Be patient and also be industrious

Even the most powerful exhortations contained in ancient and modern literature may not be able to prevent cynicism creeping into the mind of the earnest seeker too. These may, in fact, seem, on occasions, as mere theoretical rhetoric, incapable of practical application in the context of ground realities.

For instance, assertiveness, wielding an iron fist in a velvet glove, ���enlightened selfishness���, and also cutting off all actions or relationships, which don���t contribute to one���s ultimate vision and goal ��� these could often backfire, landing the aspirant, more often than not, directly into the fire from the frying pan!

What then is the solution, especially for one who has responsibilities and also for him who may even be dependent financially and socially on particular mundane relationships? The overall scenario, for any one who seeks sublime living, could thus indeed be confounding and mind-boggling! No wonder, it was noted by Katha Upanishad (1,iii,14) that treading a spiritual path is akin to walking on a razor���s edge.

The answers to various vexing questions that may assail the spirit could be found in the advice of Pavlov, on his death bed, to his aspiring students: ���Passion and gradualness���. This is that capacity to hope and wait, allowing things, where necessary, to ���hasten slowly���, in the spirit of the injunction ���shanaihi shanaihi��� in Bhagawad Gita (6,25). This process invariably also goes with the capacity to take infinite pains and to persevere and persist ��� H W Longfellow���s concept of ���learn to labour and to wait���.

This, in essence, is the process of dynamic waiting, never ever losing sight of the chosen vision and things dear to the heart, though having to be involved simultaneously, in the process, with necessary mundane pursuits too. An analogy, in this regard, is Ramakrishna Paramahamsa���s concept of the swan, who, laying her eggs on the shore, and having to necessarily go into the water for food, nevertheless keeps her mind fixed always on the eggs, to which she will surely and continually return.

This also is that vision, which combined with intelligence, rationalism and courage, works out miracles, where the vain, the superficial and the shallow drop off naturally, by and by. This process also embodies that supreme wisdom on the invincibility of the awesome combination, as conceived of by Gita (18, 78), of all well-meaning and earnest human effort and that divine sanction, which would inevitably follow this!