Dogs have Soul. What about ours...?
Many a time we come across a moment which keeps its mark somewhere deep in our mind. And every now and then this thought keeps popping out, asking for explanation, which we fail to deliever. Once such insignificant event happened couple of months ago....
We here in CSE department(IITB) have a department dog. The only reason we call it our department dog is, he is found loitering in the department corridors. Its a very week, diseased dog, with a broken leg, its eyes popping out of skull and its ribs tearing the skin. We always felt pity for the dog, but very few bothered to fed it.
On evening, When I was coming to the department. What I saw just shocking. A big healthy dog was trying to get in to the department, and from no ever our own diseased dept. dog attacked the healthy dog to defend its territory, it was barking with all its energy and it appeared furious. We had never seen it in such a mood. It kept barking until the other dog had left the territory.
It was amazing to watch weak creature standing to defend its on region. To stand for what it believes in. To fight, to sacrifice without fear to lose or to die. For the first time I felt that dog has soul. But, then what about us? How much do we care about our on house, state, country for that matter. I just wonder if some robber breaks into our house, what will we do. I guess we ll prefer him to take what ever he wants. But the point we miss is, he is not intruding into our house made of concrete and iron , but he is attacking our beliefs, our dreams, our self-respect, our independence, our territory. And wat is the easiest way for us is!, Just to allow him to exploit it. We are afraid of fighting for what we believe in. And thats why I wonder where is our soul..?
We can argue that defending its territory is animals first instinct. But then what about our instincts, Is it that our intelligence has taken over them? Is it that intelligence has over-powered our soul...
The thought is still haunting me. May be some day I will be as strong as our own diseased department dog.
We here in CSE department(IITB) have a department dog. The only reason we call it our department dog is, he is found loitering in the department corridors. Its a very week, diseased dog, with a broken leg, its eyes popping out of skull and its ribs tearing the skin. We always felt pity for the dog, but very few bothered to fed it.
On evening, When I was coming to the department. What I saw just shocking. A big healthy dog was trying to get in to the department, and from no ever our own diseased dept. dog attacked the healthy dog to defend its territory, it was barking with all its energy and it appeared furious. We had never seen it in such a mood. It kept barking until the other dog had left the territory.
It was amazing to watch weak creature standing to defend its on region. To stand for what it believes in. To fight, to sacrifice without fear to lose or to die. For the first time I felt that dog has soul. But, then what about us? How much do we care about our on house, state, country for that matter. I just wonder if some robber breaks into our house, what will we do. I guess we ll prefer him to take what ever he wants. But the point we miss is, he is not intruding into our house made of concrete and iron , but he is attacking our beliefs, our dreams, our self-respect, our independence, our territory. And wat is the easiest way for us is!, Just to allow him to exploit it. We are afraid of fighting for what we believe in. And thats why I wonder where is our soul..?
We can argue that defending its territory is animals first instinct. But then what about our instincts, Is it that our intelligence has taken over them? Is it that intelligence has over-powered our soul...
The thought is still haunting me. May be some day I will be as strong as our own diseased department dog.
posted by Aniket at 9:05 AM
3 Comments:
Very true !!
This has something to do with the way we had started looking for the possibilities. The world is getting complex and so are we living there. No body cares much about his responsibilities, coz the belief of living in a society & fear of our own eyes in the mirror is loosing in individuals. This loss of attachment due to shrinking world of individuals has made people selfish in a way. We dont care for our country, city, nor even our moral responsibilites in many respect..
Might be what u said has a reason for it, "Intelligence might have over powered our soul.." But I couldnt come up with a better reply than this (as above) currently..
Its difficult to revert the mentality of people now,, Just wish that we wont get worse than what we are at present.. Atleast we can try to be stable in our thoughts and have care for ALL..
a nice post...
well as you said "Intelligence might have over powered our soul.." could be the reason..but then again that may be the differentiating factor between us and animals...
when attacked humans may be looking at a longer term benefit of survival rather than succumbing to the instinct to fight..and may be this has happened for centuries and burnt into you that defending your territory is no longer an "instinct"...
well..i am not convinced abt the argument that i just made..here is another possibility which is simple..fear..or in better terms... the urge to survive..which is by far the biggest instinct...and overpowers the instinct to defend your territory... you know that putting up a fight can potentially cause you bodily harm and could even be fatal..so for your survival you are better of giving into the attacker..btw, this is also consistent with Occam's razor principle :)
also coming to the issue of dog defending its territory...i guess even that is driven by the bigger instinct of survival..i mean..every dog needs its own territory for its survival...its easier to defend its territory than scaring away some other dog from that dog's territory..
nice post...
but i think it is just one way of looking at that scenario (other perceptions are already posted by above people)
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