A young man was listening to a discourse by a wise old man,
and there was an interesting moment when the old man was concluding his talk
and said something with a smile and twinkle in his eyes. "I was at
Samathpur once a few years ago and, all I did was sit on the river bank and
sell river water. These are the ways of the world," he concluded. Not
a word after that and the talk ended.
The young man pondered what was the
relevance of what the old man said at the end. It did not strike him for some
time, and later, he went home and was getting ready to go to bed. His cat Billu
came over, and they started a conversation.
Curious Cat: What
makes you look so thoughtful today
Young Man: Wondering
what the wise sage said. He then narrated the story.
Curious Cat: Can
you imagine you were sitting there when the wise man was selling water from the
river
Young Man: Of
course, I am just doing that now. Yes it's green It's so pleasant and the water
is so sweet
Curious Cat: And
what are you doing?
Young Man: Am
thinking of the hard work ahead the next day and enjoying the sweet water I just bought and
anticipating a good nights sleep
Curious Cat: Yes
Master. You were so busy buying and drinking water that you failed to see the
river yourself.
Many a time we are like the young man. So
busy doing things, working hard and toiling, laboring the days and nights
without seeing the obvious opportunity that lies in front of our eyes and like
the young man paying for the water that lay in front of our eyes. Now go
ahead and reflect how many such pots did we buy from others selling us river
water.
One needs to step back and see what are
all the opportunities that were let go because and understand how to spot those
opportunities to realize the potential we have within. The world will be a more
fruitful face if we are able to uncover these visible but yet unseen
opportunities that we let go in our journey. Spotting opportunities is the
first step towards realizing potential. More on how this can be done in my
next post
