The Kiss of Death

Last week I lost my nine year old cocker spaniel. It was a bit abrupt. The night she left, she was in pain for about three hours. With animals , one is often faced with the choice of mercy killing. Simply because as opposed to humans , it’s nothing illegal with animals. It however still throws a very significant question, at which point do you say now I play god. Believe me it’s a very difficult moment. 

When our dog, her name was Jia started yelping in pain, our first thought was to let her pass naturally. Every one comes with their destiny. We gave ourselves a few hours, before we would even consider mercy killing as a choice. As the little doggo yelped in pain, as a family we sat around praying. I prayed to each and every god, every saint. I even invoked Swamiji. Throughout it all I was holding her paw. You know the prana as we call it ,it is magical.

Magical because as you observe it, you understand it’s not we who breathes, something  breathes through us. And I sat holding that little paw I could feel each prana move in and out, the strange thing was as I kept observing it, I realised it was no different from my breath. It felt like a connection, me the doggo, the whole  universe. The same prana.

And as the prana changed to withdraw from that manifestation, I counted the first breath, the second and the third I almost knew she was leaving, and exactly the third breath, the last breath was so gentle like she had been diffused. The pain almost never existed. I could feel the breath enter the greater consciousness. How gentle was the last kiss I cannot describe. 

I sat crying in wonder and pain. Little Jia was put to rest with proper prayers and her ashes buried under a tree , her favourite flower tree where she chased squirrels . For a lot of people, they find it amusing one can cry and weep for an animal.  Well love is love isn’t it? 

I wish we all understood the same prana flows through all of us. The same one that will one day merge into the great divine.