Our Beloved Animals Too Are Immortal

[Umesh]

OM

I was so happy to find a section here about prayers and cats. I would like to contribute something that may help someone somewhere, sometime. I am an American Hindu, meaning that I am one of the results of the "missionary" efforts of the great Swami Vivekananda in the nineteenth century. I am not here to try to convert anyone or to give speeches on religion. The only conversion I believe in is the recognition that we are all essentially the same. If I have a soul, so do animals. If animals don't have souls, then neither do I. To me this is a self-evident truth. I KNOW animals give and receive love as clearly all of you here know that too.

I just want to assure you that all sorts of "mystics," from not only the East but even from the West such as the popular Dannion Brinkley, assert that our animal loved ones live on too. I once cared for a feral cat; only in her old age did she allow me to pet her and pick her up. Gray Cat was her name. Once I put her down and she frantically started to jump up and down, wanting me to pick her up again. I did, and sat on a chair outside with her on my lap. She took a few heavy breaths and died right in my arms. I physically felt something pass right through my chest. It was a most sad time but there was this indescribable exhilaration of how happy and grateful she was in her passing on.

Just as to take care of the ailing is to take care of Christ Himself, as He Himself said, in my tradition to take care of an animal too is to take care of God Himself. I will end this post with quotes from three saints:

"I roam everywhere in all forms--cats, dogs, pigs and all. Whoever serves me in all these forms, without a sense of difference, shall be blessed."--Shirdi Sai Baba
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"I am not distinct from crows and dogs. Feeding them is feeding me."--Upasani Baba
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Questioner: "....there is no difference between yourself and myself, that man over there, my servant. Are all the same?"

Ramana Maharshi: "All are the same, including those monkeys."

Questioner: "But the monkeys are not people. Are they not different?"

Ramana Maharshi: "They are exactly the same as people. All are the same in One Consciousness."
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My heartfelt prayers go to all of you and all of your beloved pets. Have no doubt that you will be eternally united with them.