The confiscation, which you see in the Jatayu –series video happened in October 2007 - after all my attempts to cooperate with owners of this magnificent, but unhappy bird, failed. A bit of history.. The bird - Brahmini Kite (Haliastur indus) - was kept for more than 7 years in a cage. Last was both dirty and also very small, so that bird couldn't even fly.
As it is usually done in Bali, all years that animal was imprisoned,
there was no any opportunity for it to meet mates, or to have children. This
way not only many animals suffer without any reason in
But Kadek
preferred to simply make garlands for God's stones and portraits in Komang's home, and to serve food etc., and she found
herself always too busy to validate my words.. I kept
telling all people who visit this “Sai-Center”, that - according to Baba - God resides in everyone, and
that, while singing praise to Him is itself a good thing, we must PRACTICE what
we sing. LOVE ALL: this is main message of Bhagavan
Baba. There is also meditation on light, recommended by Baba to all His
followers. In this meditation we send light of love to all beings in Universe.. All this means: our common
little love, that we have for ourselves and our families, must expand
gradually, and must include all beings and everything that exists. Because God
(or Brahman) is All what exists in each and every
place. This is the basis of Sanatana Dharma (literally:
the Eternal Religion) which Baba teaches. From biography of our Teacher one
can easily see that - right from His childhood – stopping all violence towards
animals was one of His priority tasks. There are hundreds evidences in words of
Baba, published in hundreds of books, discourses etc. There is even a movie
about childhood of Bhagavan, in which we see Him freeing
animals from cages. Many obstacles were made to Baba by his co-villagers when
He started His mission. Many hated Him. But, nevertheless, He finally prevented
cruelty to animals in His home place. Thanks Baba: non-vegetarianism,
cock-fights, bull races and other such cruel practices are now finished off in Puttaparthi (Baba's home village). Well, even though before
my coming to Kedonganan there was no rule to discuss
life and teachings of Sai Baba after bhajans, some of those people, to whom I addressed my
words, knew about Baba teaching of non-violence, and many even practiced it.
Nearly half of them were vegetarians. And most of them didn't (and don't) keep
any animal in cage.. This is why I often join them
during bhajans, and sometimes also take food with
them. However, the so-called bird's “owners” had very strong feelings of “I”
and “mine”, and last prevented them from doing at least small thing to improve
condition of “their” animal. I asked Kadek: “How
about you? Imagine yourself in bird's situation.
Will you be happy to have opportunity to listen for devotional songs from a
little dirty toilet? (to
what this dirty cage could be compared) Or
will you prefer freedom?” Now Kadek seemed to
understand. She asked same question her leader Mr. Komang.
But he ignored her words – just as he did earlier with mine. Instead of at
least extending size of cage, he invested more money into extending the area
for “devotional” singing. They also found funds for installing new Ganesha sculpture near the cage - as if one's aim was to
demonstrate complete ignorance about basics of Baba's teachings. I had no
choice, but to observe such miserable state of things for quite a long period
of time. I stopped participate in any activities associated with Ganesha stone during this time, but I kept trying to
influence minds of these people. Calmly and friendly, I asked “owners”:
“Alright. If you don't want to help the bird, why don't you at least let me
arrange better location for it? At least don't teach little children about God
here. Don't spoil their tender minds! Don't call this place a
So I had to bring special police and just
confiscated the bird. Subsequently, last was moved to special
You
can check
out this story: how Baba freed animals while He was a child
