YJA Convention 1994 07 Chicago IL First

Author(s): Young Jains of America (YJA)
Publisher: Young Jains of America YJA USA

Page 58

The "Auto biography" of a Goat
By Gopinath Agarwal
towards our death.
Like all other animals, after traversing through many rebirths, when I entered into my mother goat's womb, and suffered the ignonimity of being encaged there for five months and took birth, I found this world a nice pleasant place to live in. Man and his little children treated me with affection, held me in their laps and gave me tender green leaves to eat. Drinking my goat mother's milk, I began to grow quickly. Her master used to pet me and take me to his farm, where I used to feed myself on green leaves. He was not annoyed even when I evacuated my body-waste in his field. When I asked my mother the reason for this, I was told that our waste turns into manure for his plants, giving him great yield. That is why he was never angry with me.
Time continued to pass gradually and I went on living contentedly with my companions. After about a year and a half, a stranger came to my master. They talked for some time and then my master brought together about 40-50 of my companions and we were made to stand in a group. A big van arrived and we were forcibly thrust into it. I wanted to go to my mother, but could not. When I moved towards her, an ugly-looking man hit me with a stick. Helplessly we squeezed ourselves into the van. My head began to reel due to overcrowding. My companions were also in bad shape. Fear was writ large on everybody's face and jerks caused by the moving vehicles were scratching our skins. The day went by and night fell and another day and night passed but the van was constantly on the move. Twice the van-owners threw us some food but it barely sufficed to fill half of our bellies. The next day, the van stopped in a big city. A tall, bearded man approached the van, he gave the van-owner something and we were all turned over to him. Our new master drove us with sticks to a house. He made all of us stand in the sun. Restlessness caused by sunshine, hunger and thirst, and the fear of the stick were driving us
After a long wait we were pushed into the house. A man sitting there was examining my companions with some tube attached to his ears. When our turn came, our owner gave him something, and he sent us inside without checking. I could not understand this but a senior companion of mine told me that he was a doctor and it meant our death was approaching. Already half-deadfrom the hunger, thirst, and tiredness, I lost my appetite upon hearing this and could not swallow whatever little was given to us. Even water hurt rather then soothing my throat. The door of an adjoining room was opened and what I saw made me tremble with terror. My legs refused to carry my weight and darkness appeared before my eyes. Cries and wails of my companions coming out of that room made me weep. tried to cry but the voice would not come out of my mouth. I tried to run out but a man caught hold of both my hind legs and threw me into that room, where a horrible person looking like a giant was slitting the throat of one of my companions with a massive knife. Suddenly a thought flashed in my mind. Is this the same man who claims to be the descendent of sages and saints and who always sings the songs of pity and non-violence? No, this can not be the same man because even wild animals, who are solely dependent on flesh diet, never indulge in such mass killing as he was doing. While such thoughts were passing through my mind, a man caught hold of my ears and pushed me towards the horrible m an. The pain now turned my fear into rage; I tried to pull myself away, but in vain. My frustration resulted in the boiling of my blood; froth started oozing from my mouth and involuntarily I passed urine and solid waste. But no one took pity on my helpless condition. Rather two other persons caught hold of me. One caught me by the legs and the other one started cutting my throat with a dagger. A
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