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Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

Date: Tue Apr 29, 2003 6:41 am
Subject: The Parrot & The Sage om_namah_shi...

http://www.sulekha.com/chpost.asp...ilosophy&show=0&cid=57465

A king was holding court in which many theologians were debating
issues. Suddenly a man came running into the court and announced that
a great sage had come to town and was staying near the bank of the
river. Everyone wanted to visit the sage and ask him spiritual
questions. In the king's court there was a parrot in a cage. He asked
one of the king's men to ask the sage a question on his behalf:

"Ask him, how can I be released?".

The man asked the sage the question. On hearing the question the sage
swooned and fell into the river. He stayed in a swoon for the whole
day. The people were very distressed. The man reported this incident
to the parrot and told him off for making the saint suffer.

On hearing the story the parrot too swooned and fell off the perch of
his cage with outstretched wings. The people thought the shock of the
story had killed the parrot and hence it was only right to throw the
body away. As they threw the body away the parrot recovered and flew
away. The people were taken aback by the whole incident.
They decided to ask the sage about it.

The sage said, "The parrot was very intelligent, he wanted to find a
way to escape from the cage. By swooning, I gave him a signal that he
must pretend to be dead. That is what he did and as you tried to
throw his body away, he made his escape.

The story can be viewed in a subtler manner:-

If we wish to gain release from our bonds, our sufferings we too have
to learn to 'die'. The attachment we have for our bodies has to die.
Unless we make this distinction there is no release from
suffering. "We are the body" - that thought has to die - then we gain
release and recognise ourselves not as the body but the Self.

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