Critters

By Jagabandhu das

A couple of years before he passed away in 2000, our good friend Rsabdev Prabhu (formerly with Spiritual Sky and the husband of Mother Kunkum) sent us a picture of Mahaprabhu with the deer from the cover of Sri Chaitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila Volume Seven, which we framed and have worshipped ever since. Throughout my entire live I’ve always been drawn to the Wild and her creatures—so I especially liked hearing stories of St. Francis of Assissi’s love for wild creatures when I was growing up. It made me very happy to hear of Mahaprabhu’s affectionate reciprocation with forest critters.

We used to have a lot of deer visit us where we last lived in La Crosse. One did once come right to our dining room window to peer in at us—strange creatures that we must seem to them. We heard that if you become too friendly with them it puts them at risk from those who might wish to lure them to do them harm (like hunters). So we never got too close. But we used to see them bring their new fawns to play and run around—chasing each other as if they were playing tag, like small children.

We have a critter feed spot now on the edge of our woods about thirty feet from the house where we put out scraps, leftovers & sometimes freshly cooked food to share. I chant to them as I put the food out. Especially “Hari! Hari!,” done tonally like a big frog—along with Namo maha-vadanyaya…

It’s sort of created a social spot for raccoons especially—who are sometimes so human-like that they remind me of little yogis. We’ve seen as many as seven out there at a time. We also put out water for them. We have a young female that just sort of hangs around waiting for her meals. She would allow hand-feeding if we tried. If we haven’t yet put food out she comes closer to the house to get our attention for which I apologize as I immediately stop whatever else I was doing and bring her something nice to eat. Recently she was just sitting, waiting with her back against a pine tree—like a little yogi. My wife even saw her put her tiny human-like palms together—as if she were offering pranams.

They seem to especially like bread soaked in dahl, rice & beans of any kind and pizza. Sometimes families of foxes wander through and partake. In the morning cardinals and other birds eat the spare grains of rice. The spot is cleaned by them before we put out more food the next afternoon and evening. Although all our neighbors have had to contrive various garbage can security systems—the raccoons haven’t molested our garbage even one time in all the years we’ve been here.

I’ve also noticed how we live in a sort of squirrel heaven because they seem to thrive to a prolific degree. It amazes me to see how they appear to be “saying grace”—almost prayerfully as they hold their tiny paws before themselves while they stand eating. At other times it’s almost as if they like to pay dandavats as they stretch out towards the house.

There’s a general warning about rabies and wild critters (especially foxes and raccoons). However, apparently researchers have discovered that a raccoon’s friendliness towards humans is more likely a genetic pre-disposition caused after generations of co-habitating near humans, rather than the frequent consensus that a friendly raccoon is acting strangely in a way unusual to their normal wild healthy state and therefore possibly rabid.

Sometimes we’ll be watching a movie and nonetheless become distracted by watching the critters eating instead. I feel like we’re paying token tribute to the primal nature spirits when I feed them. And although we’re very friendly and affectionate to them we respect their distance and never come too close.

Sometimes in the evenings we have hundreds of vultures roosting in the tree canopy of our woods. As it gets dark you can still hear their wings flapping in an almost sinister (as in Yamaduttas) leathery way (like the winged monkeys in The Wizard of Oz) as they resettle to a more comfortable position for a night’s rest.

I’ve thought of getting a video camera to film them and other critters in our vicinity. I often see otters out on the river across the lane from our house. It turns out that our river has the biggest fresh water turtle population in the world (that they finally outlawed commercial trapping). I sing Keshava dhrta kurma sarire to them as I float by on my raft. Yesterday morning I saw a tiny alligator (less than 4ft from head to tail) timidly hiding just below the water’s surface with only it’s eyes above water. It lived in the same area last year.

While floating out on the river I’ve heard cranes chant “Raam!” as they flew off from the bank and crows trying to chant Krishna and Rama, as if they had a speech impediment or cleft palate. And I think how this river (the Santa Fe) was flowing here in the same way five hundred years ago when Mahaprabhu manifest His Divine Pastimes.

We had a cat that lived with us for eighteen years (coast to coast) who chanted “Raam” instead of meowing. When she finally passed away it was in bed between me and my wife while listening to Srila Prabhupada chant the Brahma-samhita. My wife actually heard the her brahma-rudra chakra pop in the top of her head as she passed on. We immediately took her garlanded body to the temple room and chanted the whole 70 verse Prema-dhama Stotra by Srila Sridhar Maharaj and the passing of Haridas Thakur from Srila Prabhupada’s Sri Chaitanya-caritamrta. The next morning we cremated her remains on a pyre in our back yard as Srila Prabhupada continued to chant Chintamani. Immediately following we piled in to the car and drove to St. Augustine listening to Srila Prabhupada chant the Brahma-samhita the whole way before we waded out into the surf and gave her ashy remains to the ocean. I loved her so much that I can still hardly bear to speak of her passing…