Two birds, one of them mortal, the other immortal, live in the same tree. The first one pecks at the fruit, sweet or bitter; the second looks on without eating.
Thus the personal self pecks at the fruit of this world, bewildered by suffering, always hungry for more. But when he meets the True Self, the resplendent God, the source of creation, all his cravings are stilled.
Perceiving Self in all creatures, he forgets himself in the service of all; good and evil both vanish. Delighting in Self, playing like a child with Self, he does whatever is called for, whatever the result.
~From The Upanishads,
Translated by Stephen Mitchell
