Gospel According to Dora

Dora

Dora, my two-month-old kitten, loves freedom more than my pampering. Now she spends most of her time on the terrace by herself or with her mother. Hunger brings her down to me. She draws my attention by rubbing herself against my calves and then goes and sits in front of the cupboard where cat food is kept. Instead, if she goes and sits in the kitchen, it means she needs fish. She is my master, not the other way around.

“Don’t be such a dimagi naxal,” I tell her. She ignores me with obvious contempt. I understand what she’s trying to tell me with that look. I am a free individual. Authority exists to safeguard the liberty of every citizen rather than to restrict it.

When I try to convince her about our country’s glorious ancient civilisation and its present Vishwaguru status, she hops onto my lap with a big yawn. There is no polite hesitation, not even a glance hinting at permission-seeking, and no question of checking to see if I am in the mood to entertain her. She decides that right now my lap is the warmest and most logical place to be at this moment.  

She lives in the moment. With no concern for ancestors and their historical conquests. Try preaching religion to her and she will give you that big bored yawn again. She doesn’t need any god or religion. There’s nothing much that she needs. She is not “demented with the mania of owning things.” No slogans, no ideologies, no quarrels.

When she wants affection, she takes it. When she wants solitude, she claims it. She doesn’t jump onto my lap because she owes me something, nor does she stay there out of any feeling like gratitude or guilt. She exists entirely in the present tense, unburdened by the need to prove her worth or pay rent for her existence.

Dora doesn’t seek permission to warm herself in the sun. She simply recognises that the sun is warm, and she is there to feel it. Jump in, soak up the warmth, and walk away when she’s done – completely, beautifully whole.

She teaches me the freedom of unconditioned being. That is the gospel according to Dora.