krsnaraja
Super Duper Senior Member
Posts: 1,611
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Post by krsnaraja on Dec 24, 2017 9:14:27 GMT
I was in the elementary grade something like 50 years ago. When I decided to walk from school after class to home which was roughly four kilometers away. The money for fare left in my pocket I spent it to buy banana cue ( banana fried in oil/sugar embedded with a bamboo stick ) and eating it along the way. While passing through I heard a meowing sound. I knew it was a cat because dogs bark and birds chirp. I stopped to look where the sound came. I discovered it was under a car parked on the side of the road. It was a kitten shivering underneath. If that car ran, the kitten for sure will be crushed. So, I went to a nearby store and asked from the store keeper for a paper bag. I was given one. I went back and crawled under the car and retrieved the kitten. I placed the kitten inside the bag and walked towards home. When I arrived, the meowing sound did not stop. My mother was at the door and asked, " Where you been? It is already quite late for you not to be home early " I told my mother what happened. This what she said, " Melvin, if you keep on doing that there will be a lot of kittens you bring home from school. " My mother Julie died a year ago on January 6, 2016 at the age 81. Each time I remember this story. I always smile. Because I thought what if all these meowing sounds were not from kittens but girls ? So....kittens are a dime a dozen in your whereabouts.....& thus, your compassion for them got dulled along the way to adulthood and now you just leave them shivering and crying in the rain? If they were girls, they might get a better response? I have the same experience as you had with that meowing kitten being left for dead or alive by its mother. In the middle of night when its raining pitter patter on the roof I hear while I am bed the meow meow of that kitten. I`d ask myself where its mother been doing out looking for a rat to feed or has abandoned the hapless kitten for dead. When I can not hear anymore the kitten`s meowing I felt it has been fed by its mother or the kitten`s dead. That experience I had in my childhood of bringing a shivering kitten left by the mother under the car to our home was of compassion. If the kitten were a girl I brought home, what would my mother say? She says this to me, " Melvin, why did you bring this shivering kitten to our home? What would her parents say and do you brought this kitten here? If you keep doing this, how would I be able to feed dozens of shivering girls/kittens in the house when you still don`t have a job! "
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Post by Figgles on Dec 24, 2017 15:07:22 GMT
I have the same experience as you had with that meowing kitten being left for dead or alive by its mother. In the middle of night when its raining pitter patter on the roof I hear while I am bed the meow meow of that kitten. I`d ask myself where its mother been doing out looking for a rat to feed or has abandoned the hapless kitten for dead. When I can not hear anymore the kitten`s meowing I felt it has been fed by its mother or the kitten`s dead. That experience I had in my childhood of bringing a shivering kitten left by the mother under the car to our home was of compassion. If the kitten were a girl I brought home, what would my mother say? She says this to me, " Melvin, why did you bring this shivering kitten to our home? What would her parents say and do you brought this kitten here? If you keep doing this, how would I be able to feed dozens of shivering girls/kittens in the house when you still don`t have a job! " Okay. Just trying to wrap my head around how one could hear that, think that, but still just lie there, absent the impetus to provide some kind of comfort to the forlorn little creature. If it were a human baby, I'm guessing things might have been different? Regardless, this serves to clearly demonstrate how personal judgements play into ideas like "it's important to serve others when they are in need."
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krsnaraja
Super Duper Senior Member
Posts: 1,611
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Post by krsnaraja on Dec 25, 2017 0:33:29 GMT
I have the same experience as you had with that meowing kitten being left for dead or alive by its mother. In the middle of night when its raining pitter patter on the roof I hear while I am bed the meow meow of that kitten. I`d ask myself where its mother been doing out looking for a rat to feed or has abandoned the hapless kitten for dead. When I can not hear anymore the kitten`s meowing I felt it has been fed by its mother or the kitten`s dead. That experience I had in my childhood of bringing a shivering kitten left by the mother under the car to our home was of compassion. If the kitten were a girl I brought home, what would my mother say? She says this to me, " Melvin, why did you bring this shivering kitten to our home? What would her parents say and do you brought this kitten here? If you keep doing this, how would I be able to feed dozens of shivering girls/kittens in the house when you still don`t have a job! " Okay. Just trying to wrap my head around how one could hear that, think that, but still just lie there, absent the impetus to provide some kind of comfort to the forlorn little creature. If it were a human baby, I'm guessing things might have been different? Regardless, this serves to clearly demonstrate how personal judgements play into ideas like "it's important to serve others when they are in need." We serve others when opportunity arrives. We respond in emergency situations. But when it is not there a meowing kitten/girl most of the time is ignored. We can not go out in the rain looking for that kitten meowing whether if it was abandoned by its mother and we try to save it. If you are able to retrieve that kitten/girl in need you are going to feed it/her until it/her grows big to fend for itself/her. But there are agencies which can do that and you turn them over for safekeeping/feeding.
