Am I an animal or a human being?

[Gauracandra 1]

Am I an animal or a human being?

 

This is the question posed this week by Srila Siddhaswarupananda. It may at first seem like a dumb question, but in actuality it is not. Some will say that a human being has two legs, can walk, and talk… but this does not make a person human.

 

Let us analyze animals and humans side by side.

 

Animals love to eat. The cats come running when it is dinner time, the dogs bark when they are hungry, the pigs squeel as they eat their food. Humans also eat. Humans love to eat. In fact, much of human society is centered around eating in one manner or another. And this is not simply eating for nutrition, but for taste.

 

Animals love to sleep. The dog loves to sleep. He gets up to eat, but he really loves to sleep. The cat sleeps on the TV. Humans also love to sleep. Most will spend between 6-10 hours each day sleeping. And if they go to school, they spend even more time sleeping in class [small laugh].

 

Animals love to have sex. The pigs, cows, horses, cats all love to have sex. Sometimes you are trying to sleep at night and you can hear the cats having sex. They are screeching and keeping you awake. [Note: This is Gauracandra. This statement was funny because that night, some cats were having sex outside. In the middle of the night, the sound was horrendous. They were screeching and making all sorts of noise. I stumbled out of bed, and hobbled to a desk drawer where I found some ear plugs. Then I went back to sleep. It was a funny coincidence]. Humans also love to have sex.

 

Animals love defending. Fighting. The dog defends his turf. The mice, the roaches, the tiger, elephants, they all defend… Now for humans. We put up our fences, our walls, barbed wire, locks on the doors, policemen, military, weapons. The tiger has its claws, we have our bullets, tanks, and atom bombs.

 

Animals eat, sleep, mate, and defend. Same with humans. So what is the difference? Therefore we are asking what are we? Are we animals or humans?

 

According to the modern view man is more or less an animal. Life is about getting as much pleasure from eating, sleeping, mating, and defending.

 

If you look at the topics in magazines, newspapers, and the media you will see that so much revolves around these topics. If it is eating, we have so much talk about eating, or dieting. If it is sleeping, we have all sorts of ads describing different kinds of mattresses, pillows, which brand is superior “Oh this one has specially insulated springs for a more comfortable night sleep”. And of course the centerpoint of our civilization, the god of our modern life is sex. [srila Siddhaswarupananda then does a funny prayer to the god Sex, I can’t replicate it but it was funny]. We are told now that sex must be learned. We need sex experts to instruct us in better ways to have sex. Srila Siddhaswarupananda explains that he was listening to a radio psychologist discussing with one woman about sex. This woman found that she was no longer interested in sex. The talk show psychologist was trying to determine where such a peculiar notion would come from – was it a religious upbringing, or something that happened to her in her youth? Something must have gone wrong. So even if you are no longer interested in sex, that itself is a problem, we must find a solution to get you interested in sex again.

 

Sex. Everything is sold by sex. There is a commercial for a radio that is being sold. It shows a woman riding a bicycle and slowly her buttons come undone. Then right before everything is shown, it cuts away to the radio. But what does this have to do with the product? Nothing.

 

And of course we have defense. We have enough atom bombs to destroy the earth 50 times over. But still we want to make better weapons systems.

 

So if you analyze human society, really our interests are no different than the animals. Just because we build skyscrapers, wear a suit and tie… it simply means we are polished animals. Some pet owners actually do dress up their animals in clothes, and take them to dog restaurants. The dogs are fed off of silver plates, and afterwards the dog sits in front of the TV… does this make them human?

 

What makes a human different from an animal? A human being has the ability, the chance, the intelligence, to enquire into his relationship with God. Who am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose of my existence? Is there a Supreme Being? Who is this Supreme Being? Where does the world come from?

 

We are not saying that humans do not need to eat, sleep, mate and defend. But that is not what makes us human. There is a fifth purpose. We must learn to control our senses for this fifth purpose. A higher purpose. We don’t live to eat, sleep, mate and defend. Rather we should eat, sleep, have sex, and defend only to the extent that we can use this body to find out who we are and establish our relationship with God.

 

You have within you the ability to know God. This human form of life is your potential. You can use it or not, that is up to you.

[Tarun 6]

"Am I man or beast?" Let me hear u growl.

[abhi_the_great 0]

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

[xxvvii 0]

I have no interest for this topic. look at your hand & forearm & try to draw a boundary of them. You'll fail because of connection.

