Spirituality of Cat Lovers

Varanasi, on the Ganges
Varanasi, on the Ganges, where the Hindu dead are burned (cremated) by their hundreds every week on pyres. Photo: Nevil Zaveri

Whether they know it or not genuine cat lovers have an inner spirituality. Most people are disconnected from the idea of spirituality. For me spirituality is a connection with nature which is a connection with our roots. Ultimately we are born of the earth. The domestic cat is a wonderful example of the beauty and force of nature. Cat lovers often accept this instinctively without realising it.

The Ganges is a famous river in the north of India. It meets the sea in India and in Bangladesh. Hindus call it “Ganga”; it is considered holy by them. Ganga is revered. Yet it is desecrated by Indians as they pollute it with poisons and heavy metals from the tanning industry and sewage.

In India, the cow is sacred but it is quietly and illegally slaughtered en masse for its skin. No one is caught and prosecuted. The sentence is 7 years in jail but the business is worth billons of dollars and as I said it pollutes Ganga with poisons which kills all life in this holy river.

The holiness and life force of the mighty Ganges is being destroyed and no one talks about it. This is symptomatic of much of what we do. We seek spirituality – a meaning in life – but then destroy nature from which we can find that elusive meaning and sustenance.

People wash in the Ganges. It brings them peace and wellbeing or it would but for the poisons in it.

However, there is an impressive spirituality in many Indian people and in the Westerners who go to India to live permanently. They say that in the West people are always chasing the next fix whereas if you live next to the Ganges and immerse yourself in its spirituality you just ‘are’. You accept who you are and what you are doing. You cease to chase the impossible.

The gurus say that Ganga is like a charger for a battery. If you spend time next to it and embrace its energy and life force you will be recharged.

And so to the domestic cat. Many cat lovers find that Ganga-like peace, calm and recharging of batteries when with their cat companion. These people are connecting with nature because the domestic cat is really a wild cat in disguise. There it is: the wild and nature next to you.

This is the healing power of nature and one of the great benefits and pleasures of caring for a domestic cat.

13 thoughts on “Spirituality of Cat Lovers”

  1. The author of the best comment will receive an Amazon gift of their choice at Christmas! Please comment as they can add to the article and pass on your valuable experience.
  2. I totally agree with Dee, Spirituality is different from Religiosity, we don’t have to be Religious to be Spiritual.
    I don’t go to Church as I don’t think of God as a person, I think Nature is God, I see ‘Him’ in animals and birds and flowers and trees etc. In Churches here it’s all see and be seen and chatter and noise. I’d rather sit in a beautiful peaceful place and just ‘be’
    I don’t know how people can call themselves Christians yet not care about animals.
    I think some of our PoC family are indeed ‘Holy’
    by this definition ‘regarded with or worthy of worship or veneration’
    There are some people here who I admire very much 🙂

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  3. So many people confuse spirituality with religiosity.
    They are completely different.
    Spirituality denotes a connection with all living things, a sense that no entity is greater than another. It is a sense of wellbeing with one’s self and the surroundings. Hence, a cat caretaker sees the cat as equal but with characteristics that are “only cat” and avoids comparison with themselves or any other creature.
    Religiosity is rigid, with strict rules dictated from men who have interpreted a book (Bible)to be law.

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  4. Waaah! great article!

    Michael! don’t you think that you sound a little bit holy now a days? 😉

    well Ganga is my favorite river too and add Jamna with that. <3

    Thank you <3

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