Why is it that children get ecstatic on seeing or contacting or playing with animals? Why is it that our dream imagery involves animals? Why is it that human history in general and sacred history in particular isa also a history of our relationship to animals? What a misfortune that as we grow old our encounter with animals is often reduced to museum space only.
Animals humanize and sanctify. Our salvation is linked with them in many ways. If we fail to comprehend how and why of our fellowship with animals that we enjoyed as children or all normal children exposed to contact with animals enjoy due to our sharper perception of higher world, don’t be surprised. We have almost lost sense of a vital treasure of symbolism..
Our Symbolism Illiteracy and Kashmir
We fail to be humans invited for deciphering symbols. Bybeing guilty of symbol illiteracy we areguilty of crass culture, religion, art,mythology, literature literacy. Symbolism is the largely forgotten science ofsymbols to which the Quran and other scriptures call addressees. Kashmir is oneof the last bastions of traditional Sacred centric cultures that has yet tofully relinquish this priceless heritage. Kashmir’s legacy of honouringprophetic-mystical understanding of animals is now forgotten by even someprofessionals of development departments, not to speak of common Kashmiris.
Symbolism and Rituals of Animal Sacrifice
Man lives by virtue of symbols – he is a symbol-making being(homo symbolicus) – and all great religions, myths, arts and philosophies are an comprehensible interms of engagement with them. David Cane, a Mircea Elade scholar aptly notes in his Mercia Eliade’s Vision fora New Humanism “The nostalgia for paradise, of that time of first beginnings,unity,sacrality, and bliss is one of humans’ most basic longings, and thesymbols for that nostalgia persist in people’s unconscious aspirations, intheir dreams, ideals, and in their literary and artistic creations.
That these nostalgias were driven into the unconscious is,itself, an indictment of the spiritual condition of modern society.” And “Insofar as primitives consciously livedtheir symbols, everyday life held the potential to manifest the real and givemeaning to a person’s actions.
To a primitive agriculturalist, for instance, the spade represents more than an implement for cultivation. It is at the same time symbolically homologous to the phallus impregnating the fertile womb. The act of sowing assumes greater metaphysical significance than what the simple act itself suggests.
Joseph Campbell also clarifies in his The Way of the Animal Powers: Hunting and gathering societies that originally religion was suffused with a view of nature as being infused with a spirit or divine presence. “At center stage was the main hunting animal of that culture, whether the buffalo for Native Americans or the eland for South African tribes, and a large part of religion focused on dealing with the psychological tension that came from the reality of the necessity to kill versus the divinity of the animal. This was done by presenting the animals as springing from an eternal archetypal source and coming to this world as willing victims, with the understanding that their lives would be returned to the soil or to the Mother through a ritual of restoration.”
Campbell sought to show in his extensive and comprehensivework that “throughout history mankind has held a belief that all life comesfrom and returns to another dimension which transcends temporality, but whichcan be reached through ritual.” Islamic teaching about some kind of posthumouslife/accountability for living creatures makes the same point.
Animal sacrifice motif is at the heart of key narratives –in Cain and Abel story, in Abraham’s sacrifice, in hajj, aqeeqa and otherevents in life in Muslim cultures from birth to death – marriages, urscelebrations. In the 15th āhnīka of Tantrāloka, Abhinavagupta, authority ofKashmir Savism, states that rituals involving animal sacrifice were to beperformed “by an elevated master and only for the sake of those disciples whowere not able to experience the benefits of the practices of āṇavopaya.” InKashmir there is a common practice of sacrificing animals at the time ofinaugurating construction of new house as an apology to the subtle world’sdenizens and animal world including insects and rats that previously inhabitedthe place.
Secularization, Industrial Farming and Symbolism
Regarding animal farming and mythic-symbolic framing ofanimals, a few more points I wish to press.
The Muslim world has embraced secularization to a largeextent, unconsciously mostly, and this is evident in its treatment of animalsand criminal silence regarding ethics and environmental implications of industry farming.
Myths have largely fled, angelic world only a matter of faith as the faculty for smelling subtle world fading, not to speak of transcendent world as noted by a Sufi scholar and more generally expressed by Shaykh Isa Nuruddin (Frithjof Schuon) who observed that modern man has lost the ability to smell the perfume of the sacred.
Mythic animals are mostly gone or subject of idle curiosity and their meaning as that of meaning of ritual sacrifice and beliefs in interconnected destiny of animals and man – ram replaces Abraham’s son – utterly alien to new generation. It is hard to understand such traditional narratives regarding the Prophet (S.A.W) and some saints that they could talk to animals and address their grievances.
All creatures glorify God, says the Quran and Ibn Arabiclaims one can experience this literally. Pakistan’s best selling writerMustansar Hussain Tarad claims his special association with the wild and someability to decipher its language. St. Francis was beloved of the animal worldand in Kashmir we have witnessed certain mystics paying special respect to dogsor other creatures. One such mystic was called houn mout as he was everaccompanied by dogs.
It is harder to understand how animals like fish are said topray for humans and the practice of durood involves blessing whole of life andthe Quran attributes domestication to God’s grace implying a deeper bond offellowship of men and animals instead of power and cunning involved in theprocess. It is in the context of this arid scenario that certain elements ofKashmiri mystic culture call for our attention. I offer some scatteredobservations and facts about Kashmiri culture that should interest the world,especially the Muslim world.
