No Short-cut to Vedas

 At a webinar, a participant asked me to name one best book that would quickly teach him Management. Contextually narrated this little story of Yavakrida from the Mahabharata. Let me share with you.
 
 
 Yavakrida started performing hard penance to realise his dream of being learned about Vedas. He wanted to avoid hardship it would otherwise take to learn.
 
 
 Indra saw his penance but told him "Brahmana, return home & seek a proper perception. AUSTERITY is not the way to learn Vedas; the path is through patient study & study alone". But Yavakrida instead intensified his austerities.
 
 
 One morning, he saw an old Brahman laboriously throwing sand into the river. Curious, he asked "what are you doing?"
 
 
 "I am building a dam across the Ganga. Handful after handful when I succeed, people will be able to cross it so easily" he said.
 
 
 "What a foolish plan...how can you build a dam across this mighty Ganga with silly handfuls of sand?"
 
 
 "Not more foolish than your project Sir of mastering the Vedas not by studying but by observing austerities!" he said
 
 
 Yavakrida recognises Indra's message begs for grant of  'learning' as a boon. Indra grants the boon with the following words.."Go & study the Vedas & this boon will make you learned".There are but no shortcuts to learning