Sri Gurumurthy writes thus —

My name is Gurumurthy and I am a devotee and disciple of HH Sri Muralidhara Swamiji.

One of the most wonderful times of my life was when, recently, Sri Swamiji was in Bangalore for a Saptaham and delivered discourses at Sankara Mutt in Malleswaram.

I wish to narrate one specific incident which made a deep impact on me. During one of the discourses , Sri Swamiji mentioned an incident relating to Maha Periyava (Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati Swamigal of Kanchi Mutt), wherein, when one devotee addressed him as ‘karuna murthy’ (the incarnation of compassion) the sage gently turned the attention to yet another devotee quoting that it was he who deserved that praise for he had been freeing ever so many captured birds into the free sky.

The more I thought of it, more the impact it had on me. I realised that, at least we had a right to appeal; what would the poor little birds do? Whom can they appeal to? Afterall its their birth right to fly free in the open sky.

Last week I went the market, bought a pair of lovely birds and came home with the cage. I was moved when elder son Rishab asked me with a frown on his face why I put them in cage and why had I not released them as yet.

I released them immediately and the joy that we all experienced seeing the ‘flight to freedom’ is just beyond words!
I intend doing this every month with Sri Guruji’s blessings.