LEARN PERSEVERANCE FROM THE BIRD – A PARABLE FROM THE MAHABHARATA

November 26, 2007

Once Sri Ramana gave a gist of a poem written the great poet

Muruganar to the devotees: " When once the lokas were submerged under

water, the devas prayed to Lord Vishnu, who appeared as Swan and

fanned with his two wings just once. The water was ejected out to

all sides and thus the earth was restored. How can anybody praise

the glory of the Lord? " Sri Ramana said that this story of the Lord

appearing as Swan was there only in one Tamil book called

Pariopadalu. And he added that there is another story in the

Mahabharata. When asked by the devotees he narrated the following:

Once the eggs of a sparrow slipped from its beak and fell in the

ocean. To reclaim them, the bird started lifting insistently a small

quantity of water from the ocean with its beak bringing it to the

earth. The Sage Narada who marveled at the determination and single-

pointedness of the bird, pointed out the futility of its effort.

The bird replied that it was not concerned with the result but will

just put in the effort and leave the outcome to the Lord. The Sage

was very pleased with the steadfastness and sincerity of the bird.

On his way he met Garuda, the carrier of Lord Vishnu and sought his

help in the matter. Garuda went fast, fanned with its wings just

once to part the sea into two whereby the sparrow collected its

eggs and proceeded on its course. Sri Ramana said that those who

meditate on the Self with one-pointedness, receive divine help all

of a sudden, as was given by Garuda to the sparrow.

Source: Sri Ramanasraman Lekhalu (Telugu) by Surinagamma, entry

dated July 27, 1948.The English version does not contain a part of

the letter summarized above. The translator of the part-II of the

Letters says that in this volume only 106 letters have been selected

out of the remaining 138, with no valid reason given for excluding

the remainder and also not covering some of the letters in full

while translating them.

prof laxmi narain (prof_narain)

Source and courtesy: Sri Ramana Kendram, Hyderabad

This article was published in Sri Ramana Jyothi,

monthly magazine of the Kendram.

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