How can we develop the contradictory qualities of enthusiasm and patience?
From Vandana Goel Mataji
Verse three of NOI say the attitude while performing Bhakti should contain
ENTHUSIASM ….PATIENCE….AND CONFIDENCE
my question is having enthusiasm and patience simultaneously are two contradictory things why has a devotee been advised to have these two contradictory features simultaneously??
Answer Podcast:
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. Question from Vandana Goel Mataji. Isn’t Utsaha and Nishchaya, as is talked about in the Updesha Amrit, aren’t they contradictory? So, how can we develop these two qualities, which seem contradictory, simultaneously? Answer, not necessarily that they are contradictory.
Utsaha is for the activity that we are doing. Enthusiasm. We should be enthusiastic for doing the service.
And we should be patient about the results that we get. So, for example, if we are practicing chanting, then we need to be enthusiastic to chant as attentively, as prayerfully as possible. At the same time, we also need to know that the process of purification is gradual.
It’s not that we chant for one or two days very sincerely and then immediately we expect all our unearthly anger, greed, envy to just disappear immediately. No, it will take time. So, similarly, if we are doing some services, if we are trying to share Krishna’s message, it’s not that we learn scripture today and we give a class and then everybody starts clapping and starts becoming a devotee.
No, actually, attracting people’s hearts towards Krishna takes time. We can look at Srila Prabhupada’s life to understand how the contradictory singing Utsaha and Dhaiya can be harmonized. Srila Prabhupada was tremendously enthusiastic in terms of constantly trying to share Krishna’s message with the world.
He was writing his magazine, he was writing his books, then he was giving Bhagavatam classes, he was traveling to meet patrons and seekers, he established a center in Jhansi and then he traveled from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi to get his magazines published and distributed. Then he went to America, there he tried in various places before he got his family breakthrough in Lower East Side. The point is, Prabhupada was enormously enthusiastic and as he explains in Enthusiasm in the Updeshanut, endeavor with intelligence in Krishna Consciousness.
So, Prabhupada was constantly endeavoring. At the same time, he was patient. Now the patience was, he could have said that Oh, I have been trying for 30-40 years, even before the events I described, Prabhupada was trying by expanding his business so that he could fund his spiritual master’s mission.
That did not work because his business was, there was some conspiracy against him and there were various incidents because of which his business could not work. So the point is that Prabhupada really got so many setbacks and disappointments and failures in his various endeavors, but he was patient. So patience, if we do not expect the results of the service to manifest overnight, then we are being patient and if we can constantly keep doing our service, that is enthusiasm.
So Prabhupada says endeavor with intelligence. So that means, Prabhupada was not just, in the name of patience, Prabhupada was not just beating his head against a wall. That means even if some strategy does not give a result, that does not mean that we just have to stick to the strategy all the time.
Prabhupada was constantly changing strategies, sometimes writing magazines, sometimes writing books, then trying to work with his godbrothers, then going to America and first trying to reach the relatively upper class people of America, but when they didn’t work, then he went to the hippies. So the point is that even when we say patience, patience we should not think of it as passivity, but we should think of patience as more in terms of perseverance in the purpose of serving Krishna. So whether specific strategies work out or not, that will vary according to person to person, according to place to place, according to circumstance to circumstance and we may have to adapt our strategies accordingly and Prabhupada did that very dynamically, very resourcefully and the principle is that Prabhupada was always enthusiastic, but with intelligence.
Okay, this is not working out, let me try that. If Indians are not interested, India is inhabited by the west, then let me go to the west and Prabhupada also saw that his spiritual master had sent his disciples to England, but after the second world war, America had become the primary super power, western super power, displacing England. So Prabhupada decided to go to America.
So Prabhupada uses intelligence. So enthusiasm does not simply mean activity and patience does not simply mean inactivity. So if we think of these only in these two terms, then we will feel that they are contradictory.
But enthusiasm means intelligently doing whatever is the best available way for doing our service to Krishna and patience means not getting disheartened and giving up the service to Krishna because of not getting results. Then we can see that how if we understand the underlying unifying principle of constantly serving Krishna, then we will be able to see how enthusiasm and patience are both invaluable assistants in keeping us fixed in the service of Krishna. So enthusiasm means we think of newer and newer ways, how can I serve Krishna? Patience means we don’t give up just because the results don’t come out, but are rather ready to wait and continue in the service.
Thank you.