The Effects Of Ignorance, Greed And Little Mindedness

When an ancient Temple was about to be renovated for the annual Temple feast, a number of sparrows that lived happily on its roof top relocated themselves to a Church nearby. And the pigeons that live in the Church accommodated the new comers very well. When Christmas approached and the Church was being given a facelift, and all the sparrows and pigeons had to move out to look for another place, they were fortunate to find a place in a Mosque nearby, and the doves that live in the Mosque welcomed them happily. And when Ramadan time came and the Mosque was going to be repainted, all the sparrows, pigeons and doves now came back to the same Ancient Temple, and continued to live happily together.

 

One day, when the sparrows, pigeons, doves and their families heard of some clashes below in a market square, a baby sparrow asked its mother, “Who are these that are clashing?” And the mother replied, “They are human beings.” Then a baby pigeon asked, “But why are they fighting with each other?” And its mother responded, “The human beings going to Temple call themselves Hindus, the ones going to Church call themselves Christians and the ones going to Mosque call themselves Muslims.” And a baby dove asked, “But why is that so? When the sparrows were in the Temple, they were referred to as birds, when the pigeons were in the church they were also referred to as birds, and now that we are all together we are still referred to as birds; because we are all members of the bird family, though we have our individual life styles. Why can’t they live together and happily like us, since they are all members of the same race, the human race?”

 

And the mother responded, “They can’t yet! While we are evolved and have become intelligent, they are still ignorant, little minded and greedy. And while they don’t even know why they are here, they claim to know why no other groups, shouldn’t be here. And while they are ignorantly claiming that the after thoughts of the creators of their beliefs are superior to all others, they fail to appreciate that there is more than enough space available to accommodate everyone and to live happily.”