Faith is everything

According to Vedic mythology, a brahmana (religious scholar) once asked Narada Muni, "Oh, you are going to meet the Lord? Will you please ask Him when I'm going to get my salvation?" "All right," Narada agreed "I shall ask Him."

As Narada proceeded, he met a cobbler who was sitting under a banyan tree mending shoes, and the cobbler similarly asked Narada, "Oh, you are going to see God? Will you please enquire of Him when my salvation will come?"

When Narada Muni went to the Vaikuntha (God's planet), he fulfilled their requests and asked Narayana (God) about the salvation of the brahmana and that of the cobbler.  Narayana replied, "After leaving this body, the cobbler shall come here to Me."

"What about the brahmana?" Narada asked. Then Narayana replied, "He will have to remain there for a number of births. I do not know when he is coming."

Narada Muni was astonished, and he finally said, "I can't understand the mystery of this."

"That you will see," Narayana said. "When they ask you what I am doing in My abode, tell them that I am threading the eye of a needle with an elephant."

When Narada returned to earth and approached the brahmana, the brahmana said, "Oh, you have seen the Lord? What was He doing?"

"He was threading an elephant through the eye of a needle," Narada answered.
"I don't believe that nonsense," the brahmana replied. Narada could immediately understand that the man had no faith and that he was simply a reader of books.

Narada then left and went on to the cobbler, who asked him, "Oh, you have seen the Lord? Tell me, what was he doing?"

"He was threading an elephant through the eye of a needle," Narada replied.

The cobbler began to weep, "Oh, my Lord is so wonderful! He can do anything!"

"Do you really believe that the Lord can push an elephant through the hole of a needle?" Narada asked.

"Why not?" The cobbler said. "Of course I believe it."

"How is that?"

"You can see that I am sitting under the banyan tree," the cobbler answered, "and you can see that so many fruits are falling daily, and in each seed there is a big banyan tree like this one. If within a small seed there can be a big tree like this, is it difficult to accept that the Lord is pushing an elephant through the eye of a needle?"

Story extracted  from "The King of Knowledge" by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada