Jataka Tale — The Foolish Parrot
Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was the reigning king in Varanasi, the Bodhisatta — a being who would be Buddha in a future life — was born a parrot who flew through the skies of the Himalayas.
He was king over several thousand of his kind who lived on the seaward side of the mountain range, and he had one son. As his son grew up to be strong, so his father’s eyes grew weak. The truth is, that parrots fly with great swiftness; therefore as they grow old, it is the eyes that weaken first. The son kept his parents in the nest, and would bring them food to feed them.
It happened one day that our young parrot went to the place where he found his food, and rode a powerful updraft beyond the mountain tops. Then he looked over the ocean and beheld an island, on which was a mango grove full of sweet fruit. So the next day, at the time for fetching food, he rose in the air and flew to this grove of mangoes; where he sucked the mango juice, and took of the fruit, and bore it home to his mother and father. As the Bodhisatta ate of it, he knew the taste.
“My son,” he said, “this is a mango from a far away island.” “Even so, father!” replied the young parrot. “Parrots that risk that far, my son, do not live a long life,” he said. “Go not to that island again!” But the son obeyed him not, and went yet again.
Then one day it befell that he went as usual, and drank much of the mango juice. With a mango in his beak he was passing over the ocean, when the headwind grew strong. Sleep mastered him, but sleeping he flew on. The fruit he was carrying fell from his beak, and by degrees he left his path. Sinking down, he skimmed the surface of the water, and exhausted — in the end he fell in.
A fish devoured him. When he should have returned, he returned not; and the Bodhisatta knew that he must have fallen into the ocean. His parents, receiving no sustenance, pined away and died.
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This story is adapted from The Jataka, translated from the Pali Canon and edited by professor E.W. Cowell; published by the Cambridge University Press in 1895.
