A student was very weak in his studies. He was very dull and repeatedly failed in his school examinations. His classmates teased him for his foolishness. Wherever he went, people made fun of him. One day, feeling very unhappy, he decided to run away from his home. After walking for some distance, he got tired and sat beside a well to take a rest. While he was brooding about his unfortunate life, a deep groove on the hard rock on the rim of the well caught his attention.
He wondered how such hard rock had developed the depression? While he was thinking about it, a woman came to the well to draw water. Tying a rope on the handle of a bucket, she threw it in the well and began to pull up the bucket filled with water. The boy noticed that while she pulled up the bucket, the rope tied to the bucket rubbed in the groove on the rock. He understood that it was the rope rubbing against the rock that had created the groove in the rock. He noticed that though the rope was much softer than the rock, it could cut through the hard rock by rubbing against it again and again. He had found the solution to his problem of failures in examinations.
He was not very sharp and the subject matters were hard for his level of intelligence. He wondered, if a soft rope could create a groove in the hard rock by rubbing it repeatedly, why would he not succeed in understanding his hard subjects, if he tried again and again? Abandoning the thought of going away, he returned back to his home and began to work hard for his studies with greater enthusiasm. Now things have changed. He began to enjoy reading and gradually became more meticulous and thorough in his studies. Eventually, he became renowned as a great scholar. This is the true story of Varadraj, who is well known for his famous Sanskrit Grammar treatise called “Kaumudi Siddhanta”.
Moral
Nothing is impossible to achieve if there is a will, hard work and perseverance in effort.
Source: Pragya Tales Part 2
