The Merchant And The Parrot

Courtesy ~ Hitendra Wadhwa ~ Mentora Institute

Today, I will share with you one of my favorite stories - and from one of my favorite people, Rumi, a Sufi mystic and poet from the 1200s.

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Once upon a time, there lived a merchant in Turkey who had in his home a parrot in a golden cage. He had acquired this parrot during his travels to India.

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The merchant shared a very special bond with the parrot. He would often come over to talk with it, and the parrot would soothe the merchant with its beautiful singing voice.

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One day, the parrot noticed the home abuzz with activity. The merchant was packing his things and asking different people in his family what they wished for him to get for them. Finally, the merchant came over to the parrot, “I will be leaving soon for a trip to distant lands. What would you like me to get for you, dear parrot?”?

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The parrot thought for a moment, then asked the merchant, “Will you be visiting India?”

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“Yes, indeed, I will,” replied the merchant.

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“Then I hope you encounter the parrots of my community there. If you do, please tell them they are in my heart, and that I miss the soaring skies and the joy of being in nature, the things I would experience when I was with them. Ask them, ‘What should I do to recapture that freedom in my life here?’”

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The merchant nodded his head, bid the parrot goodbye, and was gone the next day.

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He returned a month later. The family celebrated his return with a sumptuous dinner, and then opened and gushed at the exotic gifts he had bought for them. Once they retired, the merchant came over to the parrot.

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“Hello, dear parrot. I have missed your singing so much, during this last month.”

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“I too am happy to see you again. Tell me, did you meet anyone from my community?”, asked the parrot eagerly.

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“Indeed I did. I was walking by a fort in Delhi once,” replied the merchant, nodding his head, “and there was a flock of parrots on the tree. They recognized me, and asked me about you.”

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“Did you share my message with them?”

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The merchant nodded again, but this time, he seemed to hesitate.

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“And what did they say?”

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The merchant became very quiet.

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“Did you ask them the question I had given you?”, probed the parrot.

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“Yes, I told them about how much you missed the freedom you had when you were living their life, and that you wanted their advice on how to recapture it. They all became a bit quiet, and sad, to hear this…”

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There was a pause.

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“Was that it…did they not say anything?” asked the parrot.

“Something quite strange and sad happened in that moment.” The merchant seemed quite reluctant to say more.

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“What happened? Tell me.”

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“One of the parrots, as soon as it heard what I had to say, began to shake in a very violent way and then suddenly collapsed and died.”??

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“Oh…” remarked the parrot, becoming very quiet.?

Suddenly, it started to shake very violently, alarming the merchant. Then it fell from its perch in the cage and died.

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The merchant exclaimed, “Oh, how heartless of me! I should not have told you what happened to that other parrot. Now you are dead too! I will miss you so much.”

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The weeping merchant picked up the dead body of the parrot, went to the window, and threw it out. Suddenly the parrot came alive, fluttering its wings, singing once more, and perching itself on a high branch of a nearby tree.

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“You are alive!” cried the merchant, shock mixed with elation. “Come back, dear parrot, to my home and to your golden cage.”

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The parrot shook his head. “Never again, my dear friend, will I live there. I belong here, in nature. Look, I am free, once more!”

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“As soon as you told me what happened,” the parrot continued, “I realized that that parrot had not died, but was just pretending. It wanted to send me a message — if I wish to gain my freedom, I have to first die to the life I have been living at present — the comfort of my cage, the joy of singing for you, the sweetness of our conversations. It is only by dying to those little pleasures that I would regain the freedom my soul has been yearning for.”

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Do you, from time to time, experience a yearning to live a fuller life? What habits and friendships and attachments and comforts are keeping you locked in your golden cage, holding you back from spreading your wings and soaring upward to your soul’s full potential? What part of you do you need to walk away from, what part of you needs to die, for you to awaken to who you truly are?

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There is a subtle supplemental lesson we can draw from this story.?

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Did you notice how the merchant carrying the message from the parrot in India did not actually grasp the message himself? The hidden meaning behind the Indian parrot’s action was lost on him but was decoded by the parrot in Turkey.

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This method has often been used by illumined teachers across the ages. They have brought higher truths to humanity, truths many people in their times may not have been ready to assimilate or accept. To preserve the integrity of their ideas, they have clothed their teachings in allegorical forms, as parables that people would enjoy and pass on from one generation to the next, without discovering or distorting their deeper meaning. When true seekers, like the parrot in Turkey, come across such a parable, they are able to decode its true meaning either through their own awoken intuition, or through the help of another illumined teacher.

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So next time you encounter a parable from an ancient epic or scripture, I invite you to experiment with going within, stilling your mind, opening yourself up to whatever realizations your intuition may spark within you, then asking yourself, “What hidden meaning might there be in this parable that can offer me a deeper understanding of life?”