Vivekananda Mailing List-12/4/02

[Guest guest]

Now a little bird and his wife and their three little ones lived on

that tree, in a nest. This little bird looked down and saw the three

people under the tree and said to his wife, " My dear, what shall we do?

Here are some guests in the house, and it is winter, and we have no

fire. " So he flew away and got a bit of burning firewood in his beak

and dropped it before the guests, to which they added fuel and made a

blazing fire. But the little bird was not satisfied. He said again to

his wife, " My dear, what shall we do? There is nothing to give these

people to eat, and they are hungry. We are householders; it is our duty

to feed any one who comes to the house. I must do what I can, I will

give them my body. " So he plunged into the midst of the fire and

perished. The guests saw him falling and tried to save him, but he was

too quick for them.

 

The little bird's wife saw what her husband did, and she said, " Here

are three persons and only one little bird for them to eat. It is not

enough; it is my duty as a wife not to let my husband's effort go in

vain; let them have my body also. " Then she fell into the fire and was

burned to death. Then the three baby-birds, when they saw what was done

and that there was still not enough food for the three guests, said,

" Our parents have done what they could and still it is not enough. It

is our duty to carry on the work of our parents; let our bodies go

too. " And they all dashed down into the fire also.

 

Amazed at what they saw, the three people could not of course eat these

birds. They passed the night without food, and in the morning the king

and the Sannyasin showed the princess the way, and she went back to her

father.

 

Then the Sannyasin said to the king, " King, you have seen that each is

great in his own place. If you want to live in the world, live like

those birds, ready at any moment to sacrifice yourself for others. If

you want to renounce the world, be like that young man to whom the most

beautiful woman and a kingdom were as nothing. If you want to be a

householder, hold your life a sacrifice for the welfare of others; and

if you choose the life of renunciation, do not even look at beauty and

money and power. Each is great in his own place, but the duty of the

one is not the duty of the other.