How is temperament more important than talent?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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one last question and then can I ask some yes somebody yesterday spoke about that talent is not as important as temperament so I just wanted to hear more about it like temperament in what ways can be differentiated and that focus goes on that one has so I said talent is not as important as temperament what does that actually mean it is for specific activities talent will be very important say some specific activity like something like singing or playing a specific instrument talents are required for that and in genuine life the temperament is what sustains a person in doing an activity even if somebody is talented in something still there are difficulties somebody may be a very good say good singer but even then there are going to be problems somebody may be a great singer but even for them the sound system will collapse sometimes the power will go off sometimes they will get a sore throat sometimes they will not reach for their engagement or time all these routine problems of life will come to everyone and if they get too agitated by that then the sound system will not work and they go into a bad mood and that will affect their singing so talent is vital when the performance is there but our life is not just a performance of talent our life is about our overall consciousness so a few years ago there was this American comedian Academy Award winner Robert Williams he committed suicide now many celebrities have committed suicide but this this particular celebrity he was a comedian he was a very good comedian so him committing suicide was alarming because normally we think of people who make others laugh they make others happy so obviously they must be happy but he was apparently so unhappy that he committed suicide so I wrote an article about it titled after the laughter yes on the screen we see the laughter they are laughing, they are making others laugh but what about after that so talent just like some people may have talent to sing some people have the talent of humor they can just tell stories in an entertaining way they can make jokes they can create jokes and that talent is good for their performance but their overall life is going to be determined by their temperament life sends difficulties how do they deal with those difficulties so in that sense success in a particular field may be achieved by talent but success in life having a satisfied life having a meaningful life that will depend much more on temperament and even in particular fields also if the temperament is not steady then one may be like a flash in the pan one may be successful for some time but then after that a person may just lose out in Indian cricket history the example is given that Sachin Tendulkar is one of the best batsmen the best batsman India has produced so he and another batsman known as Kamli both of them were very talented Kamli was more talented than Tendulkar but Kamli was very temperament and this came on the screen came on the international circuit for some time so in every field we will see that there are people who are talented but they don’t make it why? because they don’t have the temperament so in our spiritual life or by our spiritual life even if we are deficient in talent our temperament gets improved because broadly speaking temperament is associated with the mode of goodness even if somebody is doing a passionate activity like playing cricket I believe it is like limited overs T20 kind of cricket still even then there are also people who have to maintain a cool head in their play and that cool headedness is basically a characteristic of the mode of goodness so the more we practice bhakti ultimately we will attain Krishna but intermediately we come and become situated in the mode of goodness and through that mode of goodness we can deal with life’s issues much more calmly so even when we have talents to translate the talent into achievement we need temperament and even if apart from the talent rest of our life, what about it? that will be determined by our temperament so in the material conception of life the deficiency of talents can seem very crippling but in the spiritual understanding the talents may not be improvable dramatically but the temperament can be improved significantly and thus we can have a better life thank you very much Shloka Prabhupada Ki Jai Hare Krishna we would like to thank