Small thing - Big lesson

Once, on seeing a colleague coming with a big chunk of earth, Gandhiji asked, "Why did you bring this?"

Colleague: "To clean a jug."

Gandhiji: "But then why such a big chunk of clay?"

"It was there, so I brought it."

"Are you going to wash it with all? What will you do with the remaining earth?"

"Just as it was lying there, so it will stay here."

"But, there it was in its own place. Here it will create unnecessary garbage. The first mistake you then make is that of creating garbage here and the second is you do not cultivate the habit of thinking about how you should live your life."

The colleague then turned into a deep thought. He realised that life of a great man is actually the sum of many small details. Gandhiji explained his own definition of garbage to him. Even if a log of gold, lying arbitrarily anywhere in the house, other than its own place in the treasury, it is called a garbage. Anything, which is not in its own place, is garbage.