The message of perseverance⁴

When Bopdeb was a young boy studying Sanskrit, he was the worst possible student. In everything he used to fail. His parents used to scold him mercilessly and his teachers beat him black and blue, but nothing did any good. Finally his teachers gave up and threw him out of school. Bopdeb was such a fool that his parents did not want to keep him either. So poor Bopdeb, feeling miserable, left his home and went to the nearest village.

Bopdeb used to pray and meditate under a tree near a big pond. One day, he saw some village women carrying empty pitchers to the pond and filling them. For quite a few days Bopdeb observed that after the pitchers were filled, the village women would place them on the stone steps by the pond and then go bathe and swim there. After getting refreshed, they returned to the village with their pitchers of water.

One day, when nobody was there, Bopdeb came near the spot where the women always stood and noticed something significant. He saw that the stone where the women would put their pitchers was being worn down. It was no longer level with the rest of the step. Bopdeb said to himself, “If, because the women placed their pitchers here repeatedly, even the stone is wearing down, then what is wrong with my brain?” From this he got the message of perseverance. He said, “Perseverance will always reach the goal.”

He started praying and meditating, and after meditating seriously for a few days, he started reading his old Sanskrit grammar books. Previously he had been the worst possible student in Sanskrit, but this time he was able to remember what he read. He continued his studies and, by perseverance, eventually became the greatest Sanskrit scholar, especially in grammar.