Two parrots, one clutch

At Tirumala his chief disciples had grown old, as he had. They wished to return to their native places and asked his blessing. Ananthalvan spoke of satsaṅga. Evil company is to be dreaded. Satsaṅga, as the śruti says — sadā paśyanti — produces the experience of Para Brahman.

He quoted the story of Śaunaka and the other sages. On pilgrimage they had to spend a rainy night in a hunter’s hamlet. The hunters were away. A parrot from inside insulted the seven ascetics, asked how they dared enter when nobody was in, and told them to get out. They took shelter under a banyan. The parrot followed and abused them as thieves. Unable to bear it, they walked at dead of night in the rain and reached another ṛṣi’s hermitage. The ṛṣis had gone for a bath. Here another parrot spoke with kindness, offered fruits, sacred water, and a place to rest, and received them with Vedic honours.

Śaunaka told that parrot of the hunter’s bird. How could two of the same kind behave so differently? The parrot said both were born to the same parents. The ṛṣis brought up one; the hunter the other. The ṛṣi’s parrot had heard the Vedas and Upaniṣads. The hunter’s knew only killing, dividing, and eating. Association cultivates the good or bad in the character. Śaunaka blessed the bird. Ananthalvan recited the tale from the Upaniṣads. The disciples took his word as śāstra and pledged to abide.