Sri Rudram and the Purushasuktam are a pair of mellifluous Vedic hymns that can readily waft us to ethereal spiritual heights. Text with word-for-word meaning and brief notes from classic Sanskrit commentaries.
Those who die, merely suffering the woes of life like cats and dogs, are they human beings? The worthy are those who, even when agitated by the sharp interaction of pleasure and pain, are discriminating and, knowing them to be of an evanescent nature, become passionately devoted to the Atman. This is all the difference between human beings and animals.
-Swami Vivekananda