“Every minute you spend wishing you had someone else’s life is a minute spent wasting your life.” How significant is this message! We make comparisons with others’ lives and become restless and sad. We must learn to value what God has given us, instead of pining for something else which will drag us into a self-created zone of distress. How this vicious cycle is formed can be understood by this very simple story.
A crow lived in the forest and was absolutely satisfied in life. But one day he saw a swan and thought, “Ah this swan is so white, and I am so black. The swan must be the happiest bird in the world.” However, the swan who saw a parrot, which had two colours and thought that the parrot was the happiest bird in creation. The parrot was happy until it saw a peacock with multiple colours, and felt low about having only two colours.
On hearing all this, the crow then went to see a peacock in the zoo, and saw that hundreds of people had gathered to see him. After the people had left, the crow approached the peacock and said “Oh peacock you are so beautiful, thousands of people come to see you. When people see me, they immediately shoo me away. I think you are the happiest bird on the planet. The peacock replied, “I was happy with my beauty, but because of my beauty, I am entrapped in this zoo. I looked around the zoo very carefully, and I have realized that the crow is the only bird not kept in a cage, so I think that if I were a crow like you, I could happily roam everywhere. I think you are the happiest.”
This is the vicious cycle of comparison and concomitant dissatisfaction. We must remain grateful for what was conferred on us naturally that makes us unique individuals. Instead of being happy with what we have, we always compare ourselves with others and complain about not having what they have. The story repeats from their side too. They see something in us that they lack.