It Shall Rain...

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.