The Miracle of Father Dog: Lord Jagannatha’s Compassion to His Devotee

This is one of the saddest miracles I have witnessed, nevertheless it is another miracle performed by Lord Jagannatha for his dear devotee and should be narrated. Not all miracles have externally happy endings.

This dog is named Father Dog, and he has been coming to our temple for many years. He lives outside on the corner with 3 other dogs, but comes every single day to our temple. Among all the dogs he is the kindest to both humans and other dogs. He never fights with anyone, and I have never had to get angry with him even once in all the years I have known him. Because he was such a nice dog, I always called him “Father Dog”.

Lately he started doing the funniest thing, where every day he would jump inside the tubs of drinking water for the cows, and then start splashing his legs super fast to shoot all the water in the air. Every time I would fill up fresh water, if he saw it, he would run up, jump inside the tub, and with his whole body, splash all the water 5 or 6 feet up in the air, making himself and everyone around soaking wet.

He became so happy by doing it so I could never be angry. Every time he did it I would have to empty out the dirty water, wash the tubs and fill them up again. Once he did it to three tubs side by side, all in a span of 1 minute, making me have to wash all three and refill them all with water.

Because of this unique habit of taking a bath three times a day, some people started calling him Nana Dog (“brahmin priest” dog), since he would take a bath three times a day like temple priests do.

Father Dog sleeping with the visiting street cows.

In the past I had treated him a number of times for cuts and injuries, and a couple years ago his foot had been ran over by a motorcycle so we had treated his injured foot at the time as well.

This month on the day of Bahuda Yatra when I went out to prepare for Jagannatha’s chariot to be pulled I saw Father Dog lying inside our front gate blocking the path, crying in extreme pain. I could hardly recognize him as his face and body were covered in mud.

Later I could find that he had been hit by a car or motorcycle the day before, and three of his legs were injured, so he couldn’t walk at all. He had managed to crawl on his stomach for the entire day to finally reach our gate and then collapsed as he got inside. His entire body and face was covered by mud because he had to drag his body on the ground since his legs were injured and he couldn’t stand.

He was in a lot of pain when he arrived and with great difficulty we got him onto a jute sack and carried him inside our animal recovery room. We brought him food and he was very hungry, he must not have eaten from the prior day. I inspected his wounds and could see three legs were injured, but no sign of broken bones, so I thought he would be fine in a couple weeks or a month if we just kept him isolated in the recovery room.

There was also a separate wound on his hind leg that was infected, and it was a bite wound, a single tooth hole. It was odd seeing two separate types of injuries (the car injury and the dog bite wound), but I didn’t think much of it at the time.

I immediately started feeding him antibiotics to deal with the infected bite wound, and it began healing very quickly and was fine by the third day. The injured legs also were getting better. He still couldnt stand, but he wasn’t in any pain and was eating well. He would wag his tail when I would enter the room to bring him his food and pet him.

On the 7th day I noticed his symptoms had begun to change. The bite wound had healed and the car injury was healing, but suddenly he stopped being able to eat and water started pouring from his mouth nonstop. He wanted to eat and tried to lick the food, but his mouth had stopped working and was becoming paralyzed. This change was very rapid, one day he was fine, and the next day he couldn’t move his mouth. At this point I realized that he had rabies and he only had a few days left to live.

Father Dog sleeping with some of the visiting street cows.

Here is where the miracle becomes clear. Even though the symptoms had not yet manifested, Father Dog already had been infected with rabies and would have died all alone in the street, suffering in the rain, completely neglected. Having been a constant visitor to Lord Jagannatha’s temple for years, having eaten prasadam every day for years, Lord Jagannatha showed special mercy on him and arranged that he would not be alone in his final moments.

If he had not been hit by a car, we never would have brought him inside and locked him in the recovery room, where he could pass his last days in an auspicious environment. Because of the car injury, he was put in a situation where he would be taken care of, while also being safely isolated so he wouldn’t infect his other friends and family with the deadly disease.

Each day we put charanamrita in his mouth, and 24 hours a day we played Srila Prabhupada’s recording of Hare Krishna kirtan so he could hear it in his final moments. A few feet away the sacred yajna kunda burned, and we performed Gita Yajna for his benefit, praying for his quick deliverance.

As the days went by his symptoms progressed. There are two types of rabies, and by our good luck he had the rarer paralysis variety rather than the aggressive variety, so he did not make any attempt to bite us, making it easier for us to tend to him.

Each day we performed yajna oblations for him, chanted chapters of the Bhagavad Gita for him, and sprinkled water mixed with charanamrita and tulasi mud around the entire area he was staying as well as on his body. The last three days he was unable to eat or drink due to the paralysis. We would chant nearby and pray to Lord Jagannatha to deliver him to a higher destination Every now and then I would call out loudly to him, “Father Dog, Hare Krishna” and he would slightly wag his tail hearing me. Up till the final day he could hear me and would wag his tail a little bit despite being in pain. On the last day he could no longer react, but I keep calling to him. After he left his body, we buried him in the temple garden, and placed tulasi and flower prasadam on his body, along with sacred ash from the yajna kunda and charanamrita.

Father Dog (on the right) sleeping with Shambhu the Bull.

This was not the happiest miracle to witness, but to me its clearly a miracle directed by Lord Jagannatha to protect his dear devotee. Father Dog had already been bitten and infected with rabies without anyone knowing it, and he would have died alone in the streets in a horrible circumstance. Instead because he got randomly hit by a car at the same time, he was isolated and locked in a safe temple environment where he could be allowed to die in relatively good circumstances surrounded by people who loved him. He would be able to leave his body while hearing Hare Krishna kirtan and having charanamrita put in his mouth, and after his body would be respectfully buried with auspicious flowers from Lord Jagannatha.

In hindsight, the single tooth bite wound on his leg which we noticed when he first arrived was the source of his rabies infection. Even though we could cure the infected wound externally, the virus itself is incurable Tomorrow me and one other devotee will go to the government hospital to start a course of the rabies vaccine, because prior to knowing his condition we had to touch his infected saliva when wiping his mouth and face.

It’s been a tough year. We lost so many animal friends, dogs, cows, and even close human friends and sadhus. Father Dog was one of our favorite visitors to the temple and will be really missed.

This photo (at the top) was taken when we first brought him in for isolation, before any symptoms had manifested.

Hare Krishna.