Cat Meditation - An Article

Bhagavad Gita As It Is -
Chapter 5 Text 18
vidyā-vinaya-sampanne
brāhmaṇe gavi hastini
śuni caiva śva-pāke ca
paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ

vidyā — with education; vinaya — and gentleness; sampanne — fully equipped; brāhmaṇe — in the brāhmaṇa; gavi — in the cow; hastini — in the elephant; śuni — in the dog; ca — and; eva — certainly; śva-pāke — in the dog-eater (the outcaste); ca — respectively; paṇḍitāḥ — those who are wise; sama-darśinaḥ — who see with equal vision.

TRANSLATION

The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brāhmaṇa, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste].

JOURNAL:

In his purport to this sloka Srila Prabhupada writes; A Kṛṣṇa conscious person does not make any distinction between species or castes. The brāhmaṇa and the outcaste may be different from the social point of view, or a dog, a cow, and an elephant may be different from the point of view of species, but these differences of body are meaningless from the viewpoint of a learned transcendentalist. This is due to their relationship to the Supreme, for the Supreme Lord, by His plenary portion as Paramātmā, is present in everyone's heart. Such an understanding of the Supreme is real knowledge.

All of my cats have liked to sit with me while I do my japa. The meditation attracts them and most have come and sat on my lap if given the chance. I know we are not supposed to get attached to the lower species but it happens. Espcially if your sixteen year old son volenteers at the local zoo.

I have heard it said that all living things can benefit from hearing the Holy Names. In the early Eighties my cat Rolling Thunder died in my lap and I didn't notice until I was done with my rounds. I dreamed of another one of my cats, Tzi, just after she had died. In the dream she was a human girl and yet I also knew it was my cat.

Today we lost a cat, Pawkies (Galic for mittens), who had been with our family for sixteen years. My son has never known a time in his life without the cat. Before the rest of the family said their goodbyes I took the old boy into my room, picked up my beads, and chanted a couple of rounds with him. Between rounds I prayed to Govinda. I told Him that the beast had done good by my family's standards and that we hoped that Pawkies would receive the benefit of a human form in his next life. He was such a great cat!