Why Sagara’s Sons Divided the Search: The Meaning of “One Yojana Each”

Question

There’s a line saying that the princes divided the distance by “one yojana each” and searched for the horse in different sections. What does that mean?

Answer

The story says there were sixty thousand sons. When they first went searching for the horse, they kept digging the earth, going deeper and deeper, but they couldn’t find it. Then they returned to their father, King Sagara.

King Sagara told them again, “Go and dig once more.” Just as we say to our children when they fail at something—“Try again!”—he encouraged them to make a second attempt. This time he gave them an instruction:

“You are sixty thousand in number. If each of you takes a small portion of land—say ten thousand each—and digs your share, then together you’ll cover a vast area. What’s difficult about that? When a task is too large, divide it among many hands; even a big task becomes manageable.”

So, symbolically, this instruction means: even if each person does a little, even if each one makes a small effort, together it adds up. In the spiritual sense, it means that if we keep putting in even small efforts, step by step, one day we will be able to fully see and understand our subconscious mind.

Right now, we hardly look at our subconscious. Our attention seldom goes there. We keep blaming others—“I got angry because of him,” “I felt greed because of her,” “That situation caused my desire”—but we rarely turn inward to see what’s really happening in our own mind.

So, this symbolic part of the story is saying: if you make even small, consistent efforts to look within, then one day will surely come when you’ll be able to clearly see and understand your inner, subconscious world.