Sadhguru tells the story of a young boy called Vemana who became a great saint through his single-pointed persistence, illustrating the meaning of Adi Shankara’s words: “Nishchalatattve jeevanmukti.”

Sadhguru: There was a fabulous saint in Andhra Pradesh named Vemana. There is no home in Andhra Pradesh who would not have at least a little book about him. Though his name was something else, they called him Vemana. When he was a young boy, he was known to be an utter fool. He lived with his teacher who tried to teach him the basics of the alphabet, but though Vemana was already fifteen, he still could not grasp more than a few letters because he was supposed to be so dim-witted.

If you have unwavering purpose, it doesn’t matter what the purpose is, you will be liberated.

One day, the teacher had to go out for an important engagement. He went to have a bath in the river and told Vemana, “Hold my clothes in your hands until I finish my bath. Be careful not to keep them down in the mud.” After his bath was over, he called Vemana, who just dropped the clothes in the mud and went running to his teacher.

The teacher got exasperated with him, but the boy just looked at him blankly. So the teacher in a state of great frustration gave him a piece of chalk and said, “Sit here and on this rock, go on writing ‘Rama, Rama, Rama’ till I come back. I hope you will get something out of this at least.” He then left for his appointment.

The boy felt so bad that all his teacher’s efforts were going to waste upon him. He just sat there and wrote “Rama, Rama, Rama.” The chalk wore out, but he continued with his finger. The finger wore out and he bled profusely but he just went on writing “Rama, Rama, Rama.” In the evening, the teacher came and saw this boy still writing “Rama” with his finger completely gone. He picked up the boy and just hugged him. “What did I do to you?” he cried.

After that day, the boy grew into such a wonderful poet and lived as an enlightened being. He wrote hundreds of poems! If one has this kind of persistence, if he is completely focused in one direction, nothing can be denied to that human being.