Can we Animals realize the concept of GOD?

When it came to myths and legends surrounding Guruvayoor and its legendary temple, my father always had his favourite story to tell. The story, nay saga of Guruvayoor Kesavan. The elephant par extraordinaire. For people who haven't heard about him please visit this link here: Guruvayoor Kesavan

As a child it was a story about how devotion and piety is a part of our lives. As I grew older and peeled away the layers of sanctimonious BS that accompanies these stories a question persisted in me . When Kesavan decided to prostrate in front of Guruvayoorappan did he know he was doing that in front of GOD? In other words did an "animal" of apparent lesser intelligence grasp the meaning of GOD, something that religion claims to be uniquely 'human'. (There are a lot of things that are uniquely human - all of which require a seperate discussion. Genocide comes to mind!!)

Coming back to the point, I realize that there could be a couple of answers one can come up with - all of which i consider feasible depending upon the audience that you talk to.

One. The elephant was truly pious. He had realized that the diety held some sort of power and surrendered to it. ( I can almost feel my intellect shaking its head at me as I write this one)

Two. The elephant was merely mimicking human behavior. Kesavan must have seen innumerable humans come in front of the idol and fall down prostrate while in distress or pain. His instincts told him to do just the same.

Three. He was a creature of habit. When in trouble he was always brought to the temple and tied up there. He just did that when he felt his heart go weak.

Four. He just wandered into the temple by accident. This is highly unlikely as eye-witnesses attest to it as a deliberate act. But a possibility nonethesame as eye-wtinesses are impaired by what they 'see' or what they 'want to see'.

What all these questions lead me to ask is my own sense of GOD. Is he an entity that I believe to exist and not understand ever.(Agnostic) or is he merely an amalgamation of ideas that exist as a result of continued ignorance of inherited customs and non-examined beliefs (Supestitious) or is God someone who is out there waiting for us to figure it all out for ourselves (Gnostic).

Either way I'd like to remember Kesavan and Guruvayoorappan with the following Malayalam saying that I shall transliterate below.

"Aanaye pedikkaam, aana pinndatheyo???"

(One should fear the elephant, but elephant shit???)

Just food for thought to all those charlatans who interpret God for me, be it in the Temple, Mosque, Church or Gurudwara.

In Nomeni Patri Et Fili Spiritus Sancti.

And all other Beings that matter--- I warn thus.

We must always fear the wicked. But there is another kind of evil that we must fear the most, and that is the indifference of good men.

Read this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7445570.stm

Better standards for sportscasting in the blogoshpere.

I have just completed watching an HBO show called Costas Now. I just saw a heated discussion between a respected sports writer and a sports blogger. The writer was complaining about the deceitful and derogatory tones of blogs. The writer cited certain particular posts which identified a respectable sportscaster as a "Fuckface" and "rat's ass". Braylon Edwards of the Cleveland Browns also cited the blog posting pictures, send by an "independent reporter", of Matt Lienhart shooting bong at a house party. The blogger defended his website with the opinion that the old guard should ligten up and take some of the low brow material with better humor.

My opinion in the whole thing is thus. If the old guard and respectable journalists who have busted their backs through journalism school and the back offices of traditional broadcasting media needs a better standard from the still nascent blogosphere, then get in and change the media yourself. Its easy to play the blame game from the outside but here's a thought. How about the respected journalists trade a type-writer for a keyboard, a newspaper for a weblog, traditional media for the internet.

Maybe we will see better standards.

Always be the change you wish to see in this world --------- Mahatma Gandhi.