Devi’s Parrot
Some days back I posted Q85 on the blog: “What is your favorite bird?…” Of course when I put a question, I myself enjoy too, thinking of what my answer would be. Regarding the favorite bird, I was wavering between the swan and the peacock. I noticed though that many of the answers mentioned the parrot, saying that it was related to Devi. This touched me, especially that often devotees bring parrots to Amma. She keeps them on Her sari while giving darshan, interacting with them from time to time… (You must have seen this on Amma videos)
Two days ago, something truly magical happened. Those that have visited Amritapuri know that the birds that crowd here the most are the crows; that we have lots of pigeons that live on the heights of the temple and the flat buildings; and that eagles (The white and brown kyte) are also very popular in the area, always seen gliding in the air… There are other birds that we can see from time to time, the cuckoo, a variety of singing birds, bats (Some are rat-sized ones! Really impressive vampire like creatures) and rarely night owls… But I had never seen parrots here. Maybe sometime a small group passing across the ashram sky at sunset. But I am not even sure about that…
Now back to the story:
It was around noon and I was lying down in my room, needing just a few minutes of relaxed peace before resuming my busy seva days. My eyes were closed, but hearing the flapping of wings, I opened them thinking that it would be a pigeon sitting on the window or coming inside the room (Pigeons often do that, probably searching for a good location to build a nest). The bird had entered the room and landed on a high shelve. I was not wearing my glasses and noticed that the ‘pigeon’ was a bit lighter than usual and had maybe a longer tail… I put my glasses on and to my greatest astonishment realized that the visitor was actually a parrot! My roommate, turned the ceiling fan off to make sure the parrot doesn’t get hurt by the moving blades. We both froze and started to whisper to make sure that the bird doesn’t get scared and fly away… It was such a beautiful magical sight!!
After a while, the parrot jumped on top of a closet in the center of the room and seemed to look for food in an empty plate that was kept there. We realized then that it was not scared at all and felt safe with our presence. My roommate suggested we offer it some nuts. I had dried corn in the closet, so I stood up slowly, opened the closet, took the container out, happy to see that not only did the parrot not show any sign of fear or discomfort, but he was actually observing me with interest, like if expecting something nice to be offered to it… My whole attitude changed at that moment, instead of wanting to be careful not to scare it away, I gained confidence that I could actually interact with it without any hindrance. So I took a few dried corn in my palm, and slowly walked towards the divine visitor. He chirped, opened his observing eyes even wider and got excited when my palm got a feet from him. I felt he was completely accepting me, so I brought my palm even closer and my new friend started to dance left and right, wanting to reach for the food, but calculating his move. Soon the palm was close enough for the parrot to stretch its body and neck and gracefully take a dried corn and start enjoying breaking and eating it! “Yeah!” screamed my roommate. I had handed him my camera and he was taking snaps of the event…The happiness was overwhelming in my heart. A feeling of wonder… How is this happening? Is it a dream? Is it a divine being visiting us and blessing us? Is it Amma herself paying a special visit??
The divine beautiful parrot stayed for 20 minutes in the room. I had the chance to offer it food from my palm 4 or 5 times. Later I put the dried corn on a plate and invited him to jump in, which he did and I gently put the plate on the floor… I was now enjoying taking more photos and videos of him, till he left the plate and flew back to the window… A while later, it flew away. I run to the door to see how far he’s gone and saw him reach the sky and disappear…
Back in the room, we could not believe what had just happened. The question that kept coming back, was: “Is he going to come back?” or “Will he now come visit everyday?” But three days have passed now and the parrot haven’t come back. We kept his dried corn on the plate and know that he didn’t come in our absence too…
How could this have happened? Was it a tamed parrot that had run away? Is it a wild one that dared to come in an inhabited room? Is it a divine messenger that came to bless us and bring love and light to our hearts? One thing is for sure, the answer to the favorite bird question is clear for me now: My favorite is Devi’s divine parrot!!!
I will keep you all updated in case our dear friend comes visiting again. Enjoy the photos!
Priyan
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Parrots gently sit on Sri Lalithas shoulder, since She is also Devi of Vaak (speech/sound). Parrots represent that ability to learn speech through Divine Devi’s blessings. She teaches us wisdom through sound. Beautiful parrot You got there, many times devotees are taught to be like parrots trying and having the blessings to imitate Divine Mother.
One of the ten mahavidyas is Matangi. She has a parrot and is my favorite of the ten because of Her ability to communicate with and understand all the others. Although Her wisdom manifests with actual words, – they are “paravak” and embody the divine through the concrete mode of speech. As soon as the question re. favorite bird was asked, I thought of Matangi and the parrot…
Amma loves visiting you in some very special non-human forms! I have noticed that sometimes when I really need Amma, She sends parrots to my window. I had never really known about the connection until this started happening.
This was surely Ammas parrot and this incident is Ammas blessing to tell again that Devi’s favourite is parrot otherwise why did it visit you only- who has posted the question?
I had a similar experience near Ojai, California where I recently moved. It was about two weeks ago when as I was watering the plants in my friends back yard, a beautiful parrot came and sat on my right shoulder while the parrot’s friend was sitting across from us on a tree branch. She is unafraid and allowed me to gently stroke her. She continued to sit on my shoulders even when I moved to continue watering while her friend kept singing. After a while I started singing as well — like birds do.
I waited for them again that day and the following day as well. But they didn’t come. I felt blessed. For a while I thought I was speaking to them and could understand them. Amma’s grace is so profound and great that it must be experienced…
excellent… beautiful story… in fact i was wondering whether there were any parrots in our ashram except for crows, doves and eagle… and now I know there are
nice … thanks for posting 🙂
Here is a story I read few weeks back in Marathi Matruvaani. I will try my best to translate it:
“Once Saint Tukaram was traveling to meet Saint Dnyaneshwar, on the way he sees few birds under a tree. When Saint Tukaram goes near the tree all birds fly away. Seeing this he gets very unhappy. He feels sad that even though he and birds have same universal consciousness, birds were afraid of him. He decides to stand there. After few hours he was still standing there and chanting lords name. Birds came back and sat on his soulder. Only after seeing birds enjoying his company he moved on.”
i read the article it was quiet touching when i looked closely at the parrot sitting on the window just above the parrot we can see a small image of Amma this is because of a small hole on the window and the surrounding patch it. is due to your sankalpa that your wish was fullfilled by amma? amme saranam
mahendra’s passage from the matruvani gives us a clear understanding of why other creatures come close to the great souls (Amma, Krishna, Chaitanya, St Francis of Assisi) and not to the others. How does durga have a lion following her like a pet cat?!? Though sometimes at Amritapuri Amma makes it happen to us too. Once She allowed a crow to come to my window and befriend me and eat from my hand. How I wished it could happen all the time with all creatures.