You Did The Right Thing

I used to have two little parakeets. One night I was carrying their cage to a small room where I used to let them fly around for a while. As both my hands were occupied, I called my roommate Rupavati to come quickly to close the door for me because I was afraid that the birds would fly away from the room. She came very fast, and as she slammed the door, my most favourite bird, Monchin del Alma, was hit. He flew a little before he hit the wall and then fell down. I took him close to my chest and started screaming and crying. I looked at him, and in his little eyes I saw that he was going to die. I stood in front of Guru's Transcendental picture and prayed: "God, please take some years of my life and give them to my bird, so he can live." I was so sure that I wanted to give part of my life away to keep him alive. Suddenly I felt when his soul left him with a shiver. I cried and cried. Rupavati came to me crying and tried to console me by saying, "Don't worry, Guru took him away, Guru took him.…" I could not stop crying for hours until finally I fell asleep. The next day I went to work all swollen and depressed. Then I started thinking of what I had done. I became confused as I realised that human life is sacred, and I was not that sure any more that it was correct to offer my life for my little bird!" I did not tell anyone about my thoughts that day. That evening we had a function and Guru invited people to ask him questions. I wanted to ask Guru about this matter, but when I went up, a different question slipped from my heart. I asked: "Guru, I feel that I like animals much more that I like people. Is this wrong? Is it something that I should transcend?" Guru's compassionate answer was: "We are in the same boat! I also like animals more than people. When you look in animals' eyes, you see purity, innocence. They are helpless. They trust you." Then he looked at me very intensely, with his eyes half opened. I saw a bright light coming from his right eye. He continued: "And you did the right thing! Like the Buddha with the bird, you did the right thing."

Aryamani (Puerto Rico)