BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE AN EAGLE & NOT A CHICKEN

THE CHICKEN & THE EAGLE

I love this fable. It has given me a very important lesson in life.

Let us first go through the fable.

There was a farmer living near a mountain. He had a few chickens on his farm.  There used to be few chicken eggs given by the hens. Once, the farmer’s son went to the top of the mountain and found some eggs. These were in fact eagle’s eggs. Out of curiosity, he picked one of the eggs, carried it to his father’s farm, and placed it with the chicken’s eggs. Interestingly, an eagle was born with many chickens. The farmer assumed that this eagle, although a bit different, is also a chicken and that the eagle was brought up just like other chickens. Now, this eagle was born with eagle genes and eagle chromosomes, but it was brought up in the chicken’s surroundings.

As time passed, this eagle believed that it is a chicken. Although it had the potential to fly high, it believed itself to be a chicken and was restricted to moving just on a plane land only. Its biggest dream was to one day get to the top of the fence. But it could never share its dream with other chickens as the chickens have always been told that it is not possible for a chicken to fly. Every time when the thought of trying to fly came to its mind, an immediate thought overpowered it and that was: what will they (other chickens) say? So it did not even make a single attempt to fly. 

HOW THINGS CHANGED

One day a surprising thing happened. When this eagle was standing in the barnyard, it saw another eagle flying in the sky. It was an amazing site. It shouted and called the flying eagle with all of its energy. The flying eagle came down and asked our little eagle as why it is not flying. The little eagle explained that it can’t fly because it is a chicken. The flying eagle explained to the little one, “Look at my face dear, your face is just like that of mine! Now, look at my beak, you also have a similar beak, and, look at my wings, you also have similar wings! Believe dear! You are not a chicken. You are an eagle similar to me. If I can fly, you can fly. So, come on. Flap your wings and fly.”

With those words from the flying eagle, our little eagle flapped its wings and flew a little high first to the fence and then a little more high and high and high in the sky. 

THE LEARNING

Friends! This is what happens quite often in our lives also. We have potential. We have capacity. We have talent. If we decide, we can make anything possible. We can achieve anything. With all that, we are eagles in real life. But the tragedy is we are surrounded by our friends and relatives who explain to us with all their wisdom that it is futile to make efforts. They tell us not to dream big. They tell us that it is wise to stretch our legs according to our coverlet when a better way could be to increase the size of the coverlet.

In case you want to fly high in life it is important to associate with people who encourage you to dream big, break barriers, and achieve big. This is what I have done in my life to realize my dreams. If you too are willing to fly high and become an achiever, find the company of eagles and move out of the association of chickens.

Dr. Lokesh N Rai

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