There used to be small cupboard in my bathroom. Made of wood, painted white, it is fixed with a mirror on its front..its about 1ft in width and depth...2 ft in height. Recently, it got replaced. Nowadays, it is lying around in the balcony facing all sorts of weather conditions...this sunday, I went out into the balcony, when my brother brought this 'funny' thing to my notice. There was a sparrow...which apparently thought that the small cupboard is a nice hollow cuboidal volume where it could set up a suitable nest. What the mirror presented to our little bird was another sparrow which was preventing it from building a nest. Bird with a birdbrain could not recognize herself in the mirror..she just thought its someone else who has conquered that wonderfully suitable volume in the mirror..so, started the great war...between little sparrow and her reflection.
She looked at the reflection, actually judged its position, then flew a few feet away from the mirror. Then, she flew a little further away, a little higher...finally, with all her might she flew at the bird inside the cupboard hitting beak to beak...then she let her body slip along the height of the mirror, all the while hitting the slipping bird on the other side with her beak! She did this repeatedly, trying different positions, different aims, and different beak strokes...I watched for a while, laughed and then left. At different times during the day, people of my family went out into the balcony and noticed this 'funny' thing. A whole day of fighting a sparrow made of glass, and this brave bird was still not disheartened.
Next morning, I went out into the balcony, and saw the same thing happening. I felt really sorry for the stupid little bird. I wanted to help her realize the futility of her day long efforts. I asked my father if we could put the cupboard with the mirror facing the wall so that birdbrain would stop being fooled endlessly, but my father seemed to enjoy the 'game' the bird was playing with itself and asked me not to. I, however, did turn the mirror around and felt relieved that the poor bird wasnt being fooled anymore..she must be so tired, using all her little strength all day against herself.
A little later, however, I wondered if I was really significantly more intelligent than the sparrow. In fact, is any of us any sharper? Aren't we all being fooled pretty much the same way, fighting with ourselves for that one fulfilling happiness which will last us our lives? Aren't we ourselves, with all our hollow desires for the temporary material things in life (which we just cant let go of) the only and most powerful obstruction to such peace and happiness?
Each of us is the sparrow, the ultimate bliss is the hollow inside the cupboard, and the assembly of all our wishes, dreams and aspirations, family etc is the mirror. The mirror which defines us, but we dont know that it does. We think it is someone else, who stands in our way...but think, if we let go..let go of everything we ever wanted in our lives, let go of everything we are striving for, everything we are angry at, everything we are proud and ashamed of, and fly away into the free sky, wouldnt we be so much more better off? Maybe God laughs at our stupid futile efforts pretty much the same way as I did at that sparrow.
To conclude...Congratulations friends!!! We are all birdbrains!!!
Good one... One funny incident... well translated into... Human idiosyncrasy...
ReplyDeleteGhana Swaad aaya pad ke...
hmmmm... ek chidiya.. anek chidiya... sheesha dekhne ud gayi thi.... ;) ;) ;)
ReplyDeletegood transformation of bird story to real life behaviour...
This post reminded me of the words of one of my skul frnds..(I think I ws in 8th standard then) who once said that our real competition has to b with our own selves…..i still admire these lines.
ReplyDeletePeople in this world try to find happiness by proving themselves superior to others and wasting their time, mind and energy in thinking abt such things.
Cant say abt the bird exactly, but human beings are the most distinct creation by God. When He has giftd us with all the intelligence and the thought process, I don’t understand that y ppl still try to misuse it??? y aren’t we satisfied with all that v hv in life??? y do v always compare with others??? It doesn’t mean that v have no ryt to progress in life, but yes we cant do so at other’s stake...i think I got a bit diverted frm the actual post,,,bt neways....
Wonderful.
ReplyDeleteThe important thing is : the bird might have stopped fighting when you turned the side of the cupboard.
But we the humans; would have dug into the wooden side and happily made our nests. We still wouldnt be satisfied and fly to the side; with the mirror.
We would get jealous of what this lucky bird has; forgetting that we have already built our own nest. And we will keep struggling; striving and doing everything we can, never to realize that we aint fighting somebody else but us.
awesome post!! but i was just wondering if we actually let go all those materialistic things.. then what r we left in life with? watever the things we r ashamed of.. or proud of.. or watever.. but then hose things r ours na.. thats wat describes wat we r... i'll say even if god wanna laugh at me, let him continue with it.. coz am gonna be fighting with my ref election as long as i can... ;) or mayb as long as god gets bored n turns the mirror to the other side :)
ReplyDeleteVery well written posts.
ReplyDeleteI really repect the knowledge hardwired into our brain like ROM in computer. So be it any phase/moment of our life, this knowledge persist.