Two birds lived in the same tree. One sat on the higher branch and seemed happy and serene. The bird in the lower branch was a restless one who ate the fruits of the tree. Sometimes he got sour fruits that made him cringe, and sometimes he got sweet ones that made him happy. Every time he got a sour fruit he looked up at the bird above who seemed happy. He began moving towards it by hopping on to the higher branches. One day he reached the uppermost branch where the bird sat. As he moved closer to the other bird he realized that there was only one bird. What had seemed like his former self was an illusion and it was really the self same bird that observed everything from the higher branch.
This is based on ideas in a passage from Mundaka Upanishad and a commentary by Shankara. It illustrates the idea that at the mundane level we are a restless self involved in the day-to-day, but within us is a divine blissful self that is the quiet observer of everything.
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Credits:This has been written by Raj Shah and edited by Ketna Shah.