I woke up to a leaky tap and a messy floor filled with water. I immediately got into action, trying to stop the leakage first and then mopping up the floor before it spoiled the furniture. Then, when I had a breath to catch, my first thought was – I don’t like adulting. And the second one was to call the plumber to fix the damage.

An hour later, the plumber arrived and fixed it by changing the broken tap. Then as he was checking the other taps around it, he told me that the flow of water in the wash basin tap was low. I quickly replied, saying that this is how it always has been. He said that he would open it and do a quick check to ascertain if it was functioning properly. I agreed to it and watched him work, as now even I was curious about it.

He opened the tap and showed me some dust and other particles that were stuck in the tap filter and were obstructing the flow of water. While cleaning and fixing it back, he told me, with a wise smile on his face, “Water comes from different sources and along with it come impurities, which get stuck in the filter. And if you don’t clear it once in a while, the flow reduces. So, if you want a clear flow, then regular cleaning is important.”

His words hit me, and I had a light bulb moment. I realised this wasn’t just about a tap, it was a spiritual lesson in disguise.

With his wise smile still plastered on his face, he fixed the tap and then turned it on, and water came gushing out.

I smiled and told him that I didn’t think that water would come out with such intensity.

He just smiled and said, “I told you regular clean-up is necessary. We never know what is getting stuck up inside.”

Like a man with an invisible halo, he nodded his head, accepted his fees, and then left.

I stood there, letting his words float around me, trying to absorb them. Unknowingly or knowingly, he had taught me something profound. It surprised me how a simple moment could turn into a quiet spiritual lesson.

We go through our daily life without giving much thought to what is getting stuck inside us. We just pass on from one day to the other most of the time holding on to our good memories. But what we forget is that on the way and over time, some murk does get collected, no one is spared from that.

But do we really make the effort to clear it out? Do we really spend time looking inside? Most of the time and energy is so focused on the external space and external life that we forget that our internal space is also as important. And clearing it will simply allow life to flow more effortlessly and with a beautiful intensity.

Because, as the great saints say: as within, so without — perhaps the truest lesson of all.

The tap was fixed, the flow returned, and I was left with an unexpected spiritual lesson to carry with me.

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