In a sprint, speed determines success,
whereas in a marathon, stamina determines success.
Spiritual growth is a marathon, not a
sprint. To purify our consciousness and develop love of God, we need to
practice throughout our life or maybe even several lives.
However, we live in a society infatuated
with quick results. It deems fast achievers as successes and downplays others
as also-rans. We tend to carry this mentality into our spiritual life too.
Consequently, we may become proud of our strict practices and condescending
towards those not practicing similarly. Worse still, if we ourselves are unable
to practice those standards for some reason, we may become inordinately
dejected, not realizing that falling back or even falling down in one lap
doesn’t mean losing the marathon.
Thankfully, such a shortsighted, judgmental
attitude doesn’t reflect the Bhagavad-gita’s inclusive, appreciative attitude.
It (03.26) urges us to not agitate the minds of the less-informed, but to
encourage them to stay spiritually progressive according to their level.
Different people are at different stages in
their spiritual evolution, having gone through different things in this and
previous lives. So, they have different spiritual stamina levels and need to
pace themelves accordingly. As long as they have a favorable disposition
towards Krishna and strive to connect with them at a level they find
sustainable, they will stay on in the marathon, even if running slowly. And as
they get connected with Krishna and relish higher taste, they will naturally
pick up pace in due course. But if due to our judgmental attitude, they become
unfavorably disposed towards Krishna’s devotees and by extension towards
Krishna, then they will drop out of the marathon entirely.
Knowing that different runners have
different stamina levels, we can encourage them to stay on in the spiritual
marathon, whatever their pace.
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