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Story 36: "I'll Cross the River When It's Dry"

     A young man named Kaminimohan lived in Nabadwip. He was very introverted, and didn't like to leave the confines of his own home. When a friend invited him to come with him to Mayapura Dhama and hear a lecture by a great personality on Krsna-bhakti, Kaminimohan was very reluctant to go. So the friend, eager to do Kaminimohan some spiritual good, devised a stratagem. He asked him to come with him to Kuliya, just across the Ganges river from Mayapura. At Kuliya a travelling amusment park had set up for a few days.

     Kaminimohan, after a bit of persuading, went with his friend to the park where they had an afternoon of fun. Then the friend said, "We are just across the river from the sadhu's place, and he's lecturing soon. So let's just cross the river and see him and then return home.

     Seeing his friend's determination, Kaminimohan decided not to directly refuse. But he said, "Oh dear, I am so afraid of rivers. I never cross them. If I get near one, I have attacks of nausea, dizziness, and heart palpitations. Let's wait til winter (the dry season). Then that river will become so shallow we can walk across. But I cannot go now."

     His friend said, "You say you'll cross when the river is dry, but this is the Ganges--it never gets dry. You are just being insincere. You don't want to go at all."

     The purport is obvious.

Story 37: Safety in Swimming

     A very protective mother forbade her son from bathing in the river lest he drown. One day a neighbor said to the woman, "Did you ever stop to think that by your policy of preventing this boy from going to the river you are also preventing him from ever learning that which would really save him if he fell into deep water--namely, the ability to swim?"

     Then the boy, who was standing nearbye, said to mother: "I want to learn swimming so that I can save myself from drowning. Can you tell me if there is a method of learning to swim without getting into water?"

     The mother, seeing her shortsightedness, permitted the boy to go to the river with a swimming instructor.

     This story is used to illustrate the half-hearted commitment to God of a materially pious person. Such a person is fearful of falling into hell, thus will strictly follow all sorts of negative religious principles that forbid him to commit sin. But due to a dearth of real devotion, the materially "good" person avoids positive spiritual acts of service to Krsna. Indeed, because service to Krsna requires one to engage his senses in various ways, the materially pious person may decline on the grounds that such engageent may be the cause of falldown (for instance, when asked to help raise funds for a Krsna conscious purpose, he may deline arguing that "Money is the root of all evil"). Thus he is like the mother who in fear of her son's life forbade him from the very activity that would make him able to save his own life.

Story 38: Garbage In, Garbage Out

     There was a certain crafty tradesman who was an expert in acquiring goods by shady dealing. He had a real talent for unloading some inferior item on a person and getting in return for it something of real value.

     One day he came home with a load of excellent coconuts. He felt himself very clever that day indeed, for he'd gotten them for practically nothing. But there was one little problem--he couldn't open the coconuts without a sharp chopper, and all he had at home was a very old, rusty and dull chopper that was for all practical purposes useless.

     He brought it to a blacksmith and asked him to make a new chopper from it. The blacksmith answered that he could make a good chopper only if good quality steel was given to him.

     So the tradesman fell back on his typical method of dealing. "Look," he told the blacksmith, "It so happens I'm making a deal with someone that involves an amount of excellent steel. I'll give you a sheet of this steel for free; all I'll want in return is that you make me a new chopper from that steel for free." The blacksmith agreed.

     But the "excellent steel" turn out to be third-class quality iron. In any case, the blacksmith accepted the metal--because he could always find some use for it in his business--and made a chopper from it. But when the tradesman tried to open the coconuts with this chopper, he discovered that it was useless. He rush to the blacksmith in a rage and demanded to know why the chopper was no good.

     "Sir, be reasonable," the blacksmith said. "Your skill in life is making good deals. For that you require good fools to cheat. My skill in life is making good metal implements. For that I require good metal to beat. What good deal can you hammer out of a poor fool who has nothing to give you? Likewise, what good chopper can I hammer out of poor-quality iron?"

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