48
And though
a man may have
a tremendous
Will
in
one
direction
it
need not always
be sufficient
to help
him
in
another ; it may even
be
stupid.
There is the story of the
man who
practised
for
forty years to walk
across the Ganges;
and, having
succeeded,
was reproached
by his Holy
Guru,
who said:
"You are a great fool.
All your neighbours
have been
crossing
every day on a raft for two pice."
This occurs to most, perhaps
to all, of us
in
our careers.
We spend
infinite
pains
to learn
something,
to achieve
something,
which
when
gained
does not seem
worth
even the utterance of the wish.
But this is a wrong view to take.
The discipHne
necessary in order to
learn Latin will stand us in good
stead when we wish
to
do
something
quite different.
At school
our masters punished
us;
when we leave school,
if we have
not learned
to punish
ourselves,
we have learned
nothing.
In fact the only danger is that we may value the achievement
in itself.
The boy who prides
himself
on
his
school
knowledge
is in
danger
of
becoming
a college professor.
So the Guru of the water-walking
Hindu
only meant
that
it was
now
time
to
be
dissatisfied
with
what
he
had
done — and
to
employ
his
powers to some better end.
And, incidentally,
since the divine
Will
is one, it will
be
found
that