An ambitious and restless disciple was getting impatient with his guru’s style of
teaching one lesson at a time. He wanted to learn everything quickly and reap the
rewards of this learning quickly. He finally expressed his desire to complete his
course quickly and move to the next phase of his life. The guru nodded his head
and told him to come to him early next morning.
Next morning when the student arrived, he found the guru waiting for him near the
chicken coop. The guru then let the chickens free and asked the student to catch
them all in the next one hour. The student ran about trying to catch one and then
the other and finally at the end of his hour got exhausted and sat down dejected
as he had not been able to catch any. Then the master told him, now I ask you to
catch only the one with the ribbon round its neck. The student got up and despite
all the other chickens running around him just went after the ribboned one and
caught it with time to spare!.
The master smiled and said, “Focus is not our ability to stay attached to the ‘one’
but also the discipline to avoid the distractions of the ‘ninety nine”.
Moral: Success comes only when you get your priorities straight and your
actions following those priorities.
