Pigeons feeding in the Ram-Anjenaya temple premises. Picture: Ashok Kumar S

I saw a person on the premises of Ramanjaneya temple at Basavangudi, Bengaluru. He looked to me like a middle-aged person; he must have been in his 50s. He had come there to walk, like everybody else.

He carried with him a bag of food. The bag contained wheat grains, bread, milk and water. I wondered why he had brought along all this food, and whom did he bring it for. I continued watching him, to know what he was up to, and find out what he was going to do.

A flock of pigeons flew inside the temple premises; I don’t know whether they saw him coming to the temple or not. He seemed very glad to see them flying in. He scattered the wheat grains on the ground and poured water into a small rock container. The happy pigeons began to eat and drink. 

The man however, was not done yet; he was in fact getting busier. He walked up to the dogs near the temple and fed them bread and milk.

Would you believe this? This person comes every day and feeds the pigeons, dogs and other animals that live around there. He has been doing so for the past 15 years. I was quite amazed when I heard this from him. What a way to look after and cherish animals!

What struck me when I saw this was that we people do so many good things and bad things, knowingly or unknowingly. As time moves on, they may fade surprisingly and people tend to forget all the good deeds, maybe even the bad. 

The gentleman who feeds the animals, might have experienced the real essence of self-satisfaction in what he has been doing. And therefore, he continues to do so. This gave me an assurance that it is only self-satisfaction that walks along with us, all the time. This helps us move towards what is good and makes us feel satisfied with every bit of it.