Why to read Scriptures

There once lived in the mountains of the Himalayas, a family of a farmer his wife and son, who lived along with the farmers’ father who was a spiritual man.  The grandfather and grandson got along famously; they loved each other and spent a lot of time together. The grandfather taught a lot of things to the grandson about nature and human behavior from his own experience. The grandson wanted to be just like the grandfather and tried to imitate him in every way he could.

As was his routine, every morning the grandfather would get up early and read the Holy Scriptures. One day the grandson said to him, “Dadaji of what use is the reading of Holy scriptures? I tried to read but cannot understand it, and whatever I don’t understand I immediately forget the moment I close the book.” The grandfather smiled at the boy, slowly turned and emptied the charcoal from the bamboo coal basket into the fireplace. As soon as the coal caught fire he told his grandson, “Here take this basket down to the river and bring it to me filled with water.” The grandson didn’t question his Dadaji picked the basket and simply ran down to the river, filled it with water and ran back. But by the time he reached home, all the water had seeped out from the basket. The grandfather looked disappointedly at the basket and said, “You will have to run faster than this?” The boy once again picked up the basket and ran, this time faster, filled it with water and again ran fast back home, but still the water managed to seep out before it reached his grandfather. The grandfather said “Faster”. The next time the boy ran even faster but to no avail. There was hardly any water remaining in the basket. This exercise went on for a while and then the boy in exasperation cried out, “Dadaji, it is impossible to carry water in this bamboo basket, let me bring the water in a bucket”. The grandfather laughed and said that he wanted water only in the basket. The grandson was not the one to give up and he tried harder and harder but as always the result was the same. At long last he said, “Dadaji this is a useless exercise, why are you making me do it”.

The grandfather said, “So you think it is useless. Just look at the basket”. The boy now looked at the basket and for the first time realized that it had transformed from a dirty coal basket into a sparkling one, as good as new. “Son that is what happens when you read Holy Scriptures, you may not understand or even remember but inside-out you will become clean”.