When
my daughter named him ‘Sidhu’ and I had made it ‘Sidharth Bhairav’, little had I realized
that our Labrador will become my Guru. (Sri Krishna tells Udhava that he had numerous Gurus)
Daily
mornings he takes me for a walk. He
waits till I have my tea and then will not allow me another moment.
He was
only a pup. Street dogs that are in plenty in our area and would encircle us at
certain points that I would not know what to do. Hence, I started carrying a
long stick. It would give some sense of
protection and also enable me to ensure that the pup would not eat up any
unwanted stuff during the walk.
Now
that he has become 6 months old, he has grown more confident.
It happened that we were encircled by around 8 dogs, male, female and their kids all yelling and howling at a particular street and they were about to attack Sidhu. I swiftly took him away on our course. But they would all chase and try to get at him. Then, suddenly the event happened. Sidhu turned around and sat on the road, facing the chasers. Facing them straight like this:
(I do not know when he learnt the technique stated by Swami Vivekananda - facing the brute)
Then all those chasers just stood where they were and continued their barking. Then, they also sat down before him in a semi-circle. There was no noise. Then Sidhu lied on the road just looking at them.
For some time, there was full
calm. One neighbor who had come out of
his house to the road, hearing the noise, was standing and watching the entire
proceedings. After some time, I had to
persuade our gentleman to get up and continue our walk.
If
this was a lesson I learnt, I wanted to put it to test again.
Today
I took him to a place where he had been attacked by one street dog last month. He used to be more aggressive than the others
and had attacked Sidhu. Then I had to
shoo him away with my stick. After that incident I used to avoid going that way
because I understood that he was standing guard to some young pups and was
therefore extra-ferocious.
Today
I took Sidhu to that road again. Again
all those pups and their mother came rushing and barking. Sidhu walked away. Then came the one who had
attacked him earlier. He was charging at him gnashing his teeth and growling. I did not intervene. Sidhu used the same sitting pose on the road,
facing the attacker. The attacker stood
some space away and continued with his barking and gnashing of teeth. Then he also stopped. All of them then sat
down in a semi-circle facing Sidhu and there was peace.
When I
came home I saw the statement of Zelensky that he wanted to sit and talk to
Putin. ‘I will not bite’, says Zelensky.
My
friends say that Sidhu’s technique may not work with all dogs.
I do
not know.
(Note: Since I want to protect the privacy of my latest Guru, the photos used above are not his)
