Journey of the Spirit

The above quote was written by Abraham Barak Salem. He lived in the section of Cochin known as Jew Town. He was an Indian nationalist and a Zionist, a lawyer, and a politician. He has a street named after him.  In fact, I found the above quote on a corner wall, nearly hidden from my view, outside of his former house.

Abraham Barak Salem (1882–1967) was an Indian nationalist and Zionist, a lawyer and politician, and one of the most prominent Cochin Jews of the twentieth century. He was the first Cochin Jew to become an attorney. He eventually used satyagraha (non-violent resistance) to fight discrimination. After visiting Palestine in the 1930s, he later helped arrange the migration of most Cochin Jews to Israel by 1955. He stayed in Kochi for the remainder of his life.

I spent this morning at an animal shelter here in Cochin today.  So yes, my mind is enriched from this morning’s experience as well as from all I have lived these past three weeks.  I leave India with many new points of view and a new vision, as A.B. Salem would have wished!

The shelter I visited is called the Dhyan Foundation Animal Shelter. My heart is a yo-yo right now, vacillating between disgust at the cruelty of some humans towards animals and pleased by the kindness of the many extraordinary volunteers at the shelter.  And honestly, I can’t think about the sweet dogs, cats, and cows I met today without feeling emotional.

When I arrived at the shelter, I was lucky because some volunteers were just arriving.  One of the volunteers was there to take photos of the now-healthy dogs to put online for adoption purposes.  The dogs knew him well and were eager to greet him!

One of the volunteers, Maneesha, quickly took me under her wing. The dogs didn’t know me so they started barking, but barking with tails wagging.  She explained that they have experienced a lot of trauma living on the streets and that they would soon calm down.  Many were shy. Most were humble. One very pretty pure bred dog with a missing ear boldly came up to me and wanted to be pet.  Maneesha told me he was not a stray but, when he developed a terrible ear infection, his owners no longer wanted him. He was now fully recovered. I pet him and then the floodgates of love opened:  the dogs were rivaling each other to get a love pet from Franny!  I was quickly overtaken by wriggles and licks, head nudging and pleading eyes. Next time, I’ll bring “dog gloves” with me, but this time I just thought to myself, “I don’t care! I’ll pet them all and wash my whole body thoroughly as soon as I get back to my hotel.” I did wash and scrub from head to toe in a hot shower upon my return to the hotel!

So I lavished the dogs, cats, and cows with love.  But it wasn’t enough. I could tell they were craving more love. There was one dog in particular who was the most affectionate of them all. I named him Snow because he had the whitest fur and the whitest teeth!  Here he is below:

Long ago, I used to watch re-runs of The Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason. It was one of my mom and dad’s favorite TV shows, so I watched it with them. I loved the episode when the Gleason character Ralph is really angry with his wife Alice because she brought a dog home from a shelter.  Since she refuses to return the dog, he says he will go and do it.  He goes to return the dog to the shelter and comes home later with several dogs!  That’s how I felt today.  Rick is lucky I am not coming home with three dogs, a cat, and a baby cow because honestly, that’s what I wanted to do. I am not kidding.

Maneesha introduced me to the staff and volunteers at the shelter.  She told me about each of them. There was one volunteer who was blind. The dogs especially loved him. The dogs instinctively knew that the vision impaired volunteer, too, had suffered in life and they felt a strong kinship with him. Maneesha also told me about the countless veterinarians who give their time and skill to perform the surgeries on the hurt animals, of the people who give donations for the cause and money to cover the surgery and medical costs, of the dogs’ stories of abuse and abandonment and car accidents, and of successful adoptions.

Maneesha:

Why are the animals mistreated?  I’m not sure anyone has the answers, least of all me.  Animal mistreatment is disturbing in every way. It happens all over the world, even in the United States. I think that here in India, when you are poor, you can barely take care of yourself and your family, so dogs and cats are at the bottom of the totem pole, the bottom of the shit-rolling hill. Most of the time, the problem has to do with neglect. Who has time to look after the strays when you are struggling to get food into your belly?

If a person in India has financial means or if their basic needs are comfortably covered, they will consider having a pet.  Today I learned, that in this case, they will want, like many Americans, a pure-bred dog from puppy-hood. Same goes for kittens.  If a person here in India can afford to have a cat as a pet, they will go to the breeders and get a pure bred kitten like a Himalayan cat or a Siamese cat.

Many of the animals at the shelter have been hit by cars, seriously injured, unattended, and left to die. I saw many amputees recovering or fully recovered and adapting well to their three legged-ness. Some of the animals were terribly undernourished and slowly beginning to take food and water and others were already looking healthy and quite adoptable (they were the ones being photographed for the on line adoptions).

The fellow below even POSED for the photo!

In other parts of India where the majority of people are Hindu, cows are revered.  In North India, I’ve seen people go by a cow in the street and pat its head. People leave food and water out for the wandering cows.  But here in Kerala where there is a strong Christian presence, cows are not revered. People eat cows in South India and you can see beef entrees on the non-vegetarian menus. Even if cows are a source of food in Kerala and not revered as they are in most other areas of India, why on earth would one show a mean spirit to a cow or any other animal?

So today at the Dhyan Foundation Animal Shelter, I learned that 25 cows are being sheltered here.  The shelter is within the city limits so the cows are brought here to the Cochin shelter to rehabilitate and then brought to a volunteer’s pasture.  This certain volunteer has a lot of land which he has dedicated to the cows in need of shelter.

Currently, Maneesha told me there are 70 dogs at the shelter, 4 cats (but that very morning, a large litter of kittens was brought in and not yet added to the count).  There were puppies brought in recently, too, along with their nursing mamma-dog.

As I walked around with Maneesha, all I kept thinking was Oh My God.

So the main person behind the establishment of this shelter is a yogi!!  Yogi Ashwini.  He is Maneesha’s guru. His teachings have changed her life and the lives of all the volunteers. Maneesha is a gynecologist, but when she is not at her clinic treating patients, she is here at the shelter giving the animals as much love as she can give.

Yogi Ashwini has a mantra and it goes like this:

It’s the duty of every human being to provide for those that are weaker than yourself. Those that are weaker than yourself include other humans, animals, plants and any creatures or living thing.  We must provide for them. At the very least, we should provide for those weaker living beings, including trees and plants present in our own vicinity.

Yogi Ashwini often quotes Saint Francis of Assisi.

It is in loving that you are being loved

It is in giving that you receive

And it is in dying that you are reborn

Yogi Ashwini teaches compassion towards all of creation. I am deeply moved by the work of the Dhvan Foundation.  They do take donations. All the information is on the link below.

LINK:

Dhyan Foundation Shelter for Strays

Service, Charity, and Animal Welfare is the cornerstone of Dhyan Foundation. Volunteers rescue, rehabilitate and take care of any animal in need, and have started dedicated programs for cows, dogs, monkeys and birds.