kitten wisdom from india

From Sayings of Ramakrishna, courtesy of SacredTexts.com. (Amazing site, by the way.)


93. The young of a monkey clasps and clings to its mother. The young kitten cannot clasp its mother, but mews piteously whenever it is near her. If the young monkey lets go its hold on its mother, it falls down and gets hurt. This is because it depends upon its own strength; but the kitten runs no such risk, as the mother herself carries it about from place to place. Such is the difference between self-reliance and entire resignation to the will of God.


And, not that we have tigers for pets, but today I really needed to read this one:


13. It is true that God is even in the tiger, but we must not go and face the animal. So it is true that God dwells even in the most wicked, but it is not meet that we should associate with the wicked.


The Hindu believe that the cat is associated with the kind, nurturing Goddess of Childbirth, Shasthi, who writes the child's future on its forehead on the sixth day after the birth of the child.