[Jahnava Nitai Das 2]

In a few years the internet will be fast enough for us to watch all these videos online. That would be an nice project, a website with a large assortment of spiritual videos. I think it will be at least another 3 or 4 years before it can be practical though.

 

 

 

[Gauracandra 1]

Srila Siddhaswarupananda's programs play on Public Access television. Its not always the most reliable medium, but its being used to great effect by him for preaching. Sometimes (like this instance) they replay the same program. Other times it might have another program in its place.

 

I agree that in a few years as memory and speed increase such programs will easily be able to be digitized and put up on the net. Actually the future is the internet. Radio, television, computers, everything will be linked through this network. Right now the technology is available, its just that most people don't have high speed connections (DSL, cable modem etc....) but that is changing very quickly. Whats great is that this will create a great equalizing effect. Right now only big Christian preachers can have their own broadcasts (Pat Robertson with CBC, or Robert Schuller etc...). But in the future, every religion will be able to have the opportunity to put up high quality video programming. I think Srila Siddhaswarupananda will just be ahead of other Vaisnava groups, since he will already have plenty of already made content. The only problem I see is that he has zero presence on the internet as far as I can tell. Though perhaps that will change in time.

[Gauracandra 1]

This week's episode was a repeat of last weeks episode. Kind of funny that I was late for putting up last weeks. Lets just say I was early for this weeks

[theist 1]

Way to stay on top of it Gauracandra.You da man.

 

What channel do these play on?PBS or public access?

[xxvvii 0]

In modern societies, a lot of persons show diff. faces to others & himself. For others he is a objective man whose every words & actions are right; for himself he is a subjective man whose many words & actions are dependent on his interest. So he is a man/animal.

[gHari 0]

"I am not an animal!" -- Elephant Man

[abhi_the_great 0]

Originally posted by xxvvii:

In modern societies, a lot of persons show diff. faces to others & himself. For others he is a objective man whose every words & actions are right; for himself he is a subjective man whose many words & actions are dependent on his interest. So he is a man/animal.

How cd you probably know so much abt me?

[Tarun 6]

Animal House: Holywood at its Holiest. Food fight!!

Belushi's character became a Senator. Makes sense to me.

[Bhaktavasya 0]

 

Twenty years ago (give or take a year) Siddhaswarupananda & the Hari Bol society of devotees seemed more cutting edge, ahead of the times, the recorded album where Siddha sang songs of Radha's love for Krishna. He was a rebel, a man of mystery, and now this..?

 

 

[Gauracandra 1]

There hasn't been a program in the last few weeks. This week there was one, and it was a repeat of this summary. Its funny, but today I was driving around and saw a guy walking his dog, and the dog was wearing a sweater /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[theist 1]

Gaurachandra please tell me what channele these show on. I get reception through satelite and maybe there are on and i am missing them thanks.

 

Maybe the guy was walking his dog to the dog pyschologist.

 

 

 

[Narayanidd 1]

My dear vaisnava,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

 

 

Srila Prabhupada provides an appropriate answer to your question, "Am I an animal or a human being?"

 

"Out of so many human beings who are suffering, there are a few who are actually inquiring about their position, as to what they are, why they are put into this awkward position and so on. Unless one is awakened to this position of questioning his suffering, unless he realizes that he doesn't want suffering but rather wants to make a solution to all suffering then one is not to be considered a perfect human being. Humanity begins when this sort of inquiry is awakened in one's mind." Without Krsna consciousness we are living like animals, eating sleeping mating and, defending.

 

Hari Bol!!

Your servant,

Narayani d.d.

[anveshan 0]

I am an animal. A homo erectus and a homo sapien. More than that what I am, IT only knows.

[theist 1]

How does an IT know?

[anveshan 0]

Simply because IT is Omniscient and creates, conserves and withdraws at-Will.

[Guest guest]

IT has a will? A desire to act? What motivates IT to want to create conserve and withdraw? Isn't IT satified just being IT?

[anveshan 0]

My IT is Energy, Pure Consciousness, Abstract which can Concretize who created the modes and the Nature. And everything goes naturally on It's Will.

 

You may ask where and how did I find this IT. Well, I looked inwardxs, to my innermost and found out.

 

Whay IT creates is a mystery Fathomless which I am not educated enough to reply. This question I have been asking for five decades to myself and to IT. No convincing answers.