Indifference, bad company, disrespect, arrogance and jealousy, there five tendencies reduce man to the level of the animal. No one with these vices can be called an educated person. To get rid of these vices, it is necessary to take note of some of the good qualities in animals and birds. Man can learn any number of good qualities in animals, birds, insects and worms.
One animal which is viewed with contempt is the donkey. The quality of patience to be found in a donkey is not to be found even in man. Whatever burdens may be heaped on its back, it bears them all with forbearance. It puts up with any amount of beatings. Even when it is starved of food and water, it presents a calm face. Man has thus to learn the quality of forbearance from the donkey.
The ant is one of the tiniest among insects. But there are many lessons to be learned from it. The ant has a capacity for foresight. With foreknowledge of the rainy season ahead, the ant starts storing food three months in advance.
Then there is the spider, from which lessons can be learned. Determination is one of its traits. However many times its web may be destroyed or broken, the spider will go on remaking it with relentless determination.
Then, there is the dog. The dog is treated with neglect and indifference. But the fidelity displayed by a dog is not found in any other creature. Getting a few morsels of food from man, the dog shows its gratitude to him by following him and wagging its tail out of affection. But such gratitude is lacking among students who have been nourished, educated and placed comfortably in life (by their parents). Many do not have even a fraction of the gratitude displayed by dogs. Has their education or intelligence any meaning?
(SS March 1997, pg 59)
