses its instinct, and it is then you who must look after it, for it no longer knows what should or should not be done. "

We are afraid of animals because we have invaded their space, making them aggressive. The monkeys in McRitchie reservoir had become aggressive because we had made them so, first pampering them with food and them shooing them away when they wished the food to be given to them. Perhaps, if we explain to our children that animals are not toys to amuse ourselves with, but beings to be treated with love and respect, there can be a genuine coexistence and love between people and animals in the forthcoming generation?

But a day may yet come when the tiger crouches and leaps no more in the dangerous heart of the forest,
As the mammoth shakes no more the plains of Asia;
Still then shall the beautiful wild deer drink from the coolness of great pools in the leaves’ shadow.
The mighty perish in their might;
The slain survive the slayer.

-- Kiruthika

The vain lion

www.thelionking.org

Just imagine, there are plants which are vain! I am speaking of plants one grows for oneself. If one pays them compliments, by words or by feelings, if one admired them, well, they hold up their head- with vanity! It is the same with animals. I am going to tell you a short amusing story.

In Paris there is a garden called” The Garden of Plants”: there are animals there also, as well as plants. They had just received a magnificent lion. It was of course in a cage. And it was furious. There was a door in the cage behind which it could hide. And it would hide itself just when the visitors came to see it! I saw that and one day I went up to the cage and began speaking to it (animals are very sensitive to spoken language, they really listen). I began speaking softly to my lion, I said to it “Oh! How handsome you are, how much we would like to see you…” Well, it listened. Then, little by little, it looked at me askance, slowly stretched its neck to see me better; later it brought out its paw and finally, put the tip of its nose against the bars as if saying,” At last, here ‘s someone who understands me!”


(“Collected Works of the Mother”, Volume 4, Centenary Edition, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, 1972, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry)

Marvellous creatures

In animals there is sometimes a very intense psychic truth. Naturally, I believe the psychic being is a little more formed, a little more conscious in a child than in an animal. But I have experimented with animals, just to know; well, I assure you that in human beings I have rarely come across some of the virtues which I have seen in animals, very simple unpretentious virtues. As in cats, for example: I have studied cats a lot; if one knows them well they are marvelous creatures. I have known mother-cats which have sacrificed themselves entirely for their babies- people speak of maternal love with such admiration, as though it were purely a human privilege, but I have seen this love manifested by mother-cats to a degree far surpassing ordinary humanity…

It was altogether spontaneous instinct. But what is instinct? – it is the presence of the Divine in the genus of the species, and that, that is the psychic of animals; a collective, not an individual psychic. I have seen in animals all the reaction, emotional, affective, sentimental, all the feelings of which men are so proud. The only difference is that animals cannot speak of them and write about them, so we consider them inferior beings because they cannot flood us with books on what they have felt.

I had a puss, the first time it had its kittens it did not want to move from there. It did not eat, did not satisfy any call of nature. It remained there, stuck to her kittens, shielding them, feeding them; it was so afraid that something would happen to them. And that was quite unthought out, spontaneous. It refused to move, so frightened it was that some harm might come to them – just through instinct. And then, when they were bigger, the trouble it took to educate them- it was marvelous. And what patience! And how it taught them to jump from wall to wall, to catch their food, how, with what care, it repeated once, ten times, a hundred times if necessary. It was never tired until the little one had done what it wanted. An extraordinary education! It taught them how to skirt houses following the edge of walls, how to walk so as not to fall, what had to be done when there was much space between one wall and another, in order to cross over. The little ones were quite afraid when they saw the gap and refused to jump because they were frightened and then the mother jumped, it went over to the other side, it called them: come, come along. They did not move, they were trembling. It jumped back and then gave them a speech; it gave them little blows with its paw and licked them, yet they did not move. It jumped. I saw it do this for over half an hour. But after half an hour it found that they had learnt enough, so it went behind the one it evidently considered the most ready, the most capable, and gave it a hard knock with its head. Then the little one, instinctively, jumped. Once it had jumped, it jumped again and again and again…

There are few mothers who have this patience.

(“Collected works of the Mother”, Volume 4, Centenary Edition , Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, 1972, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry)

Question of the month

Q: What is the ground of the repulsion that one instinctively feels towards certain animals, such as snakes and scorpions?

A: It is not an inevitable necessity that one should feel this or any other repulsion. To have no repulsion at all is one of the fundamental achievements of Yoga.

The repulsion you speak of comes from fear; if there were no fear, it would not exist. This fear is not based on reason, it is instinctive; it is not individual, but racial; it is a general suggestion and belongs to the consciousness of humanity as a whole. When one takes up the human body, one accepts along with it a mass of these general suggestions, race ideas, race feelings of mankind, associations, attractions, repulsions, fears.

But from another viewpoint there is something very personal in the nature of an attraction or repulsion; for these movements are not the same for everybody and depend mostly on the quality of vibration of the vital being in different people. There are men who not only do not feel any repulsion for creatures like snakes, but have even a liking for them, a vital attraction and preference.


(“Complete Works of The Mother”- Volume 22, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1972, published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Sri Aurobindo Ashram press, Pondicherry)

Savitri

A seeking Power found out its road to form,
Patterns were built for love and joy and pain
And symbol figures for the moods of Life.
An insect hedonism fluttered and crawled
And basked in a sunlit Nature’s surface thrills,
And dragon raptures, python agonies
Crawled in the marsh and mire and licked the sun.
Huge armoured strengths shook the frail quaking ground,
Great puissant creatures with a dwarfish brain,
And pigmy tribes imposed their small life-drift.
In a dwarf model of humanity
Nature now launched the extreme experience
And master-point of her design’s caprice,
Luminous result of her half-conscious climb
On rungs twixt her sublimities and grotesques
To massive from infinitesimal shapes,
To a subtle balancing of body and soul,
To an order of intelligent littleness.
* * *


There was no brooding stress of deeper sense,
The burden of reflection was not borne.
Mind looked on Nature with unknowing eyes,
Adored her boons and feared her monstrous strokes.
It pondered not on the magic of her laws,
It thirsted not for the secret wells of Truth,
But made a register of crowding facts
And strung sensations on a vivid thread.
It hunted and it fled and sniffed the winds,
Or slothed in sunshine and soft air.
It sought the engrossing contacts of the world,
But only to feed the surface sense with bliss.
These felt life’s quiver in the outward touch,
They could not feel behind the touch the soul.

(“Savitri”, Book 4, Canto 4)