Drops of Nectar ~ Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji

In the very olden times there was once a great king. This king had many, many servants to take care of every task. One particular servant was responsible for bringing water from the well to the King’s table. However, it was a long journey from the castle to the well from which fresh, clean and pure water could be obtained. As this was the time before cars and other convenient machines, the servant carried two buckets – one attached at each end if a big stick – to transport water back to the castle. One of the buckets was new – it shone in the sunlight and it was perfect in every way. The other bucket was older an it had a small hole on one side which caused water to leak from it onto the ground, along the road back to the castle.

Thus whenever, the servant arrived hack to the castle, although he had filled 2 buckets of water, he had only 1 i/2 to present to the king. This caused the leaky bucket great distress. Twice a day when the servant picked up the buckets to go to the well, the older one would look longingly at the new one, “oh, why can’t I be as shiny and flawless as the other/” the bucket would bemoan. The leaky bucket would cast envious looks at the new bucket as not a single drop fell from its new, glistening metal. It tried every possible way f shifting its weight, of rotating its sides to minimize the leakage, but all to no avail. It could retain no more than ½ bucket through the long walk back to the castle.

One day, the leaking bucket was distraught and cried out to the servant, “Why don’t you just throw me away? I’m of no use to you. I can do barely ½ the work of your new bucket. You have to walk such a long way back and forth to the well and I leak out half of the water you fill me with. The king is such a good, noble, divine king. I want to serve him as well as your new bucket. But I can’t; I can’t even give him a full bucket of water.”

The servant was very wise (sometimes wisdom lies hidden in places where we don’t expect it.) He said to the bucket, “Look down. Look below you on the path to the castle, the path upon which you leak your water: The bucket at first was too ashamed to look and see drops of precious water scattered on the ground. When it finally looked, however, it noticed a thick row of beautiful flowers – so many lush, blossoming varieties – lining the path with vibrancy and beauty.

“Every day I pick these flowers to decorate the king’s table and his room,” the servant said. “When I noticed that you were leaking, I planted seeds all along the path on your side of the road. Then twice a day you come and water them. Now, they have grown and blossomed into the king’s favorite centerpiece. He says their fragrance calms his mind and brings to his heart. So, see, you are not useless at all. Rather, you are serving two purposes – both to bring water (albeit half a bucket) and to bring beautiful flowers to the king’s castle.

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