To traverse the path to self-improvement balance aspiration with awareness

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. We either learn to fail or we fail to learn.
All of us have our issues in life. All of us have things which we find difficult to do. Struggles in which we often end up irritated, exasperated, frustrated and amidst such situations if we are not careful about what we are doing then we end up failing.
Not just failing but frustrating ourselves because of the failure. So spiritual life and any kind of meaningful, purposeful life in general involves a natural process of learning and growing through failing. Nobody is born perfect.
When a child learns to walk, the child falls repeatedly and then learns to slowly take baby steps and then start walking. When we start cycling we also make baby steps, we also fall at times initially. So now with respect to specific activities in our life we recognize that failure is unavoidable but unfortunately when we move beyond such specific activities to life itself overall we often burden ourselves with unrealistic expectations.
Such expectations that whatever I do must work out to be right. Or for that matter whatever resolution I make it must be perfect. We expect our resolutions to be like lines in stone rather than lines on sand.
Now if our inner structure is like sand instead of stone, how can we possibly draw lines that will last? We cannot expect unrealistic things. We all would like to be more determined in whatever we do. We all would like to be more successful in whatever we are doing whether it is in terms of our inner improvement, in self-discipline or our outer contribution in the various activities that we are doing.
But we cannot do so without recognizing that we are at our core made of different inner structures. Just as when we are high up in the sky and we are looking down we can only see broad topographical differences. We may be able to see that this looks like a tall mountain, this looks like a city area, this is a water body, this is a river, this is an ocean.
But we cannot see the specific content of the soil that is there in that particular area. So whether it is a rocky terrain or a sandy terrain we cannot see because we cannot see. It is only when we come closer to the surface of the earth or we have some instruments by which we can see more clearly even from a distance.
Essentially when there is closer, clearer examination, inspection of whatever it is that we are trying to see then we come to a better understanding of its true nature. And it is only based on such understanding that we can move forward in our life and attain happiness, attain fulfillment, attain joy. Because then we recognize the reality that we are having within us.
Just like we may want to run very fast but if we are on an oily surface, slippery surface, a marshy surface then we cannot run fast no matter how much we will be determined to do so. Similarly, we cannot, if our inner territory, inner terrain is made in a particular way and we don’t recognize that and without acknowledging the reality, we try to function as if the inner reality is the most congenial reality that our inner surface is the most conducive for running fast when actually it isn’t. When we just subject ourselves to frustration and misery, even injury, if we recognize that actually we cannot wish away the reality of our inner territory and we may see some people who seem to be perfect at things but actually they are not.
Even if they have come to a high level of excellence, they have done so only after long efforts of practice. Even people who are very talented, they also complement their talent with commitment. Somebody in cricket might be a great bowler who just know how to bowl the right lengths.
But even if they have natural bowling talent, still they have to practice consistently so that they can actually do the needful in terms of moving onwards towards bowling effectively. Consistently. And the same applies in every field of life.
If we start denying the reality of who we are in terms of the inner topography, in terms of our mental makeup, then we will be living made-up lives. If we deny our mental makeup, we live made-up lives. Made-up lives means we are simply imagining that we are something that we are not.
We are simply portraying an image which we find very difficult to maintain. The inability to maintain causes enormous frustration to us and thus we end up not being able to do things which we would normally have found it easy to do and would have normally expected to be easy for us to do. Now, not denying the reality doesn’t mean just succumbing to the reality.
So, for example, if a surface is slippery, then an attempt to run very fast on it will cause us to slide and fall. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t move at all. We don’t need to move.
And the way we move is by acknowledging that there is danger, that there is caution required. And then with that due caution, we move as fast as practical in that situation. So, we need to differentiate between accepting reality and perpetuating the status quo.
Perpetuating the status quo means not making any attempts at all to improve things. That is not at all what we are talking about here, simply because we all know that without trying to improve ourselves, we will never be able to do anything constructive in our lives. So, the attempt to improve ourselves has to be there, but it has to be done in the acknowledgement of reality.
Even people who have achieved something extraordinary, something which even seems impossible to other people, to most people in fact, that actually is not something that they have achieved automatically. What seems automatic is also actually effortful. It is achieved only after systematic, repeated effort.
So, by acknowledging the reality that we have a particular kind of inner territory that we have to navigate, we can move onwards towards recognizing that life never comes with guarantees of success. But in life, there is always the possibility for improvement. So, instead of expecting the certainty of achievement, we can focus on the possibility of improvement.
And that possibility becomes much more manageable, much more realistic, much more actualizable when we begin with where we are instead of where we imagine ourselves to be By giving ourselves a healthy dose of reality for starting our journey, we can progress towards succeeding in that journey. By giving ourselves a healthy dose of awareness along with our ambition, today’s ethos often glamorizes ambition and doesn’t give adequate attention to awareness. We need to have a balance of both ambition, that is where I want to go, and awareness of what is the nature of the path leading there.
If there is only awareness and no ambition, that means I just look at the territory around me and I have no desire to move anywhere, no idea about where I should be going, then that awareness may not be very fruitful, because in being aware I may see these obstacles, oh, this part is dangerous like that, that part is dangerous like that, that part is dangerous like that. And why move at all? So if there is only awareness, that can be problematic. At the same time, if there is only ambition, then that means I see maybe a shining mountain, attractive mountain top, I see a peak of a mountain towering above all the remaining territory and I feel that, oh, I should go there, but then I don’t consider the dangers along the path, then I end up frustrating myself, because what can I do? What can I do? Even I find that there are almost unsurpassable obstacles along the way, so there is balancing our aspiration with awareness is what will help us to take failure in our stride when we are both aspirational and cognitional, we have aspiration driving us and we have awareness guarding us, then we can take problems, failures, obstacles in our stride and as we keep moving onwards in our inner journey towards Krishna, we all can recognize the grace of Krishna manifesting in our lives in many small and big ways that help us to move closer to Him, that help us to attain Him, and when we try to improve in any aspect of our life, so that we can do a better contribution, so that we can deepen our devotion, then also this balance of acceptance and then aspiration, accepting the reality of what things are and aspiring to change that reality, this combination can help us to move towards enduring success, had it not been for this balance, we would end up with frustration at the inability to change or mere passivity because of not even trying to change, when we learn to fail, not that we are failing as an art that we need to learn, but rather learn to fail means that we learn to take failure gracefully in our stride without letting it discombobulate us, then we learn, learn through the failure and we move on in our lives towards improvement, towards achievement, towards fulfillment.
Thank you.