The buzzard never says it is to blame.
The panther wouldn’t know what scruples mean.
When the piranha strikes, it feels no shame.
If snakes had hands, they’d claim their hands were clean.
A jackal doesn’t understand remorse.
Lions and lice don’t waver in their course.
Why should they, when they know they’re right?
Though hearts of killer whales may weigh a ton, in every other way they’re light.
On this third planet of the sun
among the signs of bestiality
a clear conscience is Number One.
— Wislawa Szymborska
Translated by Stanislaw Baraczak and Clare Cavanagh.
Animals are said to be guided by their instinct purely. Their intentions are clear and unerringly natural. Animals, birds, fishes – all organisms take birth, live, die and then take birth, live, die and the cycle continues. As they are reborn as humans, apart from eating, sleeping and fornicating, they also learn to carp, grumble and complain…:-) Now I am sure that no mosquito grumbles about the lack of good blood and no fly cries over (lack of) spilt milk! – it is their need to fulfil their natural urges and the choicelessness that accompanies it that separates them from human beings. And so it is said, that to be born as a human is indeed a matter of luck since you can realize the Divine in this life-form. It is our awareness that differentiates us from the animals. Maybe awareness does not explain this context entirely. A better set of terms would be – our intellect that guides us into making the correct decisions and our mind that directs us towards or away from the right action, whatever *right* means – Awareness is a term that I have loosely used to sum up these terms. Alas, it is the same awareness that taunts us whenever we do anything wrong in complete knowledge. And it is the same awareness that clouds our conscience.
So what would you have – a clear conscience or a high awareness? Not to imply that it has to be one or the other. But remember, every time you violate your conscience, your awareness is not going to let you forget it that soon.
rileen says:
A clear conscience.
Not sure why that would preclude high awareness, though 😕
August 10, 2006 — 8:22 pm
Lakshmi says:
You mean *exclude*? Not sure I understand what preclude means… Like I said, not to imply that it is one or the other.
August 10, 2006 — 8:34 pm
rileen says:
Preclude means “to rule out in advance”. Well, if not mutually exclusive, i’d like both, please 🙂
August 10, 2006 — 8:36 pm
Lakshmi says:
Actually speaking, if your awareness is high and clear, you would be able to take the right decisions and the right actions will follow as well. Consequently, your conscience will have nothing to hide from.
Hmm, being in a state of *high awareness* is wonderful…
August 10, 2006 — 8:43 pm
rileen says:
Now that makes more sense 🙂
August 10, 2006 — 8:44 pm
Lakshmi says:
Lovely poem, huh?
August 10, 2006 — 8:45 pm
rileen says:
That took me by surprise 😛
But yes, nice poem. A weird sounding inference would be that we should strive for bestiality 🙂 !
August 10, 2006 — 8:48 pm
Lakshmi says:
🙂 I knew that would be one of them. It struck me when I first read this one.
August 10, 2006 — 8:56 pm
Lakshmi says:
What I like is the contrasting ideas placed together. Bestiality – something that is not desirable, I suppose, for the word has its own interpretation and clear conscience – utmost desirable.
August 10, 2006 — 8:58 pm
rileen says:
🙂 – indeed, the very title of the poem is like that.
August 10, 2006 — 9:09 pm
Lakshmi says:
Haven’t seen either of the two films you have mentioned. I think animals also have a certain degree of awareness. What they lack is the sense of choice, at least to the extent that humans have. They (animals, birds, etc.) are ruled entirely by their natural instincts and that probably makes their lives simpler and more in tune with nature.
August 11, 2006 — 1:58 am
shri says:
A grey conscience but the awareness that would try to make it clear. 🙂
I think more than the conscience part, I would rate awareness on a higher scale because I believe that to live in today’s world the right choices may not always be, well, right so either by circumstance or by choice we make grey choices which fall somewhere between good and bad. But, what we *can* do though, is to be aware of those choices and their repurcussions on us and on the people who will be affected by our choices. I think that awareness is what makes the difference between a human being and an animal, but unfortunately these days, I feel that barring a few humans, animals are better than us. An example – Have you ever observed that in a jungle, the predators never kill when they are not hungry. As a result, the delicate balance in nature is maintained. But do human beings do that? Nope! It is always the eternal hunger that drives him.
Anyway, I think I have veered quite far off from the topic. 🙂
August 11, 2006 — 2:44 pm
Lakshmi says:
Shri, that is EXACTLY what I was alluding to. Like I was telling, human beings possess the faculty of discrimination given by the intellect. This grants us the luxury of choosing our options and many times, these choices are not necessarily the best ones. We are spoilt for choices, you can say. But animals live in perfect harmony with nature – one of the reasons being that there exists no *right* or *wrong* for them. They simply do what their instincts command them to and live guilt-free… as compared to humans who simply KNOW when they do something wrong and bear the guilt.
August 11, 2006 — 6:50 pm
shashwati says:
>who simply KNOW when they do something wrong and bear the guilt.
Who conditions what is right or wrong? Does an infant *know* right from wrong? I doubt it.
August 11, 2006 — 9:04 pm
Lakshmi says:
I think it is your own upbringing, values and impressions that bring the sense of right and wrong to you. Infants have impressions too but these impressions are latent, I guess. Hence they don’t have that strong a sense of right and wrong. My thoughts, entirely.
August 14, 2006 — 5:46 pm