The Parrot and Freedom

There was a certain merchant who has a parrot in a cage. He was going to travel to India for business, he said to his servants, bondwomen, and parrot,” what things do you want I bring to you from India?” Everyone ordered something, but the parrot said,” when you see the parrots in India, say them, that parrot is eager to be you, is in my prison now, what message do you have for him?”

When the merchant was saying the parrot’s message to a flock of parrots in India, suddenly one of the parrots fell out and dead.

The merchant came back to the home, and servants and bondwomen got their gifts. The parrot said, “Where is my souvenir?”

When the merchant said to his parrot that event, suddenly the parrot fell out and dead in his cage!

The merchant after moaning took his corpse out of the cage and threw it away; but, to his surprise, the corpse immediately recovered life, and flew away.

Surprised,merchant asked , “ What was the Indian parrot's message? The parrot said, “The parrot's advice was; the way to freedom of that prison is to die.

Rumir
Translated by Fariborz Arbasi

This story like other stories of Masnavi has multi layer.
In this story the merchant is symbol of the unconsciousness. Servants and bondwomen are symbol of conditioned people who are captured by beliefs are stored in unconsciousness. But, the parrot is symbol of person who has awareness of his captivity. India is symbol of the noting world. Rumi believes three worlds: the Material world, the dream world, and the noting world. Inspirations and intuitions come from the noting world.

The beliefs are stored in unconsciousness create our identifies. Each identify is a prison that limits us. The way to freedom of this prison is going beyond identify.