A Man Who Never Gave Up
Yava was the son of a sage who practiced hard penance to get the blessings of Indra, the King of Devas. He tortured his body with austerities and thus awakened the sympathy of Indra. Indra came before him and asked why he was hurting his body. Yava answered: “I wish to be a great scholar of the Vedas. It takes a long time to learn the Vedas from a teacher.
I am practicing austerities to get that knowledge directly. Bless me.” Indra smiled and said: “Son, you are on the wrong path. Return home, find a good teacher, and learn the Vedas from him. Austerity is not the way to learn; the path is study and study alone.” With these words, Indra went away. But Yava would not give up. He did his course of spiritual practice (austerities, penance) with even greater effort.
Indra again came before Yava and warned him again. Yava announced that if his prayer was not answered, he would cut off his arms and legs one by one and offer them to the fire. No, he would never give up. He continued his penance. One morning, during his austerities, when he went to bathe in the holy Gangā River, he saw an old man on the bank throwing handfuls of sand into the river. “Old man, what are you doing?” asked Yava. The old man replied: “I am going to build a dam across the river so people can cross the river easily. See how difficult it is now to cross it. Useful work, isn’t it? ” Yava laughed and said: “What a fool you must be to think you can build a dam across this mighty river with your handfuls of sand! Go home and do some other useful work.”
The old man said: “Is my work more foolish than yours of learning the Vedas, not by study, but by austerities?” Yava now knew that the old man was Indra. Yava earnestly begged Indra to grant him learning as a personal wish. Indra blessed him and comforted Yava with the following words: “I grant you the wish you want.
Go and read the Vedas; you will become learned.” Yava studied the Vedas and became a great scholar of the Vedas. The secret of success is to keep thinking about what you want all the time and never give up until you get what you want. Do not let negative thoughts, such as delaying to start work, laziness, and carelessness stand in your way. Before starting or ending any work or study, repeat OM TAT SAT, the threefold names of Brahma.