The Dog Drama at Tattvatirtha Ashram

A Sannyasi takes a vow for Abhaya-Danam to all the beings, and Pujya Swamiji demonstrates this Abhaya-Danam through his daily routine.  In rainy reason a lot of insects become active, and after the dinner while Pujya Swamiji is sitting in the swing or sofa, to give the seeker-devotees time to spent with him, some other devotees are also anxious to crawl around him.  Pujya Swamiji generally insists not to disturb the creatures, and to let them move about freely, that they will take their path.

This way Pujya Swamiji expresses compassion towards all the creatures around.  But when it comes to dogs, although Pujya Swamiji doesn’t dislike dogs, but there is a general resistance of dogs on the Ashram premises, as they walk across the Vandevata temple, or bark at the middle of the night, disturbing Pujya Swamiji’s sensitive sleep, or bark during the lecture, thus creating disturbance during the lecture.  One of the female dogs managed to stay in the Ashram for a long duration of about 2 years, before two of the dedicated seekers’ managed to successfully drive her out of the Ashram.  As such the female dog was favourite among most of the other residents, as well as the visitors, as she managed to invoke love from everyone, with her eyes begging for love and be pampered all the time.  She had almost become like a pet.  But as she created lot of disturbance to Pujya Swamiji, various attempts to drive her out were undertaken.  However, she was very weak and timid, and many times the outside street dogs used to enter the premises and attack her, many times she got injured as well.  Usually, one of the residents would come at the site and drive away the other dogs to protect her, and so she also got used to seek shelter from one of the residents or people at the Ashram.  Other times she used to hang around the residents following them while they would be running around to carry out the Ashram duties.  Many times, she would also follow everyone who used to escort Pujya Swamiji back to the Kutiya from the dining hall.  Although Pujya Swamiji would not give her lot of attention, she continued to follow him around when surrounded by other residents or visitors.  She would always emotionally blackmail the people around with her cute little face as though begging for love.

Now, this one time, during Pujya Swamiji’s lecture, some street dogs entered the premises and were cornering her and trying to attack her.  She did not find any refuge anywhere, since no one was around that time.  Finally seeing no other option, she climbed the lecture hall stairs.  Now the seekers in the class were able to hear the barking, but no one knew exactly why she was continuously barking.  Everyone thought it must be the usual affair, but only Pujya Swamiji was able to see what was going on, since Pujya Swamiji was on the stage, and he was able to see everything from the Vyasa Pitha.  Normally Pujya Swamiji would express some kind of annoyance with that dog, but as soon as Swamiji saw her being attacked, his expressions changed to all compassion, he expressed, ‘Arey..!’  He was not able to believe his eyes, because so far Swamiji had only heard from the other residents how the other dogs attacked her.  He saw this scene, and he saw how the female dog, was trying to seek refuge, and climbed up the stairs to almost enter the lecture hall.  Pujya Swamiji’s heart was filled with compassion for that dog, and this was so evident in his eyes.

Meanwhile one of the seekers got up to shove off the dogs, and stop them from barking near the Lecture Hall area.  It was only when the seeker went closer to the door, that the actual scene became clear.  The other dogs were driven away and the female dog was rescued and saved from the attack.  Afterwards when the seeker at the end of the lecture, approached Pujya Swamiji to tell about how the other dogs were attacking the female dog, Pujya Swamiji while expressing his compassion, feeling the empathy and showing his sympathy, mentioned, ‘I know’!  It is no surprise that the dog did not have any reservation to step in and almost enter the lecture hall.  The dog was very clear on whose refuge she should take to get protected.  So also all of us have sought refuge unto Pujya Swamiji to save us from the sorrow-go-round of this world.