Divine Incidents·Mundaka Upanishad

The Two Birds on One Tree

1 min read · Scripture story

Two birds sit on the same tree. One eats the fruit — sweet and bitter. The other simply watches.

The scripture speaks of two birds, close friends, seated on the same tree. One tastes the fruits of life, sometimes sweet, sometimes sour, and is tossed by joy and grief. The other bird, higher on the branch, simply looks on, calm and shining. When the first bird lifts its eyes and sees the second — and recognizes it as itself — its sorrow ends.

The lesson

We are both: the one who acts and suffers, and the one who watches, untouched. Reincarnation is the story of the eating bird remembering the watching one.

Om · Shanti · Shanti · Shanti