Four Miseries The Animal Community Doesn’t Have To Deal With

“I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 15.15)

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The Sanskrit aphorism athato brahma-jijnasa applies to the human being. Indeed, Sanskrit and other languages are meant for communication among the classes with higher intelligence.

The animals have intelligence. Every living being does, to some degree. This is due to the presence of the Supersoul, which is an expansion of God. The human being is unique because of the higher potential that intelligence can reach. The elevation is in terms of consciousness, and lacking specific training the human existence is inferior to animal life in many ways.

1. Potential loss of job

The animals are not worried about losing of job. They don’t have a boss since there are no corporations. One or many persons join together to form a corporation, which then acts as a single entity. There is someone at the top, and they may hire employees to help improve the margin and scale of the profits.

Since there is competition in the job market, the success of the corporation is not guaranteed. Even with successful businesses there is the chance of going south. Loss of profits leads to loss of jobs. The animals don’t have this concern. The tiger does not think what will happen if no animals come its way over a certain period of time. Everything is provided for by nature, which even the haughtiest of human beings would never dare think can be controlled.

2. Panic attacks

In childhood flights were not a problem, but things are different now. With increased intelligence there is remembrance. There is knowledge of just how much time will be spent on the airplane and how that specific mode of transportation operates.

Panic attacks are episodes of concern to the highest degree. It gets so bad that a person thinks they may no longer be able to breathe. There may be physical issues compounding the problem, such as high blood pressure. Sometimes tranquilizing drugs are the only option.

Animals don’t have these issues because they can’t think that far into the future. The dog may run away in fear at the prospect of taking a bath, using intelligence gathered from past experience, but they do not spend the entire day worrying if the bath will take place.

3. Meeting the mortgage payment

This misery can tie in with the worry over the loss of employment. For adults so many obligations need to be met on a monthly basis. If the mortgage isn’t paid on time, there won’t be a place to live. The bank will seize the house. In a renting situation, the landlord will evict.

4. Unrequited love

The pain from rejection of a desired companion can be so great that it leads to suicide. The feeling of despair is so strong that it looks like things will never turn around, that nothing will make the pain go away.

Animal life is marked by the strong urge for sex desire, as seen with monkeys and dogs. If a potential partner declines, there is no issue. Simply move on to someone else. There is the pain of separation from loved ones for sure, but the sting of rejection simply isn’t there. In human life it can ruin a person’s existence.

The human being meets their potential in intelligence when they understand God. No matter which religion a person inherits from their parents, there are ways to understand the Divine. One is through the singular energy that runs through everything, an energy which remains past the cycle of birth and death, an energy which is the same within every kind of living thing, human and non-human.

“And I am the basis of the impersonal Brahman, which is the constitutional position of ultimate happiness, and which is immortal, imperishable and eternal.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 14.27)

A further realization is seeing the expansion of the Supreme Spirit living within every living thing. He is the source of intelligence and forgetfulness. The complete realization is Bhagavan, which is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Seeing any of these three features means success in the human life, advancing past the animal instincts. Anything less means not using the potential accompanying the valuable human birth, having to wait for the unpredictable future to see if another opportunity arises.

In Closing:

Only from intelligence advanced,

For understanding God the chance.

Otherwise animals better situated so,

Not crazy from rejection to go.

Nor dwindling bank balance tracking,

Or contemplating future panic attacking.

Understand Divine in any of features three,

And benefits of higher existence see.