Peace Of Mind

Once, a holy man was walking from one town to another town with his disciples. While they were travelling, they passed a lake. They stopped there and the holy man told one of his disciples, “I am thirsty. Please get me some water from that lake.”

When he reached it, he noticed that some people were washing clothes in the water and a bullock cart was crossing the lake. The water had become muddy and not fit for drinking.

The disciple thought, “How can I give this muddy water to my guru to drink!” Therefore, he came back and told the holly man, “The water is very muddy. I don’t think it is good to drink.” The disciple was disturbed. After some time, again the holy man asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get some water to drink. The disciple went back to the lake.

This time he found that the lake had clear water in it. The mud had settled down and the water looked good and fit to drink. The disciple collected water in a pot and brought it back. The holy man looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said, “See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be clean and the mud settled own on its own. You got clear water. Your mind also like that. When it is disturbed, just let it be lm. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its calm. You do not have to put in any efforts to calm down. It will happen on its own. It is effortless.”

The disciple learnt his lesson that one must have a control over the mind when it is disturbed, until it is calm again.