There was a village in India, People of that village used to live happily. Majority of people were doing farming and other related works for their daily needs, Time passed by, the villagers wanted their children to study and stand good in their lives. After around 20 years, when those children grew up and most of them went to nearby cities / states for higher education, the visits of those young people reduced to their villages.
Due to this their parents who lived in the village became worried. They wanted their children to study but on the other hand they also did not want them to lost in fast life of cities. So all of them arranged a meeting and it was decided that to go to a saint who lived in nearby village and ask the solution. He heard the problem and asked the parents to call their children at some festival and have them meet with the saint himself. The festival of colors (Holi) was decided as the day to call all of the children.
The day came and all of the children were at the village, Holi function was kept at village’s panchayat ghar. All celebrated the festival, met with their childhood friends. Everyone thought that one of his / her friend might have arranged this get together but when it was discussed and asked all over, they started thinking that why did their parents call all of them together. Soon there was an announcement that everybody to be back at panchayat ghar at 4pm.
At 4 pm, Everybody gathered at the asked place, Saint asked the audience to bring a Glass bucket, few bricks, few pebbles, some sand in a container and few glasses / bottles / cups of juices, coffee, tea, shakes. After students brought up the required things, Saint started:
He first put few bricks in the bucket and asked everyone that if the bucket was full, everybody agreed to it.
Then saint picked pebbles and started pouring pebbles into the bucket, pebbles being small started rolling and taking seat in open area between bricks. Saint again asked if the bucket was full, everybody shook their heads in agreement.
Then Saint picked the container of sand and started pouring it into the bucket. Sand filled up into every possible space, Upon asking if the bucket was full, everybody again said yes without any doubt.
Saint then started the explanation, this bucket represents your life, Bricks are your most important aspects of life like parents, , partner, children, health. Pebbles represent secondary things like job, business, house, car etc. Sand represents everything else.
Seeing faces of people, he explained in another way:
He said that if you put the sand into the bucket first then there would be no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same
goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the
things that are important to you like family, job etc . Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Enjoy with your children. Spend quality time with your loved ones. There will always be time to go to work, make the house clean and do petty things.
So the moral of the story is set your priorities with the ones which are very important for you. Now students had a clear expressions on their faces. They had understood what saint was trying to explain.