Background Information on the story of two birds from Mundaka Upanishad
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THIRD MUNDAKA FIRST KHANDA
द्वा सुपर्ण सयुजा सखाया समानं वृक्षं परिषस्वजाते तयोरन्य:
पिप्पलं स्वाद्वत्त्यनश्नन्नन्यो अभिचाकशीति ।।१।।
समाने वृक्षे पुरुषो निमग्नोऽनीशया शोचति मुह्यमान: । जुष्टं
यदा पश्यत्यन्यमीशमस्य महिमानमिति वीतशोक: ।।२।।
Two birds living together, each the friend of the other, perch upon the same tree. Of these two, one eats the sweet fruit of the tree, but the other simply looks on without eating.
The two birds are the Jiva (Atman) and Iswara (Brahman) both existing in an individual compared to a tree. They exist together as the reflection and the original. They both manifest themselves in different ways in every individual. From the characteristics of the Jiva, it is possible to infer the nature of Iswara and from the nature of Iswara it is possible to determine the potentialities of the Jiva. Both the Jiva and Iswara have a common substratum which is Brahman and which is the reality of both. The body is compared to a tree, because it can be cut down like a tree. This tree is also called the Kshetra or the field of manifestation and action of the Kshetrajna or the knower of the field. The body is the field of action and experience and it is the fruit of actions done already.
That which distinguishes the Jiva from Iswara is the mind only. In fact, the mind itself constitutes the Jiva. It is the Jiva that is affected by Avidya, Kama and Karma. Because of the conjunction of consciousness with these limiting factors, it has to experience the results of its actions; but Iswara who is not limited to any adjunct, has no actions whatsoever to perform and so, no experience of the results of actions.
The fruits enjoyed by the Jiva are of the nature of pleasure and pain, i.e., they are all relative experiences born of non-discrimination. The experience of Iswara is eternal and is of the nature of purity, knowledge and freedom. Relative experience is the effect of the presence of Rajas, but the character of Iswara is Sattva (the highest state of calmness and detachment denoting a state of spiritual evolution), and hence, there is no phenomenal experience for Him. He is in fact the director of both the agent of actions and the results of actions, Iswara's activity consists in His mere existence. The value of His existence is greater than that of the activity of the whole universe. It is His existence that actuates the whole universe of manifestation.
In the same tree, the individual (bird) is drowned in grief because of delusion and impotency. When it beholds the other (bird), viz., the adorable Lord, it realizes its own glory and gets freed from sorrow.
The grief of the Jiva is the result of its inability to live in conformity with the forms of the effects of unwise actions done in the past. Such thoughtless actions, no doubt, lead to their corresponding results and as they are not in tune with the law of Truth; they torment the individual in the form of unpleasant experiences. Without a relative experience, the individual cannot live and with every relative experience produced by lack of wisdom, fresh misery is added to the pre-existing lot.
Thus, from the highest standpoint, the entirety of the experience of the individual consists of grief alone. Because of its confinement to the forms of its desires and actions, the Jiva feels itself to be impotent, confused and helpless.
It is even made to feel that a particular experience to which it is connected is alone real and that there is no reality beyond it. Due to this, it is now and then connected with and separated from the objects of its desire. It is born and it dies, passing through several kinds of wombs in accordance with the kinds of its actions.
The freedom of the individual consists in the vision of the Lord Supreme, Who is co-existent with it, in fact inseparable from it as its very Self. The realization of Iswara is the same as the raising of the individual consciousness to the consciousness of Iswara.
The Jiva ceases to exist the moment it realizes Iswara. The glory of the real essence of the individual is known only when the veil covering it, is removed. This is achieved in the realization of God. The ultimate realization is in the form of the identity of the Self with the Supreme Being. Here, the whole universe is realized to be the same as the essence of the spiritual infinite. This realization puts an end to all kinds of imperfections and sorrows.
(The above is based on translation of The Mundaka Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda of The Divine Life Society, Shivananda ashram, Rishikesh, India)