The Power Of Faith

A milk-maid used to supply milk to a brahmana priest living on the other side of a river. Owing to irregularities of the boat service, she could not supply him milk punctually every day. Once, being rebuked for her going late, the poor woman said, “What can I do? I start early from my house, but have to wait for a long time at the river bank for the boatman and the passengers.”

The priest said, “Woman! They cross the ocean of life by uttering the name of God, and can’t you cross this little river?”

The simple-hearted woman became very glad at heart on learning this easy means of crossing the river. From the next day the milk was supplied early in the morning.

One day the priest said to the woman, “How is it that you are no longer later now-a-days?”

She said, “I cross the river by uttering the name of the Lord as you told me to do, and don’t stand now in need of a boatman.”

The priest could not believe this and said, “Can you show me how you cross the river?”

The woman took him with her and began to walk over the water. Looking back, the woman saw the priest in a sad plight and said, “How is it sir, that you are uttering the name of God with your mouth, but at the same time with your hands you are trying to keep your cloth untouched by water? You do not fully rely on Him.”