Be Patient – In Gita Verse 1.5 There are also great heroic, powerful fighters like Dhṛṣṭaketu, Cekitāna, Kāśirāja, Purujit, Kuntibhoja and Śaibya.
Duryodhana did not want to look into the possibility of winning the war. It was out of arrogance he tried to insult Dronacharya, his teacher and commander of the army and also demoralise his own army.
Falling down and not focusing on what we have is very easy but to focus on what we have and holding ourselves by dropping our judgement is required to become aware. This is the reason why in all religions patience has been given a lot of importance. Pause and hold yourselves before taking any action. When you hold for a moment there is a drawback/hurdle we may fall to take any action which is Inaction. We fail to even use our Buddhi or intellect. We don’t want to take responsibility for our thinking and take any action, which is always un-chartered. Fear of failure and the unknown will also not allow you to take any action.
Duryodhana did not have any patience to look into the present situation and see the possibilities available, analyse his strengths and weaknesses. He was trembling with fear as Pāṇḍvas were strategically planning for the war and not on its outcome . The Pāṇḍvas were minutely monitoring the available resources, their strong and weak areas and how to effectively fill any shortcomings. Strategic planning was their strength.They were also concerned with the outcome of the war but they had the courage to behold the present moment and the available resources. They spent every minute on how to effectively use their limited resources. For them what they had was more important and how to manage it was their top priority.
Karma is always in the present moment. Our present moment’s karma will give birth to the next coming moment.
It is natural to be impatient. Tremendous understanding and awareness is needed not to be impatient, because impatience is not going to help; on the contrary, it is one of the greatest hindrances. You have to understand impatience as your enemy. You want the vast and the mysterious to open its doors, without much effort on your part. It is not possible. There are a thousand and one doors, and only one is right; you will have to knock on all the wrong doors to find the right one. Either in scientific research, or in spiritual seeking, patience is of paramount importance.
Edison, who invented the first electric bulb, had worked on it for three years. All his colleagues and his disciples gradually left. They were impatient, they wanted it to happen immediately, and they could not believe in the patience of Edison.
Every day, Edison would come fresh, young, excited, and they would tell him, “We have experimented in so many ways, and we have failed in every experiment. Why not change the subject? We should work on something else.”
Edison would say, “Who told you that we have been failures? Each failure brings us nearer to success because there must be only a limited number of doors. We knock on one door, and it is not the right door – but it is not a failure. One door, a wrong door, is eliminated; success is closer. We knock on another door; it is not the right door. But we are even closer to success – two doors are eliminated. Soon we’ll be knocking on the right door.
But the patience that he had is part of an intelligent and a genuine seeker. After three years, in the middle of the night, he knocked on the right door. For the first time, the human eyes..
He was alone, all his colleagues had left; he was tired, utterly exhausted, and thinking himself almost mad. He was alone when he discovered the electric bulb. It had taken three years. Day and night he had been thinking only of one thing – How to approach this? And when the room was lit up with electricity, he was sitting there in utter wonder. He was the first man to see something which had never existed before. He could not take his eyes off the electric bulb.
It was getting late, and finally his wife shouted from the other room, “Put that stupid light off!” She was not aware that it was electricity. She said “Come back, and go to sleep.”
He said, “It is not the stupid light that you are acquainted with; it is what my three years of patience has created. You should come here and see!”
Patience is the greatest religious quality.
The disciple who can wait will find all his questions answered at the right moment. But waiting is a great quality: it is deep patience, it is great trust. The mind cannot wait, it is always in a hurry. It knows nothing about patience; hence it goes on piling question upon question without getting the answer.
Sabr comes from sabr: it means infinite patience. Those who are in search will need infinite patience. Patience is the greatest religious quality; if you have patience nothing else is needed. Patience is enough, enough unto itself. Patience means hope, trust, and without any hurry, without any impatience. Impatience simply shows that you are not trustful. Impatience simply shows that you want to impose yourself upon the will of God, that you want it right now. You don’t want him to work on his own. Impatience means, “My will is greater than your will.” Patience means, “I surrender my will to your will. Let yours be my will, so whenever I am ripe, whenever – if it takes an eternity it is okay – I will trust, I will hope. I will not lose my heart, I will not be disheartened.”
All meditation is waiting. All prayer is infinite patience.
Both Pandavas and Kauravas were fighting the war. Duryodhana was impatient; he wanted everything according to his will. While Pandavas were patient they were also fighting the war to win. But totally focused on the action needed and totally focused on their action. When you are focused in the present moment you will act with patience. When your focus is in the future and not ready to focus in the present moment; act, but on your desire for something you will be impatient.
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