Few days back someone asked me about significance of dog in sanatana... I got interesting information with one nice story which teaches us a lot,,,proud of that culture which teaches us to respect animals... from cow to dog ... from snake to monkey.... because he is everywhere... so here it goes...
Shvan, a Sanskrit word meaning a dog, finds repeated references in Vedic and later Hindu puranas, and such references include the following:
The female dog of Indra, is named Sarama, and it is mentioned in the Rig Veda. Its offspring became the watch dog of Yama.
Deities like Rudra, Nirriti and Virabhadra are associated with dogs, and an epithet describing Rudra describes him as Shvapati, meaning "master of the dog".
Shiva, in his aspect as Bhairava, had a dog as a vahana (vehicle) (mentioned in the Mahabharata).
Khandoba, a deity, is associated with a dog on which he rides.
Dattatreya is associated with four dogs, considered to symbolize the four Vedas.
Dog is one of the sublime symbols of the Veda. The dog represents the faculty to listen, to listen far, and to listen to the subtle. The dogs have a better ability to listen than the humans. They are alert to listen and are also able to listen much more than the humans. In the esoteric practices, one of the foremost practice is, to make the student listen, more than speak. To listen far, to listen to the subtle, would lead one to clairaudience, and it would further lead to listen to the Voice of the Silence. Listening to the Voice of Silence is called listening to Anahata the Heart Centre, where the subtle sound coming through the ether can be received and perceived.Even some folk says dogs can see angels of death.
Yudhishthira, one of the Pandavas, insisted that he be allowed to enter Svarga (the Heaven) with his Shvan. When both of them entered the heaven, the dog transformed itself into Yama.
Here there is story of dharma and yudhisthira…
Yudhisthira finally stood at Indra's chariot. Indra loomed over Yudhisthira - a noble and skilled man - and his trusty companion, an ugly dog that had joined him one day on his trek while he was resting under a tree, alone and tired. He had lost his brothers on the journey - one by one they died - from starvation, the bone chillingly cold nights and the brutality of the heat during the day. One by one they were taken from him. It was when his last brother perished that he found himself at his lowest, under that lonely tree, when the dog appeared to him and never left.
They had been searching for Indra's chariot on that mountain to take them the final way to the gates of heaven. Yudhisthira and his brothers had heard finding this place, this paradise, would bring them peace. They were brave men and many believed they could make the journey through the treacherous mountains but in the end it was Yudhisthira alone, with his trusted dog, had made it.
Together he and the dog had passed over jagged rocks that cut them, hot sand that burned, painful thorns from unwelcoming bushes, and deep mud that threatened to suck them in and not let them go. When they found food - sometimes Yudhisthira finding it, sometimes the dog – they always shared it. When neither found food, they starved together. And as sometimes only loneliness can bring to two creatures, it brought Yudhisthira and his dog love. He trusted the dog with his life.
His dog was looking up at him and he patted his head. They had finally made it to the place they were searching, and Indra's voice bellowed out to him, “oh, you finally arrived! I have been waiting for you so long! It's a pleasure to have you here in my chariot, let's fly to heaven.”
Yudhisthira and his dog took a few steps toward the chariot when Indra raised a hand, “But... the dog can't come, look at it, it's old and thin. It's not worthy of my heaven.”
His dog stopped and Yudhisthira looked down at him. The dog laid down at Yudhisthira's side, resting its head on his cracked paws. Yudhisthira looked back up at Indra, “I'm sorry, if the dog can't come with me, we will turn around and go back now. I thank you for your invitation, but I cannot leave this animal. He has been my faithful companion during this journey.”
Yudhisthira headed back down the mountain, the long arduous path they had just come.
“Stop,” Indra cried out.
Yudhisthira turned and discovered not his dog on the ground where it had been, but the dog transformed back into its real shape: the God Dharma.
“Now you can come, this was your final test and you showed that you deserve to come with me.” Indra opened the doors to the chariot and Yudhisthira stepped in. Indra closed the door and off they went.
This tale teaches that the dharma is the only way through which a person can find peace. One must follow the path of righteousness because of its intrinsic value and not because he or she will win the right to paradise in exchange of being good. When one does right things thinking about the reward, it means that nothing was really learned or achieved.
There are many people that do good things for fear of being punished or for hoping that one day they might deserve God's shelter, but according to the Hindu philosophy, this is the wrong reason behind a good action and has no value as sooner or later, every person will have to face their real motivation.
If there was no heaven nor reward, would people still do the right thing? If the answer is "yes," this is a good indication that heaven is near – the state of spirit that frees one from pain by recognizing himself as a drop in the ocean, totally detached from the ego. This is when a person realizes that nobody is completely free until all the others have joined him in paradise.
When Yudhisthira decided that he could not leave his dog, as his duty was to care for the animal that had been faithful to him, he showed that everything that he was doing had an unique purpose: to live according to his dharma, doing the right thing and acting the way he was supposed to act without expecting any reward. Heaven is a natural consequence of the right action – the path of the dharma that leads every person to the nirvana.
Guys dharma means not religion.. it means your duty... which u must do..........
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