[doolarsva]

There is a very interesting story about a mythological ‘Home Bird’ in Oriental literature.
Though Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said that it was a bird mentioned in the Vedas, there are no references to such a bird in Vedic literature. But there are indirect references elsewhere. Before going in to those details, let us first look at the interesting story. The Homa bird lives in the air, breeds in the air, lays eggs in the air, but before the eggs reach the surface of the earth they are hatched in the air and the baby bird flies upward to join its mother. This is the story told by the great saint. Is there any such bird in the world that fits this description? “No” is the categorical reply from ornithologists.

But Ramakrishna pointed to Narendra (later Swami Vivekananda) and compared him to a Homa bird. The meaning is very clear. Like some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth, some are born with spiritual treasure. Before they settle into a mundane life they go up the spiritual ladder and become God-men. This is what happened in the case of Adi Shankaracharya, Swami Vivekananda and the great Tamil saint Thiru Gnana Sambandhar. Even when they were teenagers they realised God and taught the world. They were like Homa birds. They never touched the surface of the earth like us. They were always high- up in the sky.

Sri Ramakrishna said: “When they grow a little older they feel the awakening of inner consciousness and go directly toward God. They come to the world only to teach others. They never care for anything of the world. They are never attached to women and gold.”

Is there a Homa bird? The ornithologists (those who study birds) say the Wandering Albatross doesn’t return to land for six years at a time; it uses the ocean water as its surface. Swifts always land on trees but not on the ground because of their weak legs. Arctic Terns fly nonstop for seven days and travel 11000 miles - literally from one pole to the other. Certain birds live most of the time in water or on top of the trees and so literally they don’t “land” on earth for several years. They come to ground only when they lay eggs. But what we understand about today’s 9000 different kinds of birds may not be complete. In our own times we lost several bird species like the Dodo. So once upon a time there might have been a Homa bird in the world.

We have indirect references to the Homa bird in Persian literature. The Persian poets, Turkish poets and Sufi poets praise them as divine birds. If it flies over someone’s head, that person will become a king, they wrote. They described it as bird of paradise.

Though Iran is a Muslim country it has Homa bird as its emblem (please see the picture) for its airlines. The Homa bird in ancient Iranian monuments looks like an eagle or Garuda. There are lot of references about eagles bringing the divine Soma plant from the mountains in our Vedic literature. The English letters S and H change place in Greek and Persian. For example – they named those living on the banks of the river Sindhu as Hindus. Another example is the number Six (Shashti) becomes Hexa in Greek. In the same way, it may be the case that what we called the Soma bird is the mythical Homa bird. Whatever said in the Vedas is repeated in the Persian Zoroastrian literature. Moreover, Hindu literature also associates the Garuda bird (eagle) with Amrita (ambrosia).

Tippusultan and the Homa bird
When Tippusultan of Mysore was defeated by the British army his enormous wealth was plundered and looted. Some was sent to Britain. Other treasures were broken in to pieces and distributed to its troops. Tippusultan’s golden throne had a Homa bird encrusted with beautiful and expensive gem stones. A British auction house sold it some time ago naming it as the bird of paradise. “Tippu’s throne was eight feet in length, by five in width [and] was raised four feet from the earth. It had tiger legs. It was made up of gold and silver. Arabic sentences, chiefly from the Koran, decorated it. The canopy was made of pearls. The central part of the roof was surmounted by the MOST CURIOUS AND COSTLY FIGURE OF THE HUMAH (the fabulous royal bird of the East) formed of solid gold nearly the size of a pigeon, and covered over with the most valuable jewellery”.
Sufi teacher Inayat Khan describes the bird in beautiful words: “Its true meaning is that when a person’s thoughts so evolve that they break all limitations, then he becomes a king. “
The bird is described as a phoenix that comes to life even after it is consumed by fire. All of these concepts are metaphorical. If we apply it to great men and their teachings, it makes more sense. India is full of such Homa birds/Great men and women.
(I couldn't paste the pictures here.Pictures of Homa birds are on Wikipedia and Iranian airlines logo)