On failing to achieve our goal should we persevere in that goal or change it?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So thank you very much. So if our goals depend on the results from our past endeavors, and then how do we differentiate between endeavor and over endeavor? Should we just keep persevering in a particular goal, even if we don’t achieve it again and again? Or should we just move on to something else in our life? The basic principle is that we don’t lose hope.
No matter things go wrong in life, we don’t lose hope. Failure is an event. Failure is never a person.
Failure is an event that happens in a person’s life. A person is not a failure. Sometimes once a failure may come, second time failure may come.
Sometimes we may be going through a patch of bad karma, during which many times we may, repeatedly we may get some reversals. That doesn’t make the person a failure. Yes, in this life, during this period, the person is going through difficulties.
So we have to, we see the Krishna connection, that ultimately Krishna is control, and then I am his servant, and whatever way things are going on, I always stay fixed in his service. With that attitude when you work, even if you face reversals, you won’t get too disheartened by it. Because this is just happening at the material level.
My relationship with Krishna is still there. But we do have to work at the material level also. So therefore, we have to, when we are endeavoring, especially when we are endeavoring repeatedly, we have to look deep within our hearts to see whether this is what I am inspired to do.
Sometimes we endeavor in a particular field, not because we are so inspired by it, but we endeavor because that particular field is glamorized by society. And then, although we really don’t have much interest in it, we don’t have much inspiration for it, but just because of social pressure we are doing it. And then we don’t put our, we can’t put our heart in it, we don’t do very well in it, we get frustrated.
So if something is, if something is an area in which we feel deeply driven internally, then we can perceive it. Even if things don’t work out, keep perceiving it. Because we see that way many of the greatest successes that happen in life, we see that in many times in motivational books you may hear about how Edison, he tried so many thousands of times before he found a form, made to make a ball, so many endeavors.
So there is, there is that point that through repeated failure one comes to success. But then if we look at these people who were successful, they were very deeply driven to that particular mission. That’s what they felt, I want to do in my life.
Prabhupada himself failed so many times. Of course, Prabhupada’s endeavor is at a completely different level because he is working to please Krishna. But the principle, Prabhupada wrote in a letter to Brahmananda Prabhu, the first time they did a Rath Yatra in London and then everywhere the devotees had done Rath Yatras, they thought we would do a bigger Rath and they made a bigger Rath but they kept the wheels of the same size.
And then when the Rath was being made, when the Rath was being prepared, the Rath collapsed and it was, the wheels collapsed practically. It was like a big PR disaster. Everybody already decided.
So Brahmananda wrote to Prabhupada, Prabhupada, did this Rath Yatra fail because of my poor devotion? So Prabhupada replied, it was not poor devotion, it was poor engineering. So the point which I am making here is that actually, so there Prabhupada writes that it is a material principle that failures are the stepping stones to success. So Prabhupada does not say it is a spiritual principle, it is a material principle.
Material principle means that any endeavour you are doing, first time a child tries to drive a cycle, they fall sometimes. So it is a material principle, through failure we go towards success. The important thing is whether that success is so important for us internally, not just socially, that we were ready to go through all the failures, still we come to success.
Or sometimes we feel this is just not what I am interested in, this is not just what I am inclined towards, I will go somewhere else. So that is why to some extent Sattva Guna is important. When we are in Rajoguna and Tamoguna, what happens in Rajoguna, we worry too much about public opinion.
What do people think about me? I want to look good in people’s eyes. That is the driving motivation of people in Rajoguna. So that is why we often try to achieve things which we ourselves don’t need very much, but we just want people to know I got this.
Also in Tamoguna, we are just caught in our own inabilities. I can’t do this, I can’t do that, I can’t do that and we are just beating ourselves up. In Sattva Guna, we are able to see, yes, these are my limitations, these are my strengths, this is what I want to do.
So if we have endeavoured in a particular field repeatedly and things have not worked out, then rather than immediately rushing into repeating that endeavour or going to another endeavour, it is best to calm ourselves down, maybe withdraw ourselves from the situation a little bit, pray, read and get oneself in the mode of goodness. Once you are in the mode of goodness, then calmly reflect over the situation, write things down and then after writing down, evaluate it. See, when we write things down, get the things out of our head, that’s like we get a snapshot of our mind and then if we find, I’ll revisit this maybe every day for some time.
Don’t think about it constantly. Some thought comes in, just note it down. Think about it consciously for some time and if you find over one week, two weeks, one month, our thoughts overall stay the same and this is what I feel I should be doing, what I’m inspired to do.
Then that means it’s not just a passing infatuation, it’s like a, it’s a steady inclination of our mind. Then we can go on. But sometimes, you know, after one month, we feel again and again, this is just too tiresome.
I don’t want to get involved. So, if we feel driven, drawn to something else, then better focus on that. So, basically, we can consult our senior guides, but even when we have to consult, sometimes we ourselves are so confused that we don’t present our case also properly.
It’s like a doctor can give medicine when the patient tells all the symptoms. Nowadays, that’s why what doctors do is, they don’t rely on the patient only. Because the patient will not tell the symptoms reliably, that’s why they have hundreds of tests.
But with respect to the inner world, you know, doctors cannot do tests like that. We have to tell what are our inspirations, what is our frustration, what is our concern, what is our fear, what is our hope. We have to have, even when we want guidance from some senior, we need to have done our internal homework properly.
And this process which I am talking about, that helps us to do our homework. So, based on that, once we have sattva-guna, sattva-sanjayate jnanam, knowledge comes in that. We can understand ourselves better, understand our situation better.
And then we can decide, based on that understanding, coupled with consultation, what I should do and what I should not do. Can I answer your question? Thank you.