Long time ago, there lived a pair of Tittibha birds
(lapwings) near a sea shore.
Once, the female Tittibha was set to hatch eggs. So she asked
the male Tittibha to search for a quite and safe place where she could lay eggs
and incubate them safely.
But the male Tittibha liked the place where they lived very
much. He refused to relocate to another place and asked his wife, "Dear,
we have been living here for quite sometime now. what is wrong with this
place?”
The female Tittibha said, "Indeed, we have been living
here for months now. So you should remember that every month during the phase
of high tide the place gets flooded."
But the male Tittibha was enraged by what his wife said. He
shrugged his neck angrily and said, "I am not so weak that a tide will
sweep me away".
The female Tittibha was humble and wise. She tried to calm
her husband and make him understand the danger of facing the force of ocean
waves. But the male Tittibha was adamant was refused to move to another place.
The female Tittibha was sad and told her husband, "You will pay for being
so high headed".
The might ocean heard what the two birds spoke between
themselves.
After some day, the female Tittibha hatched eggs on the
shore. The new parents were very happy and started protecting their eggs.
When the ocean saw the birds with their eggs, he decided to
teach the male Tittibha a lesson. Soon giant waves came and washed the far shore.
The eggs were swept away.
When the female Tittibha saw this, she wept and cried to her
husband, "Our eggs have been swept away by waves".
The male Tittibha replied, "Don’t worry. I shall get
them back." Then he called an assembly of birds and told them about their
eggs.
The assembly went to Garuda, the king of birds. The male
Tittibha said, "O King! I have come
to you for justice. My eggs have been swept by the ocean. We have lived on the
shore peacefully for months and never did any harm to the ocean. But last night
while we were sleeping, he swept away our eggs. We are helpless and wrecked by
loss of our eggs. Kindly, grant us justice."
Hearing the plea, Garuda went to Lord Vishnu and told him
about the incident. The Lord approached the ocean and asked him to return eggs
of the Tittibha birds.
Seeing Lord Vishnu, the ocean was petrified. He apologized to
Him for wrongdoing and returned the eggs of Tittibha birds.
Thus, the male Tittibha bird lost his eggs due to arrogance
and got them back with his self confidence.
Moral: Arrogance leads to destruction whereas self confidence
is key to success.
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