Fear of unknown

There was a sage, living in a small house near the river Ganga. He used to go to Ganga to take bath every morning. One day he forgot to close the window while leaving his house. When he returned back, he felt the presence of someone in the home. After wondering for a while, he heard the voice of a bird “Gootar goo, gootar goo”. It was a pigeon. The sage wanted to help the pigeon to chase him out.

But the sight of the man, made the bird scared and he panicked. He flew here and there in the whole house instead of finding the way out through the window or door.

The bird hid on the top of the water tank where the sage could not reach. The sage was worried about the bird. In order to bring the bird down, he kept some food and water on the floor and quietly waited for the bird. The bird thought, “This might be a trap to catch and kill me. I better stay at this save place and don’t act. God will surely send me the help”.

One day was gone. The bird was very hungry but could not gather the courage to move out. The sage felt bad for the bird, he knew that the bird is fearful. But he was helpless. He kept his window open the whole night for the bird to fly out. But the bird thought “Why anyone would leave the window open at night, this surely is a trap.”

After three days the hungry bird died. The saint felt very sad and prayed to God “Please have misery on this little innocent creature and please give him another chance with some wisdom”.

His wish was granted. God gave another chance to the bird. This time the bird thought differently “If I take a risk and come out, at the maximum what would happen to me? The man might kill me. Anyway I am going to die here without food and water. I guess I have nothing to lose”.  On this thought, the bird flew down on the floor and had a hearty meal. Then the sage gently shushed him out of the window.

The bird flew high up in the sky. The joy of flying was different this time that he had never experienced it before. He thought “My God, it was so easy, why did I take so long time?”