Who is to tell who is an animal!

Sanjay Jain

The recent death of a pregnant elephant in Kerala after being fed an explosive-stuffed pineapple proved to be yet another example of how humans have a lot to learn from animals. It brought forth convincingly how wildly humans can act and how humanly animals can behave. Despite being in intense pain, the elephant travelled for about 20 days without food, and without harming anyone, before breathing her last in the Velliyar river. In her death, she conveyed a strong lesson about how even the worst kind of violence can be answered through nonviolence and austerity.

There are myriad such examples of animals outwitting humans by their wisdom. The natural defence mechanisms of animals are also better evolved compared to humans, as they have to face the most uncongenial of the circumstances for survival. The science of cognitive ethology lets us learn about the fascinating world of animal minds. For example, it reveals how jellyfish uses its creativity to navigate swamps; how bees use their intelligence in flying the shortest distance between flowers, and how birds use their smartness in feigning injury to deceive predators. Birds are even known to share information with other birds, recognise human faces and avoid those humans who chase them. Crows, like Einsteins among birds, do many brainy tasks, including the well-known trick of raising the water level by dropping pebbles into it!

Animals have great therapeutic value, too. Horse therapy is a recognised form of treatment for diseases like autism and mood and movement disorders. In France, a horse named ‘Peyo’ is known to be an excellent such ‘therapist’. It is allowed to visit hospitals with its owner. It communicates with the ailing and makes them feel better. Feline purring vibrations have also been found useful in treating several human diseases. Babies who live with pets during their first six months have better immunity against allergies and asthma.

There are several amazing incidents of how household pets have rescued their owners in various ways, such as alerting them to house fires or even sniffing out cancer. In 2005, a 12-year-old Kenyan girl was rescued by lions from kidnappers. Lion experts said it was possible that the lions were dissuaded by her crying, which resembles the sound of a lion cub. Mark Twain observed, ‘If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man.’

In the traditions of Bharat, animals have always been treated as companions with whom we share the earth and from whom we can learn a lot to evolve better. This is evident from many of the yogasanas that are derived from animal poses. Many birds and animals, as vehicles of gods and goddesses, symbolise power, grace, beauty, dignity and wisdom. Symbols of 17 out of the 24 Jain Tirthankaras are animals or birds.

Spiritualist Anthony D Williams has rightly observed, ‘We have more to learn from animals than animals have to learn from us.’

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