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krsnaraja
Super Duper Senior Member
Posts: 1,611
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Post by krsnaraja on Dec 25, 2017 11:08:30 GMT
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Post by Figgles on Dec 25, 2017 18:30:08 GMT
We serve others when opportunity arrives. Yes, for some, a mewling kitten, possibly abandoned by it's mother, is just such an opportunity. Why not? You kind of made it sound in your story, as though it was right outside your window? All that stuff can be dealt with after the initial response....after all, you'd likely not fail to rescue a human baby from abandonment and rain just because you didn't have a plan in place for what to do with it after the fact. This is a case of differing values is all. And the only reason I'm addressing it, is because you've been talking alot about kindness and caring and love & stuff. I was just interested in how you reconcile turning a deaf ear to a kitten in distress, while advocating for loving, kind behavior.
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krsnaraja
Super Duper Senior Member
Posts: 1,611
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Post by krsnaraja on Dec 25, 2017 22:10:14 GMT
We serve others when opportunity arrives. Yes, for some, a mewling kitten, possibly abandoned by it's mother, is just such an opportunity. Why not? You kind of made it sound in your story, as though it was right outside your window? All that stuff can be dealt with after the initial response....after all, you'd likely not fail to rescue a human baby from abandonment and rain just because you didn't have a plan in place for what to do with it after the fact. This is a case of differing values is all. And the only reason I'm addressing it, is because you've been talking alot about kindness and caring and love & stuff. I was just interested in how you reconcile turning a deaf ear to a kitten in distress, while advocating for loving, kind behavior. There are just things you can do and can't do. The love and kindness is always in the heart. They never go away. Yet, it's not wrong to do nothing. If God is love and kind, why did he allow the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah? There is only love and kindness. There can never be hate? Hate only exists in the mind. If there is war and destruction, it`s the mind causing it. But what is mind? Let mind be your friend. Tell your mind to love and be kind to one another this Christmas. Hypnotize it with a mantra and tell the mind to go out in the rain and help that kitten in distress. The body will follow and will rescue the meowing thing.
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Post by Figgles on Dec 26, 2017 21:59:49 GMT
Yes, for some, a mewling kitten, possibly abandoned by it's mother, is just such an opportunity. Why not? You kind of made it sound in your story, as though it was right outside your window? All that stuff can be dealt with after the initial response....after all, you'd likely not fail to rescue a human baby from abandonment and rain just because you didn't have a plan in place for what to do with it after the fact. This is a case of differing values is all. And the only reason I'm addressing it, is because you've been talking alot about kindness and caring and love & stuff. I was just interested in how you reconcile turning a deaf ear to a kitten in distress, while advocating for loving, kind behavior. There are just things you can do and can't do. The love and kindness is always in the heart. They never go away. Yet, it's not wrong to do nothing. If God is love and kind, why did he allow the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah? There is only love and kindness. There can never be hate? Hate only exists in the mind. If there is war and destruction, it`s the mind causing it. But what is mind? Let mind be your friend. Tell your mind to love and be kind to one another this Christmas. Hypnotize it with a mantra and tell the mind to go out in the rain and help that kitten in distress. The body will follow and will rescue the meowing thing. Or don't tell mind anything....just allow the heart to lead, and don't worry what day it is... Christmas should be no more or less special than any other day when it comes to allowing love to lead the way.
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krsnaraja
Super Duper Senior Member
Posts: 1,611
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Post by krsnaraja on Dec 26, 2017 22:38:12 GMT
There are just things you can do and can't do. The love and kindness is always in the heart. They never go away. Yet, it's not wrong to do nothing. If God is love and kind, why did he allow the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah? There is only love and kindness. There can never be hate? Hate only exists in the mind. If there is war and destruction, it`s the mind causing it. But what is mind? Let mind be your friend. Tell your mind to love and be kind to one another this Christmas. Hypnotize it with a mantra and tell the mind to go out in the rain and help that kitten in distress. The body will follow and will rescue the meowing thing. Or don't tell mind anything....just allow the heart to lead, and don't worry what day it is... Christmas should be no more or less special than any other day when it comes to allowing love to lead the way. Bhagavad-gita 6.34: The mind is very restless, turbulent, strong and obstinate, O Krishna. It appears to me that it is more difficult to control than the wind.
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Post by Figgles on Dec 26, 2017 23:41:18 GMT
Or don't tell mind anything....just allow the heart to lead, and don't worry what day it is... Christmas should be no more or less special than any other day when it comes to allowing love to lead the way. Bhagavad-gita 6.34: The mind is very restless, turbulent, strong and obstinate, O Krishna. It appears to me that it is more difficult to control than the wind. I'd say, An impetus to get out of bed to cuddle a cold, wet kitten, is fueled by the heart, not the mind.
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krsnaraja
Super Duper Senior Member
Posts: 1,611
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Post by krsnaraja on Dec 27, 2017 0:01:51 GMT
Bhagavad-gita 6.34: The mind is very restless, turbulent, strong and obstinate, O Krishna. It appears to me that it is more difficult to control than the wind. I'd say, An impetus to get out of bed to cuddle a cold, wet kitten, is fueled by the heart, not the mind. But the heart has no control over the body. The heart has to convince the mind why a kitten in distress has to be rescued. When the heart feels, the information is processed in the mind and the body acts accordingly what the mind interprets what the heart wants the body to do.
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