Mukunda Goswami Sanga

A moment's association is the most precious gift...

Founder-Acharya: His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Cat & Mouse

In a lecture at Bhaktivedanta Manor in August,1973, Srila Prabhupada was lecturing on BG 2.13. He used the example of how the cat carries a kitten by its neck, and contrasted it with how the same cat catches a mouse by the neck. He used this example to show how devotees view death differently from non-devotees. This is what he said. "No, there is difference. There is difference. This has been described by the example: just like a cat catches its cub and catches the mouse. So formerly we see that the cat has caught the mouse in the mouth and the cub also in the mouth, but there are difference of catching. The cub is feeling pleasure, 'My mother is carrying me.' And the mouse is feeling death knell, 'Oh, now I am going to die.' This is the difference. So although a devotee is dying and nondevotee is dying, there is difference of feeling at the time of death. Like the mouse and the cub. And don't consider that both of them are dying in the same process. The process may be same, but the situation is different."