Let’s Change the Culture of Impatience and Instant Results

Ananta koti pranam at Swamiji’s lotus feet who is pushing me hard to utilize my brain to the maximum possible extent. Taking the advantage of my newfound energy, I am posting some blogs which suddenly spring up from thin air. Most of my previous blogs have taken me on an average of less than one hour of typing, proof-readings, correction and publication with the minuscule amount of intelligence which I have. I am dedicating Sahil’s Science Olympiad International Rank 27 at your feet as you have blessed him. Looking forward to today’s English discourse and the zoom meeting with you day after tomorrow.

Today’s topic is very relevant one as per the current day scenario: Instant Karma and instant results. The entire world is after shortcuts. Shortcut to overnight fame, success, wealth etc. Children don’t want to understand the fundamentals of study. They want shortcut methods to arrive at the result. I completely agree that, it is required to succeed in this highly competitive world of exams where one gets limited time with unlimited questions. But the irony is that they don’t want to understand the basics, only shortcut is what they are focussed and the coaching institutes are also feeding them the same way. This way of study leads to success but failure in later part of life as life has no shortcuts. This kind of mentality sometimes give rise to ugly cases of public shooting which has become very rampant in the West.

Real life problems don’t have any shortcuts. They need to be faced with a lot of courage and patience. But we have not learnt to be patient and wait. We are so busy that even if there is red light at a traffic signal, we honk continuously to move even an inch ahead. As soon as the light turns green, the honking sound breaks all the decibel values as if the front row people have not seen the light change from red to green! A little delay and we have a scene of fight like cats and dogs. Sometimes I feel do we really deserve to be called as humans? We have a short supply of patience.

We see Virat Kohli, Ussain Bolt, numerous film stars and other successful people rising to fame. We think they are the lucky ones to have made it. We too aspire to become like them in the shortest time possible. But we have not seen their struggle, their hard work, their sacrifices which catapulted them to that level. We are scared of hard work and wish everyday “Oh! Lord please meri lottery laga de, so and so amount ka prasad chadhaunga!” But we forget that god also help them who show resilience, will work hard, never give up instead of array of failures. Then even the universe conspires to help them out.

The instant tea, coffee, fast food culture has engulfed us to such an extent that we have started to believe in anything shortcut even spiritual achievements also. We don’t have the patience to devote some quality time for our spiritual development. We want ourselves to be a sthitapragyan (stable person), but don’t want to fulfil the pre-requisites for the same. We cannot wait at the petrol pump for our turn, we cannot wait for our turn in supermarket billing counter, we take pride in breaking lines and get our job done faster than others. But if Apple co. declares a sale that the latest i-Phone will be sold at half price, we can wait with utmost patient. So it is not that we don’t have patience, but it is selective in nature which needs to be generalized.

Our lack of patience also translates into even lack of belief in the almighty. If our problems are not resolved immediately, we lose hope, become frustrated and hold god responsible for not listening to our prayers. But in the rat race, we are forgetting that “the early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.” This statement tells a volume. Patiently, with perseverance if we work towards our goal even at very low pace, we will remain steady and we can enjoy the journey too without bothering much for the outcome. For this the main ingredient required is deep faith and constant toiling with less complain about the surroundings.

As the most adorable icon of the os.me family, our own revered Swamiji had done infinite amount of sadhana, may it be at the frigid and wild Himalayas or at the Naga Baba’s Ashram. He did the sadhana with utmost patience without hoping for instant results or divine grace. I strongly believe that his karmas helped him through his journey. As per his own statement, he was not getting proper food at the Naga Baba’s Ashram, but he never complained. He was not there to judge the food quality, after all he was not a food inspector 😊. He kept his focus unperturbed in the face of all kind of adversities. And the results were stellar. He got the darshan of Devi Maa not just single time but numerous times.

Had he got dejected by 2-3 months’ of sadhana, he would have ended up no where in his quest. Maybe he would have become the richest person on earth by the time in terms of wealth due to his unparalleled talent in the domain of coding and fixing goofed up cases 😊. After all most of the companies goof up various critical project, also stemming from the reason of impatience in planning, execution of the projects. Swamiji would have rescued them and could have earned a fortune. But what he has earned, cannot be purchased even if all the wealth of the world is amassed.

We should imbibe this quality of having patience. We should pass on the same to our next generation. Meditation plays a key factor to develop this virtue. And not the 3 minute stress buster meditation which is advertise gimmick by a no. of Gurujis! It’s not like The Matrix movie where Neo pops a pill and all the software get installed in his mind. We need to create the neural network in the brain of our future generation with practice, practice and practice. One example to do so is if our kid(s) require(s) something, we may tell them we are saving money to purchase the item and it will take some time. This is a simple way to develop the attitude. We should tell them that there is no substitute to hard work. There is nothing called overnight success. Even if it is there, it won’t last long if enough groundwork is not done for the same.

I think I have tested your patience enough 😉. Before you all get fed up with my pravachan and start mental brick batting, let me conclude with the following golden lines

“Patience attracts happiness; it brings near that which is far.”

PS: Plz think about this article before you honk at the red signal or green signal whatever it may be at a traffic post! Yours crazy Biswa with some loose screws for which search is still on 😉