Once in a village near Varanasi in Ancient India, there lived a tribe of potters. In the village there was a small pond.
The pond was an extension of the river Ganga. In the summer when the water level of the river went down, the pond would dry up. In the pond there also lived a family of
tortoise.
Once, before the onset of summer, the family of tortoise decided to leave the pond and move to the river. But one tortoise refused to leave, saying:
I was born here, I have grown up here, My parents have lived here, Why should I go elsewhere?
The summer set in. With the rising heat the water level in the pond went down. The pond began drying up. The tortoise slipped deeper into the mud, hibernating. One day in the heat, the potters looking for some fine clay, went near the pond. They started digging at the place where the tortoise had buried himself. The potter with their iron shovels hit the tortoise, mistaking him for clay. The tortoise realized his mistake. Lamenting he said: Go there where you find
happiness, No matter what the place be, A forest or village is the birth place for thee If you find happiness and life there Must you treat it your home Wherever you be. But it was too late. His shell had broken under the powerful impact of the iron shovel. He died.
This story is from the Jataka tales (stories on rebirth of Buddha). The potter was Buddha. He took the dead body of the tortoise in the village and said: "The tortoise died because of his attachment. Not knowing that the world is transitory, he remained attached to his supposed home."
The story of migration is interesting. Living beings migrate, sometimes of their own will, and sometimes because of circumstances beyond their control. I remember that I immensely enjoyed the sight of Siberian cranes in my city in India, who in winter, would come in thousands from Russia to escape sub-zero temperature. They would swarm over all the big trees. What distance they covered to reach here! I marveled at their spirit and stamina for taking such an arduous journey. In case of humans, they have migrated to escape hunger, war and persecution. In many cases they have been driven away, captured and shipped against their will. People in many cases, however, have migrated hoping for a better life elsewhere. One principle has been uniformly followed by the migrants — they have gone from areas of low, to areas of high food-supply.