Momentary Failures

Hey there everyone, how are y’all holding up this Tuesday? For me, it's been another day of hustle, but instead of complaining, I have decided to turn every challenge into an opportunity. My friends describe me as being a very optimistic person, and if I have to be very honest I have to say that being optimistic is just another way of coping with stress, as there are times when you can’t help but be at the receiving end of failures. 

If you are lucky then you get to witness failures just once or twice, and in my case, they have been a lot repetitive leaving me to question my own skills. It is in such times that I sought refuge with Swami Vivekananda’s Karma Yoga, especially in the place where he talks about acting and taking up all the responsibilities on our shoulders as if everything depends on us. 

Truth to be told, those days when I was not too accustomed to the ways of dealing with the world, and never thought that there could be setbacks at all, I would be banking on his saying, holding onto them as if they were the gospel truth. And they were, but little did I realise that to be successful in this world, you have to take into account the viewpoints of others too, and not just place your own. As anticipated, then came the blows of the world which were strong enough to make me realise what a fool I was. 

Oftentimes, I’d find myself in the middle of nowhere, gasping for breath, with no one to my rescue. Not knowing what I could do, I did what I could do best, take refuge in Swamiji. To my rescue, the Swami had talked of failures too, and when he talked about them, he said that while we are working we are bound to encounter failures, and there is no doubt that we’ll have to struggle our way up there.

But, Swamiji holds the thought that momentary failures and setbacks must not deter us or our spirits, no matter what happens to us - we must be able to march through victoriously. While I did find a lot of comfort in these words, they in fact rekindled my spirits too, I was still sceptical, as I didn’t know how to deal with the failures that are causing me pain now, and no matter what I do, I would find myself in a pit. 

I lucked out again when Swamiji made a mention of the teachings of the Buddha. The Buddha and the Buddhists lay a lot of emphasis on “impermanence”. In fact, if you notice their first noble truth says the world is full of sorrows, and that is followed by the mention of the cause of sorrow which is desire.

To the common man, all of this might seem to be rather obnoxious, but slowly if we are able to train our minds, we might get there soon enough and then none of this will seem to be problematic to us. The experts and spiritual leaders say that when we are able to tame our minds properly, then no matter what happens to us, we shall be able to deal with it with ease, even our failures. 

I am still taking baby steps towards this, but I am confident that the next time when we see ourselves witnessing failures and setbacks from the world, we will be able to laugh it off, terming them as “momentary.”

Image via Pexels by Nathan Cowley