I was watering my garden yesterday morning and I noticed a rat lumbering around in the impatients. Even though I was inadvertently hosing him with water he was mostly nonresponsive to me. I figured he must be sick or dying, so I left him alone. Sure enough -this morning when I went out to pick flowers I found him dead under Tulasi Devi.
I think it's an interesting event especially since unlike the numerous squirrels that come to deposit acorns in my potted plants, I never see rats. This animal came to my garden to die undisturbed and then seemingly took refuge of the Goddess when he left his animal body. I took it as a faith affirming event because although the rat had no "conceptual orientation" he instinctively displayed auspicious behavior.
Recently I heard Bodhayan Maharaja speaking at Dhira Lalita and Jagadiswar's house about how Krsna gives inteligence to everyone including the animals. Apparently the rat knew to come to my garden. I was also thinking about Mahaprabhu's journey through the Jarikhanda (sp?) forest on his way to Vrndavana. Along the way he caused all the animals to sing and dance, immersing them in Krsna consciousness and making them oblivious to their instinctual nature. Perhaps my rat was also show some kind of mercy by Vrnda Devi. It sounds so sentimental, but if the things connected to Krsna have power independent of the minds of human beings, that would have to be true.
Not to take away from the possibility of the spiritual instincts of the rat, but what stuck out to me in this post is spiritual thinking of the writer.
It reminds me of the story of the two devotees who saw a vulture. One of the devotees exclaimed, "Hari bol! Hari bol!" and the other one said, "We just saw a vulture, an inauspicious creature who lives off the death of other animals, why are you chanting 'Haribol'?!"
The first devotee replied, "When I see the vulture, I think of the burial grounds, which makes me think of the cows that die naturally and the leather that is made from the hide. This leather is used to make the head of the mrdanga, which is used for sankirtana. Thus, thinking of sankirtana, I exclaimed, 'Hari bol!' "
A spiritual mind can see auspiciousness even in death.