The Merchant and his Clever Parrot

There was a certain merchant who kept a parrot in a cage.

Being about to travel to Hindustan on business, he asked the parrot if it had any message to send to its kinsmen in that country, and the parrot desired him to tell them that it was kept confined in a cage.

The merchant promised to deliver this message, and on reaching Hindustan, duly delivered it to the first flock of parrots he saw.

On hearing it one of them at once fell down dead.

The merchant was annoyed with his own parrot for having sent such a fatal message, and on his return home sharply rebuked his parrot for doing so.

The parrot no sooner heard the merchant's tale than it too fell down dead in its cage.

The merchant, after lamenting his death, took his corpse out of the cage and threw it away.

To his surprise, the parrot immediately recovered life, and flew away, explaining that the Hindustani parrot had only feigned death to suggest this way of escaping from confinement in a cage.

From The Masnavi by Maulana Rumi

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The analogy of this story is similar to the plight of our soul.

The soul is imprisoned in this body and True Masters or Saints of the Highest order come to this world with the message of "die to live".

Only when we "die" while living - that is to achieve God consciousness while in this body - only then can we be free from this mortal world and work our way towards self-realization and ultimately God Realization.

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