KT Tan has this to share. I think it's really, really good. Thanks, KT.
Grieve Not For Our Pets Who Have Departed
For those of us who like animals... there is always the heartache when a dear one passes away due to illness, accident or old age. Sometimes we wonder whether a beloved sick pet should be kept alive as long as possible if there is no cure and not be put to sleep or should we put it to sleep to spare our beloved pet any further pain and suffering if there are any. And when our dear pets finally goes... Is it to a better place? ... A better fourth-dimension plane of existence or astral heaven, as compared to our three-dimensional one? Do all dogs go to the astral heaven? And cats too?
Difficult decisions and difficult questions... one spiritual yogi wrote about his experience with a beloved pet which departed this earth ... perhaps a few paragraphs from Paramahansa Yogananda’s book ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ might help soothe some of our anxieties about our departed pets:
At the school in Ranchi...... :
“We had many pets, including a young deer that was fairly idolised by the children. I, too, loved the fawn so much that I allowed it to sleep in my room. At the light of dawn the little creature would toddle over to my bed for a morning caress.
“One day, because some business would require my attention in the town of Ranchi, I fed the pet earlier than usual. I told the boys not to feed the fawn until my return. One lad was disobedient and gave it a large quantity of milk. When I came back in the evening, sad news greeted me: ‘The fawn is nearly dead, through overfeeding’.
“In tears, I placed the apparently lifeless pet on my lap. I prayed piteously to God to spare its life. Hours later, the small creature opened its eyes, stood up, and walked feebly. The whole school shouted for joy.
“But a deep lesson came to me that night, one I can never forget. I stayed up with the fawn until two o’clock, when I fell asleep. The deer appeared in a dream, and spoke to me:
“You are holding me back. Please let me go, let me go!
“All right, I answered in the dream.
“I awoke immediately, and cried out, ‘Boys, the deer is dying!’ The children rushed to my side.
“I ran to the corner of the room where I had placed the pet. It made a last effort to rise, stumbled toward me, then dropped at my feet, dead.
“According to the mass karma that guides and regulates the destinies of animals, the deer’s life was over, and it was ready to progress to a higher form. But by my deep attachment, which I later realised was selfish, by my fervent prayers, I had been able to hold it in the limitations of the animal form from which the soul was struggling for release. The soul of the deer made its plea in a dream because, without my loving permission, it either would not or could not go. As soon as I agreed, it departed.
“All sorrow left me, I realised anew that God (my insert: or what others call the Universe) wants His children to love everything as a part of Him, and not to feel delusively that death ends all. The ignorant man sees only the unsurmountable wall of death, hiding, seemingly forever, his cherished friends. But the man of unattachment, he who loves others as expressions of the Lord, understands that at death the dear ones have only returned for a breathing space of joy in Him.”
.......Ends
So, let’s not grieve for our beloved pets who have left this earth before us... they have definitely gone to the astral heaven. It is normal to feel sadness and grief when a beloved pet departs this earth but too much grieving causes a ‘pull’ on the soul of the departed dear pet in the astral heaven and that is not good. Instead, let the stream of life flow uninterrupted and soon, when our time comes to depart, we can meet up with our beloved pets again in the astral heaven.
Om mani padme hum...... kttan
Interestingly, I just read from somewhere, about people who have had Near Death Experiences (called NDE). Most of them reported that death is not a painful process, but a very peaceful one. I guess we grieve when people or our animals die because we think expiry of life is painful.
This latest report was from a lady who had a cardiac arrest and had actually "died" for awhile before coming back to life. She could remember the whole process of what happened and she said she felt no pain, no fear, no anxiety, but instead, there was peace and calm. And she even felt the presence of two very loving "beings" guiding her towards a light at the end of a "tunnel".
I wonder if that's what death is like. I suppose we won't know until we get there one day, which we will. And once we are reborn, we will forget what death is like again, so death will always remain a mystery to us unenlightened beings!
But back to KT's sharing, I think it is important for us to give our blessings to our loved ones, human or animal, when they are near their end. I know for a fact that our pets want to hang on for our sake. It's that unconditional loyalty that they have for us. They spend their whole lives doing their best to please us, and even towards the end, they still want to hang on - just to make us happy. We'll have to tell them that it is ok to let go and that they have our blessings to do so, and that we'll always be with them in spirit, no matter what. I think besides all the medical treatment and palliative care that we can afford to give them, our blessings for them to let go, is equally important.
I remember doing that for Puffin and Remirth, Vixey and Mac, Wendy, Jelly, Babykit, Bobtail and Kimba, too.
I remember vividly what it was like for Jelly, a baby kitten handed over to me by a vet, along with her siblings. Jelly was thriving initially but suddenly, she started fading. I brought her to three different vets, but no one knew what was wrong with her. She started getting emaciated, wasting away day by day. On her final week, I slept with her on my chest every night, stroking her and consoling her. She would arch her back and look at me. Every few minutes, she would cry in pain, as though telling me something. And I'd tell her I understand she was in pain, and it is alright to let go if it's too hard to struggle on. I brought her to the vet, even at 3am in the morning, to give her subcutaneous fluids. She was just a little baby kitten. The vet called this a "fading kitten", they just don't make it because there is something congenitally wrong with them and you just cannot pinpoint what is wrong because they are so small. So, they literally fade away. Her siblings, Peanut and Butter, were alright despite diarrhoea and a major fungal problem. They have both been adopted.
Remirth was my childhood dog who lived until she was 12 years old. She had stomach cancer. Her passing was particularly poignant because she came into the shrine room and lay down quietly. We sat around her and chanted for her. Then, when it was time, she arched her back and look at us one by one for what seemed a long time. I remember when she looked at me, I felt she was telling me that she would not be looking after us now that her end was near. It was almost like she was asking permission to go. I told her it was alright, and I thanked her for all the love and care she had given us through the years. Then, she looked toward the image of the Buddha, took a long deep breath, which was her last. It was very peaceful and very poignant.
Puffin and Remirth's story is the first chapter of my first book - Pawprints on My Heart.
We deal with so many animals and in the event, so many deaths, too, because we tend to outlive the animals. I wonder if this would prepare us better when we face death ourselves....who knows.
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