True meaning of religion

Once upon a time, a saint lived near a river. He had many disciples who had come there for taking education from that saint. After all, the day came when the saint was going to give his blessings to all his disciples after the completion of the education. After bathing in the river in the morning the saint and all the disciples sat for worship. All were meditating, only then a child's voice was heard. He was calling for help. A disciple ran towards the river without taking care of his life and jumped into it. He somehow saved the child's life and brought that child to the shore. So far all the disciples were immersed in meditation, but the saint saw the whole incident with his eyes. Then the saint said to all of his disciples that after hearing the voice of a crying child, one of your friends jumped into the river to save the child. The disciples said, he has done unrighteousness by leaving worship in the middle. On this, the saint said, he did not do wrong, you all have done wrong. All of you ignored the call of the drowning child. Worship, religion and karma have the same purpose, protecting the creatures. All of you were well versed in scriptures, religious practices, but could not understand the essence of religion. It implies that there is no religion bigger than helping others stranded in distress.