“If man loves dog, he’s a good man. If dog loves man, he’s a good man,” goes the refrain in the trending web-series Paatal Lok.
Indeed, when I consider the dog lovers I know, I have to cede that they’re good men. Coincidence? Maybe not. Now we all know that the desire to be loved & appreciated - the desire to ‘take’ love - is one of our most basic instincts. But what we don’t so easily acknowledge is that the instinct to ‘give’ love may be just as basic. In fact, so strong is this instinct in some people that the ‘ungiven’ love begins to fester inside them. To ‘give’ becomes almost a compulsion. Also, since hatred often ends up in that which we call sin whereas love invariably descends into virtue, it’s only obvious that they who have more love to give are better people; ‘good man’, as PL calls them. The only question that remains to be answered is why should dogs be the recipients of this excess love. Elementary, actually. Dogs are recipients because they’re just about the most worthy recipients that there could be. They - always, without fail - show appreciation for the love they receive. Appreciation, mind you, where mere acknowledgement would have sufficed. But why does love need an objectified recipient? Why can’t love be indiscriminate? I guess it’s for the same reason that when we worship, we require a personified God. We find it difficult to worship the ‘that’ of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad’s ‘That art thou’(तत् त्वम असि); ‘That’ which is निर्गुण, निर्विशेष, निराकार, अकर्ता (without quality, without attribute, without form, non agent.) So, when we attribute qualities we hold dear to people we hold dear, and those people fail to measure up to those qualities(which obviously is no fault of theirs, for they didn’t necessarily possess those qualities in the first place), let’s not be disappointed. A pet shop may hold some succour.
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October 2020
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