Don’t crave the feast in others’ plates – savor the feast in yours

Suppose we were invited to a feast in which everyone had slightly different delicacies on their plates. Suppose further that we got so caught in looking at what delicacies are there on whose plate as to not even notice the delicacies on our plate.

Such a pathetic misdirection frequently characterizes our present mindset. We all have some talents – these are akin to the delicacies in our plate. But our culture often glamorizes certain talents, thereby making us crave for those talents and overlook our own talents.

Aggravating our misdirection, the delicacies on our plate are visible, whereas the talents in us are often concealed. Some of our talents, we know about; some, others know about, but we don’t; and some, neither others nor we know. That’s why, to discover and develop our talents, we need to introspect and explore. But introspection and exploration becomes difficult, if not impossible, when craving and lamenting consumes us emotionally.

Gita wisdom counters such emotional misdirection by reminding us that we are all parts of Krishna and that he loves us for who we are, not for what we have. We can realize his love by elevating our consciousness – an elevation that requires performance of purificatory austerities. The Bhagavad-gita (17.16) recommends satisfaction as an austerity of the mind. Rather than treating satisfaction as an uncontrollable feeling that we hardly ever feel, we need to cultivate it as a discipline by consciously focusing on things that stimulate satisfaction and avoid things that trigger dissatisfaction. Instead of dwelling inordinately on the gifts that others have and we don’t, we can focus on discovering and developing the gifts we have.

By thus meditating on Krishna’s love and his gifts, we can gain inner satisfaction; and by tapping those gifts, we can make significant outer contribution.