A Story on the "Drift" of Mind
In Sanskrit, there is an interesting & though simple story illustrating -"drift" of the mind & the great difficulty of preventing it;
One day the sage Narada and Krishna were passing by the river Ganges and were discussing man's place on earth. The sage, "Lord, the only thing that I cannot understand is, how and why so easily does this poor creature, man, fall into the snares of illusion.
If he could only keep his mind, on one subject and not let it drift, (-i,e., have one subject only in mind) there is no chance for him to go astray and take such ages to be enlightened."
Krishna said, "Yes, Narada, if their mind were as steady as yours then perhaps they would be able to avoid the snares of illusion.
But let the poor man go his way for, as I see the Ganges below, I would like to have a cup of water from this cool & refreshing river. Can you oblige me?"
The story goes on to say that sage Narada came down to the bank of the river with the purpose of fetching some water when he saw a young girl.
She started a discussion on the subjects of life, death, immortality and the diving Divine Being. The sage was anxious to know who this young girl was. He spent a long time discussing with her, the cup of Ganges water in his hand.
He completely lost sight of the fact that Krishna was waiting for him, and his purpose in coming down to the river.
The young girl then once again took the form of Krishna and said, "You see Narada, even after seeing and knowing the Divine Being, it is possible to forget.
Even a mind steady as yours, drifts from the contemplating of the main subject- then how much difficult it should be for mortals who, though they know not well their purpose as you do, drift away and completely forget the goal."