Until recently it was believed that milk is the light of Godthat is best not commoditized or sold in market but to be offered as gift tothe needy neighbours. Many refuse to eat meat of animals reared by them andtake it only if it is a sacrifice. Animals are reared for spiritual benefit ofbarakah (blessing/benediction), averting tragedies, offering to God and Hispeople (prayer food culture/khatm/niyaz continue to be in vogue despitecriticism from Salafi-Jamaat-e Islamic cadres who have, in turn, mostlyforgotten mythological, mystical and symbolic dimensions of the issue).
Dogs who are often thought to be mistreated in Islamic landsare specially treated in Kashmir in line with examples of Sufi saints. There isan adage that if some good is received or misfortune averted it could bebecause of offering food to dogs. (Khaber kus heun mound aas bith). Every morning,at many places, dogs in neighborhood are first recipients of the day’s food –roti.
Birds are welcome almost everywhere as they are lavishlyhosted not only around shrines but around everyday dwellings of numerous people. Some old women say dog willcomplain on the Day of Judgment to God why you didn’t care for my provisionsrely will be who then provided for you he will say “dyedi hend mend seeth.”Many a person make it a point to spare some food for dogs/birds etc and,thankfully, even one of the officers of the State’s animal husbandry departmentrecently, officially, requested people to take care of birds in the time ofscarcity. Dogs despite being a menace to public health have been remarkablytolerated and treated as our fellow companions in the odyssey of life despiteabsence of pet culture.
What modern rationalist sensibility usually dismisses assuperstition may be a survival of once thriving symbolism or have significancefor psycho-spiritual or community health. Certain animals if encountered whilebeginning to travel are considered bad omen.
While one may frown at such a practice on scientific and sometimes theological grounds, there remains a possibility that it might be a residue of some higher knowledge or have survived from some other practice as a recognition of interlinked destiny of man and animals and power of precognition in animals which is now more respectful notion than in the past thanks to extensive documentation by researchers. Some diseases/earthquakes are first felt/registered by certain animals.
People heeded hints from animals/spirit animals/ sentinel animals and interpreted dreams involving animals in a manner that better (than current psychoanalytic or popular dream manual based speculations) honoured timeless/time tested symbolism of them.
So being intercepted by animals in certain uncanny way or noticing howling of dogs towards a particular house or owl’s shrieks or strange sounds from domestic animals and poultry birds might involve references to largely forgotten symbolism/mythology.
At certain places, cocks are reared in the age of alarms for their supposed communication with the higher world/barakah. One can find correspondences/echoes of large number of myths across cultures in Kashmir.
For instance Wolf and Moon myth and Cyclops find echo in Haereth Kaen, and as Abid Ahmed has noted in his valuable “Plural Sources of Kashmiri Myths” Green Man (Khawja Khizr) in “Sodhe Brore te Bodhe Brore,” Phoenix in Shraz, to note only a few. The symbolism of human sacrifice and number in myths/folktales like Aka Nandun few now know. How key myths are to be lived in a way is forgotten by most advocates of religion and their critics.
Mythologists and scholars of symbolism help decipher our cultural treasures and sad to note that such disciplines are unknown in our schools or academic institutions.
No individual or institution has so far given us any comprehensive treatment of mythology and symbolism of Kashmiri culture. There are some beliefs that besides having symbolism in the background help in preserving biodiversity though we need to be cautious regarding any reductionist/pragmatist account of myths that interpret away the connection with the Sacred. For instance, if some had stolen eggs of oriole would suffer blindness that would be transmitted for generations.
Kashmiris have lived for millennia on narratives thatprojected fellowship of wild animals and men – tigers accompanying saints orpaying respects at shrines every Friday night –, Agerpacehen a large birdoffering its wings in times of crisis, Yaech (probably a wild cat who proppedup anywhere during cold nights–spiritually arid – offering a spiritual treasure(gold) to those who mastered the art of self giving or hospitality.
We know there have been, in traditional cultures, narrativeshighlighting animals performing invaluable functions for humans, displayingintuition and care. In fact few Muslims now are conscious that animals havebeen considered as divine messengers of lessons for humanity in Islamictradition.
Allah says, “There are [manifest] signs [of truth] in thecreation of [humanity and numerous types of] animals scattered [on the earth]for those who believe [in Allah].” (45:4) In fact the Qur’an has “over two hundred verses thatdeal with animals” and emphasizes that animals have been created as communitiesand have power of communication and thus deserve the honorific title ofrational creatures who have their share in the life of reason and spirit.
Animals receive a kind of revelation according to the Quran.A death of an animal is death of a part of oneself. Ibn Arabi asserted that fora gnostic every insect is a sort of messenger. It is instructive to note inthis connection that in Kashmir animals have been prized for extra-economicreasons as well and are for living with, for certain fellowship and not justfor living at the cost of or means of livelihood.
Symbolist view of animals is incompatible with the tenor of industry farming for reasons that have been elaborated by various scholars who are not necessarily vegetarians.
Sacrificing animals as a ritual is a demand few can fulfill in this iron age and one finds that is ritualism devoid of spirit that has been reigning to the detriment of both religion and environment. So far ethics has been largely absent in the discourse of industry farming in the Muslim world.
Kashmiri society is somewhat more remarkable in being loyal, to a certain extent, certain associations of symbolist view of things and that has informed, to an extent, its current practices in livestock sector. The world in general and Muslim world in particular need take cognizance of this view to comprehend persistent attitudes of people and design its policies and curriculum accordingly.