3 BROTHERS FOUND GOLD

by Prem Rawat

     THERE WERE THREE BROTHERS. They had been brought up quite well. But as they got older, their parents died, they lost all their money, and they became very poor. So in their state of poverty, they had to beg for food. Before long, the three of them decided that they would rather go to the rivers in the mountains and pan for gold.

As luck would have it, all three found an equal amount of gold. They each took their gold back to their own shack, and some time passed.

The first brother was very religious. He made a little altar for the gold he had found. Every day, he would pray to the gold and sing its praises — how the gold had the power to totally eliminate his poverty and his suffering that he would never again have to beg or do anything he didn’t want to do because he would have food and housing. And that’s all he did — pray.

The second one was very educated. Instead of praying to the gold, he would write essays on the power of gold and write poetry in its honor. He would write about how the gold, so beautiful and shiny, had the power to remove his hunger, give him clothes, and put a roof over his head.

We might think there is a big difference between what the first two brothers did, but at the end of the day, we really have to question what the difference is.

The third brother sold his gold, and with the money, he bought himself a farm. He grew vegetables, planted fruit trees, and ate whatever he wanted. What he didn’t need, he sold. From the money he earned, he made himself a beautiful home. Amazingly enough, the things that the first two brothers wanted, the third one got — food, shelter, and clothes.

At one point the brothers decided they wanted to come together again. It had been a long time. When they met, they asked each other, “How are you doing?”

The first one said, “It’s beautiful. I pray every day. I pray and pray, ‘Almighty gold, please make available to me clothes to wear, a house to live in, food to eat.’ And I am sure that someday in the future — because of my sincerity — the gold will respond.

The second one said, “I write beautiful essays about gold, and I am sure that someday, pleased with my praises, the gold will bestow upon me all my wishes.”

Seeing their devotion and dedication to the gold, the third one kept very quiet.

The others turned to him and said, “And what do you do? We can see you have good clothes and look quite healthy — not like us who have to beg and wear these torn clothes. What happened? Were your prayers answered?”

The third one said, “I hate to tell you this, but I sold my gold, and with the money, I bought a farm. I worked on my farm, and somehow, that gold made it possible for me to have clothes, food, and shelter.”

Then the first two realized that they had started with the same amount of gold, but they didn’t really do anything with it. 

*Verbos subrayados son de Past Simple. Cuales son de Present Simple? Cuales son infinitivos?