Things that are worth doing, are worth doing well — and worth doing badly too Gita 06.26

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Things that are worth doing are worth doing well and worth doing badly too. If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing well.
This saying is helpful if it inspires us to be wholehearted in whatever we do. However, it can backfire if it makes us believe that we need to excel in whatever we do. Why backfire? Because we are finite and fallible beings.
It is our human condition that we learn to do things by doing them imperfectly, incorrectly or even pathetically. Consider cooking or cycling or even something as simple as cleaning. We first do those things poorly and then gradually we improve.
If we expect that the first time we should be excelling and if we don’t then we will become so discouraged that we may stop doing it entirely. That’s why some things we need to recognize are so important that they are worth doing even if we are doing them badly. And that bad phase may go for a long time before we come anywhere close to high quality performance.
This principle applies especially to spiritual practices like meditation. When we meditate we will be inspired by hearing about great spiritualists or saints who experience deep peace, sublime joy and are even transported to some other level of reality while meditating. But we may find that during our own efforts at meditating we are not able to even focus on anything spiritual.
Our mind wanders here, there and everywhere. If we believe that meditation is worthwhile only when it is done well then we may feel it’s not worth meditating at all. Better give up.
However, meditation is a spiritually potent practice. Even if it is done badly still it keeps us progressively moving on the spiritual path and it is only by repeated practices of meditation that we gradually start strengthening our spiritual connection. The Bhagavad Gita frees us from the burden of expecting perfection or absorption meditation when it states in 626 yato yato nishchalati manas chanchalam asthiram tatha satoniam yai tad atmanyevam vasham na ye wherever and whenever the mind wanders bring it back under the control of the self.
What this means is, the Gita is saying, don’t expect the mind to not wander. Don’t expect absorption. It is only by repeated reorientation of the mind that gradually we will move toward purification and increase absorption.
So when we thus have the humility to accept our humanity and its attendant fallibility, then we can persevere in doing the things that matter without being inordinately obsessed with the results. Thank you.