World parrot day & A story by rumi

On the occasion of the World Parrot Day (on 31st May), let me share a story by Rumi, ‘The Merchant and the Parrot - Daftar-e-Awwal - (Masnavi Book 1: 18)’.
A lovely parrot was presented to a Persian businessman by his Indian trading partners many years ago. He kept the parrot in a secure cage where he could keep an eye on her and listen to her sweet song every day when he came home from work. When the time came for him to go to India on a business trip, he asked his family to choose what they wanted him to bring back as gifts for them. Each one, including the little green parrot, requested something dear to his or her heart.
My beloved master, she said, my heart truly wishes nothing from my motherland. However, if you happen to come across a bunch of parrots like myself, please offer my greetings and inform them that I'm stuck in a cage in Persia and miss them very much. Ask them if they believe it's fair that they can fly around the country while their cousin languishes in captivity. I beg you to contact them on my behalf and seek their opinion on how to assess my position.
The merchant vowed to track down the birds and relay her message just as she had expressed it. When he arrived in India, one day, he came upon a flock of parrots chirping loudly in a forest and faithfully conveyed his parrot's message. Before he could finish, one of the parrots began to shiver uncontrollably, tumbled of the tree and appeared to be dead. He became disturbed, feeling a deep sense of sorrow that he'd unnecessarily killed the unfortunate bird.
When he arrived back home, he handed out the gifts that each person had requested, but he didn't say anything to his parrot. The bird, who had been waiting for her mates' responses with bated breath, finally couldn't take it any longer and asked the merchant, “So, where's my gift? Tell me about the Indian parrots. What did you see and hear from them?”
The merchant responded hesitantly, “I relayed your story to a flock of parrots in the woods. However, before I could finish, one of them began to tremble and suddenly fell from the tree, dead. I'll never be able to forgive myself for killing the poor bird”.
On hearing this, the parrot fell on the cage floor, motionless. The merchant couldn't believe what he was seeing and he felt guilty for causing yet another death. After some time, the merchant nervously unlocked the cage door and carefully lifted up the bird, carrying her to the garden, resting her on the ground while he dug a grave for her to be buried. To his great surprise he saw the parrot flying up to the nearest tree, sitting on a high branch, blissfully staring at her former master. The merchant was taken aback, “I'm overjoyed to see you're still alive and well, but tell me, what did I say that made you want to imitate the bird in India? Now that you're free, tell me your secret”.
That parrot taught me how to free myself said the parrot, “Without saying anything, he let me understand that my confinement was due to my lovely song, my ability to amuse you and your visitors. My priceless voice was, in fact, the source of my enslavement. He taught me that my liberation would be found in the act of dying”.  After saying this the parrot said her final goodbyes to her master and flew away.
The beauty of this story is that it can be read at different levels. It is about the limits of love, how loving someone can also mean letting the person go. At another level, the parrot here symbolises the human soul, trapped in the cage of the body. It is a symbol of our inner reality: the bird of our soul aspires to fly away from the material cage of worldly life. Rumi urges us to disentangle ourselves from the worldly life, open the cages of material life and let our souls ascend to a larger reality.
The motto for the World Parrot Day this year is, “ Be smart and creative, be more Parrot”!
( Do pen your thoughts in the blog…whenever you want to listen to the parrot!)