The Power of Patience

When I read the challenge Medha ji posed before us, I was like, is she kidding? What to write about an ol’ elephant perched on top of a branch, gazing out at the view in front without doing anything at all!!! The elephant was clearly crazy or was too lazy… Yeah, I would have loved to join the elephant on the branch and laze around, but what to really write about it? Creative juices refused to flow down, only beads of perspiration formed as I tried hard to think. But thanks to so many lovely people here, who have written such beautiful posts, that I too started to ponder on the elephant…

And our elephant headed lord Ganesha, the Vighnaharta, bestowed his grace on me, and cleared the obstacles in the path of the creative juices, and a tiny trickle started its journey down…

As I thought of the picture, I wondered how did the elephant really make his way up there? Ah, that’s a tricky question, only two know the answer, first is the elephant himself, and the second is Medha ji…. But now that he is already on the branch, he knows that he is in a dangerous situation. One wrong move and he could crash land on the ground, breaking a bone of two in the process. So he is sitting there still, waiting patiently, so that some help might come from somewhere and he might climb down. He is looking out in the distance, maybe looking for his herd, or maybe praying for God to come and save him, like Vishnu bhagwaan came and saved Gajendra when his foot was in the clutches of a crocodile.

So with that I will tell you what lesson this picture conveyed to me… Patience… When the situation is beyond your control, put your complete trust in God and patiently wait… With masterly inactivity. Sometimes without our knowledge, we get caught up in an unwanted and difficult situation. And there seems to be no clear way out. Then the only way out is wait with patience. Like the elephant sitting still and waiting to be helped, wait. Don’t be restless and jittery as that will only worsen the situation. Like imagine being trapped in quick sand, the more you struggle to get out, the more deeply and faster you will get sucked in. But if you stay still, the chances are greater that someone might pull you out!

When I was a little girl, the house we lived in was in a low lying area. So one time it so happened that our house also got flooded. The water level was rising very slowly, and luckily we had rooms upstairs. So we carried lots of things from the ground floor to upstairs. The flood waters entered our house and the ground floor was flooded. We were trapped upstairs for a few days. There was no electricity. No water supply. And there was water all around. All that we could do was wait patiently for the water level to go down. Sometimes that’s all we can do, wait patiently…

And my profession is one which demands plenty of patience. Being an obstetrician attending to deliveries, the most crucial factor in a successful delivery is unlimited patience, from both the patient and the doctor. Birth is a natural process which progresses slowly at its own pace. So this is what I keep telling the lovely ladies who come to me, have patience, and plenty of it too!!! 

When you are in an unwanted situation like  caught up in a airport after missing the connecting flight, or in the long queue outside the doctor’s consultation room, waiting for your appointment, when nothing seems to be in your control, remember our dear elephant and his patience, and try to practice it too… When nothing works, only patience helps….

Thank you Medha ji for stimulating our brain cells and dear Elle for teaching us these invaluable lessons ☺️☺️