Friday, October 7th, 2011

Looking At Me At The Zoo

Calgary, Alberta

Seeing the various life forms at the Calgary zoo, we had a chance to see where we were at at one time. Further more, as we left from one continental pavilion to the next, anywhere from Africa to South America, Asia and elsewhere, we also saw all the places we likely resided at in previous lives.

For instance, at the gorilla section, our small contingent of devotees made connections with those hairy boys and girls, despite the pane of glass between us. One ape with powerful arms rapped his knuckles against our barrier which gave me the opportunity to mirror his move and leaving a half an inch of glass between us smacking our knuckles together. And as I chanted to him, I looked into those mischievous and restless eyes and I imagined myself being in that body. I was there before. Moving on to the North American wildlife section, we leisurely made it to the cougars, when one came rather close with a narrow double fence distancing us. He was agitated. Maybe hungry. I felt that same hunger before.

When we came upon the three Mongolian camels, my ticket donour, Gaura Chandra, noted how those three guys with their two humps were instantaneously drawn to the saffron colour of my robe. They ran towards me, no one else. Were they projecting into their future perhaps? Will they become confirmed monks wearing such garb? Who’s to say?

There’s something adorable about each of the creatures we viewed, and I guess that’s the reason for the attraction. We had visited something familiar, we were looking at me, a mirror.

The Bhagavad Gita states that we (our souls) channel through different bodies. The text endorses that our future senses will be grouped around the mind and our state of consciousness. And what we admire today could be our preoccupation when we die, which could determine our next life. The same Bhagavat philosophy makes it clear that someone was a human and then became an animal because of his state of mind at death, as in the case of King Bharat, who became a deer. Our goal should be to end this vicious cycle of repeated birth and death. The message is that we attempt to steer our consciousnesses toward thoughts of the Divine.

6 Km