March 26
Whoever binds a joy to himself destroys the winged life. But whoever kisses joy in flight lives in the sunrise of eternity.
Eternity (freely rendered)
A Message from India
Whoever binds a joy to himself destroys the winged life. But whoever kisses joy in flight lives in the sunrise of eternity.
A merchant kept a parrot whose talk delighted him. Before a journey to India he asked the bird whether it had a wish. He should tell the free parrots there about its life in the cage.
The merchant delivered the message. One of the birds trembled and fell motionless to the ground. Alarmed, the man later returned home and told his parrot about it. It too suddenly went stiff and did not move again.
The merchant mourned his companion and its lost voice. Then he took it out of the cage. At once the parrot flew up into a tree. It called out that the bird in India had shown it how to escape.
As it flew away, the merchant wished it a good journey.
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