The
Wise Dog
One
day there passed by a company of cats a wise dog. And as he came near and saw
that they were very intent and heeded him not, he stopped. Then there arose in
the midst of the company a large, grave cat and looked upon them and said, “Brethren,
pray ye; and when ye have prayed again and yet again, nothing doubting, verily
then it shall rain mice.” And when the dog heard this he laughed in his heart
and turned from them saying, “O blind and foolish cats, has it not been written
and have I not known and my fathers before me, that that which rained for
prayer and faith and supplication is not mice but bones.” Khalil Gibran
Generations pass, we claim to be a super
evolved creature but in fact we are hardly any different from the wise dog in
the story damning the cat for false declaration of how the prayer would be
answered. We are also driven by self interests and so often we indelibly link our
prayer to it. So often our prayers are motivated by self interests that they can
be deemed as investments for big returns. Then as in the story we always have somebody
insisting ... pray, and pray yet again, without any doubt just pray. It shall
rain mice. Your investment shall give you rich dividends. Have no doubts. Who
otherwise would really pray when there would be no returns, in fact handsome
returns? Our prayers we make proportional to the returns. When a mouse gets
evasive cats struggle for survival, they fight for survival. When they survive
they hope for abundance. They pray in the story, as the grave cat tells,
without doubt for a dream that it shall rain mice. Can you spot the difference
between evolved specie and not so evolved one appearing in the story? We pray for
survival when needed, we pray for comfort of status quo occasionally but pray
again and yet again for dreamt bounty. Anything wrong in this? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It is so natural. Only
thing is we deceive others and ourselves with a claim on our evolved
superiority. Survival, comfort and bounty who doesn’t want? Everybody hopes,
dreams and even fights for that. We humans on upper ladder of evolution also
pray for our interests.
The grave cat is omnipresent to tell
that pray, and pray without doubt for mice bounty, for abundance. And cats
pray. The grave cat is ready to encash the big dream of cat community. The wise
dog laughs for he has different idea about what prayer returns. Bones he dreams
and knows very well that it shall rain bones. Nothing wrong in it. But he
thinks of cats as foolish for believing that prayers return mice in plenty. We
the more evolved match the wisdom of the dog in the story with claims of
superiority of one’s prayer and further claims of the bounty. The true spirit
of all the faiths is easily lost. We are so driven by our own interests that we
allow subjugation of prayers to it. And worse we condemn others for their
foolishness. The truth is, at the core there resides the dominance of self
interest. And still everybody is like that wise dog laughing at the bunch of
cats praying that it shall rain mice for only he knows it rains bones in return
of prayers. What actually everybody hopes is that it shall rain neither mice
nor bones but self interests. Then why demean others?
We pray not that it shall rain love,
peace but that it shall rain mice or bones and are tempted to assume role of
wise dog laughing at others. We pray for our own interests, for the interests
of our community but not really for humanity. How easily we drift from the
spirit of all the faiths. The true prayer is nothing but embracing the selfless
humility and surrendering to the supreme power for His grace in the larger
interest of humanity. When we do it, it rains love and peace but when we pray
for mice or bones and damn others for their foolishness we sow the seeds of
hatred. When communal interests dominate the larger interests of humanity,
grave cats and wise dogs advice and order their communities to walk on the path
of bloodshed. We time and again have proven our own foolishness by following
the preachers of hatred. When the hatred dictates the societal behavior then
the icon of peace falls to the bullets of bigot. The tragedy is one who lives for peace and harmony in society and falls
to bullets for religious peace becomes unwanted in his homeland.
The seven line story "The Wise Dog" by
Khalil Gibran reflects on present world which is full of hatred on communal
lines. Even if cats don’t stop praying for mice and dogs for raining bones but
stop damning others for stupidity the world would be with less bloodshed. If we
believe in prayers then there is nothing wrong in praying for safety,
livelihood and abundance but claiming the superiority over the prayers of
others is not in the spirit of prayer itself.
When cats pray for mice and dogs for bones there is no guarantee that it
shall rain mice or bones but if they pray, and pray yet again without doubting for
love, sing a song of brotherhood it shall definitely rain love, peace and
harmony.
Any
lessons?
The
choice we always have, harmony or hatred? The choice nobody can deny.
