The Parrot’s Quest: Loyalty, Selflessness, and the Illusion of Desire

In a past life, the Bodhisatta was an ascetic living high in the Himalayas. He was surrounded by a devoted group of followers who had come to study under his guidance. Their lives were full of wisdom and virtue, and their presence in the region was well known. The Bodhisatta and his followers were living in a park near the king’s palace while they were on a pilgrimage to gather salt and seasoning, and their righteous reputation spread across the land.

At the same time, the king’s palace was a place of grandeur, but trouble began when Indra, the king of the gods, grew envious of the Bodhisatta’s pure and peaceful community. Seeking to create trouble, Indra devised a plan to make the ascetics uncomfortable.

One night, Indra sneaked into the queen’s bedchamber and whispered a secret to her: if she ate a “middle mango,” she would conceive a son who would grow up to be a universal monarch. The queen, intrigued and eager to have a son, woke the next morning feeling ill. She told the king that she had a powerful craving for this mysterious middle mango. Desperate to fulfill her wife’s wish, the king consulted his advisors, but none of them knew what a middle mango was. They suggested that he simply pick a mango growing between two others. The king’s men went to the royal park to gather these mangoes, but when they arrived, they found that all the mangoes had mysteriously vanished. Indra had made sure that the fruit disappeared and had also planted false reports that the Bodhisatta and his followers had eaten them. Enraged, the king ordered his soldiers to beat the Bodhisatta and his ascetics, evicting them from the park.

But despite Indra’s cunning plan, the queen’s craving for the middle mango did not subside. She continued to pine for the fruit, and the king, desperate to appease her, asked his chaplains about the fruit’s true origin. They explained that the middle mango grew only on Golden Mountain, far in the Himalayas, in the realm of Vessavana, the guardian god of the north. However, it was said that no human could reach this fruit. The chaplains suggested that a parrot might be able to make the journey.

The king, trusting his pet parrot, which was dearly loved and well-fed, sent the bird on a quest to find the elusive mango. The parrot, grateful for the king’s kindness, agreed to undertake the mission. The parrot flew across the mountains, asking other birds along the way, but none knew where the middle mango grew. Finally, deep in the seventh range of the Himalayas, he met parrots who told him that the middle mango grew on Golden Mountain. However, the tree was surrounded by seven iron nets and guarded by billions of goblins. Determined to fulfill the king’s request, the parrot pressed on.

Under the cover of night, when the goblins were asleep, the parrot approached the tree. But as he neared, he rattled one of the iron nets, waking the goblins. They captured the parrot and discussed how to punish him. However, the parrot, displaying unwavering loyalty to his king, calmly explained that he had no regrets about risking his life in service to his master, and that his selfless act would earn him rebirth in heaven. The goblins, moved by the parrot’s dedication, decided to spare his life.

Though the goblins could not give him a mango themselves—since each fruit was marked and taking one would bring death upon them—they told the parrot of an ascetic who lived further up the mountain and who regularly received four middle mangoes from Vessavana, the guardian god. Grateful for the information, the parrot traveled to meet the ascetic. The ascetic, moved by the parrot’s determination and good heart, gave him two mangoes: one for the parrot to eat and one to take back to the king’s palace.

The parrot flew back with the mango and, upon delivering it to the queen, her craving was finally satisfied. But, as Indra had secretly planned, the queen did not conceive a son as promised. The middle mango had been a lie.

In the Lifetime of the Buddha

In the time of the Buddha, the queen from this story was reborn as the Buddha’s wife. One day, she suffered terrible stomach pains due to gas, a common affliction for her. The remedy for this condition was mango juice with sugar, but since she was now living as a disciple and depending on alms, she had no way to get the fruit.

Her son, Rahula, noticing her discomfort, asked his teacher, Sariputta, for help. Sariputta, knowing the remedy, went to the palace to ask for mangoes. When the king learned of the situation, he personally crushed and sweetened the mangoes for the queen, and once she drank the juice, her pain was relieved. From then on, the king sent mango juice to her every day to ensure her comfort.

When the Buddha heard about the queen’s stomach issue, he smiled and told his disciples this story from her past life, explaining that Sariputta had helped her in a similar way in a previous birth. He also explained that the parrot in the story was an earlier birth of Ananda, one of his top disciples, who was known for his deep devotion and loyalty.

Through these interconnected past lives, the Buddha illustrated how loyalty, compassion, and selflessness transcend lifetimes, with each of his disciples embodying these virtues in different forms throughout their existence. The tale also served as a lesson about the illusion of worldly desires and how they can sometimes lead to disappointment, as the queen’s wish for a son, promised by Indra, never came to fruition.