There’s a beautiful story:
An old Farmer lived on a farm in the mountains with his young
grandson. Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen
table reading his Bhagavad Gita. His grandson wanted to be just like
him and tried to imitate him in every way he could. One day the
grandson asked, “Grandpa! I try to read the Bhagavad Gita just like
you but I don’t understand it, and what I do understand I forget as
soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bhagavad Gita
do?” The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and
replied, “Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a
basket of water.”
The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got
back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, “You’ll have to
move a little faster next time,” and sent him back to the river with
the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the
basket was empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his
grandfather that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, and he
went to get a bucket instead. The old man said, “I don’t want a bucket
of water; I want a basket of water. You’re just not trying hard
enough,” and he went out the door to watch the boy try again.
At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show
his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water
would leak out before he got back to the house. The boy again dipped
the basket into river and ran hard, but when he reached his
grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said, “See
Grandpa, it’s useless!” “So you think it is useless?” The old man
said, “Look at the basket.” The boy looked at the basket and for the
first time realized that the basket was different. It had been
transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean, inside and
out. “Son, that’s what happens when you read the Bhagavad Gita. You
might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you
will be changed, inside and out. That is the work of Krishna in our
lives. the cleansing process.
