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In my thinking it is important to understand that there is no failure. Because most of our initiative is snubbed out when we think of failure. I want to do something - even before I think of the success of the venture or the effort, I begin to think of the possibility of failure and I become impotent. So we should forget that such a thing as failure exists. What happens? Suppose I am going from here to London, each moment I want to be in London, obviously, because that's why I am going there -- but at each moment I cannot be in London. I am still proceeding towards London, "Oh, I have not yet reached London, I am a failure, let me get out of the train." If you do that, you are lost. So when we are on a journey, till we reach the destination, and we are moving in the right direction, we should think, we should understand, we should have faith that there is no possibility of failure. What is failure? Failure is the, shall I say, the mind's interpretation of that time interval between my aim which I have to achieve and its achievement.
Now, this we are afraid of -- we put money in a business, even a mundane thing like a business venture, you see, we expect immediately a profit. This is like that guy who killed the chicken which laid the golden egg. It gave him one golden egg every day, but he wanted everything on one day. He cut it open, of course there was nothing and the chicken was dead. So we have to learn to take each moment as it comes, as something unique which it brings us -- which neither presages failure nor success, but only indicates our motion towards the goal, our progress towards the goal. Because if this idea of success and failure is taken, again we are in the world of duality -- where success is, failure must be too.
Somebody might well ask then, "What is it you are trying to achieve in Sahaj Marg? Is it not success?" No. It is growth. It is evolution. Like when you plant a seed, it takes time for it to germinate to become a plant, to become a tree and yield a fruit. In some cases, it may be months, in some cases it may be years. The longer it is, the more patience we need. "Oh, I planted this seed twenty days ago, it is not yet germinating, let me dig it up and see what's happening to the seed." We destroy it. We have to put it in, water it and go on watering it until something appears, and wait. That is why in spirituality, Babuji used to say, "Think that the Divine Light is in the heart, try to hold this thought and wait." Somebody once asked him, you know, a very illiterate sort of person asked Babuji, "What exactly is meditation?" He gave a beautiful answer. He said, "Suppose you invite me to dinner tonight at your house, what would you do?" He said, "Master, I would clean the house first, see that everything is shipshape, then my wife would prepare the food, the best that we can possibly offer, then we would make up the place where you are going to eat, lay the plates, or the leaves, and await your coming." He said, "The same thing in meditation - clean your heart, purify it, have everything ready and wait for the appearance of the Master."
Now this waiting is the most difficult thing. We are prepared to wait one second, or two minutes or five minutes or very patiently half an hour. Do you know how many times people miss trains because a train which is due hasn't appeared? So they immediately go and catch a bus. The moment they are in the bus, the train comes. It is very common in countries like India, where we have to wait. I sometimes, you know, I am very grateful to my Master, to my destiny, that I was born in a country like India. Because in India you learn patience. You have to wait for everything. There is no question of instant coffee and instant tea, and instant flights and instant liberation. (laughter) We wait for everything. We have to wait for water during the day, we have to line up our pots and pans and stand in queues. When will the truck bearing the water come? God alone knows.
We have to go to the dispensary when we are sick. Again we have to queue up -- when will the doctor come? Nobody knows. Perhaps not even God. You go to the vegetable shop. There is nothing there, we have to wait. You go to the milk booth, you have to wait. You go to the railway stations - the maximum waiting -- because nobody can say when the train will come. It may be one hour late, it may be 24 hours late. So I think in these under-developed countries of the East we are taught the greatest asset that a human being should possess: the ability to wait. Unfortunately, should I say, thanks to the technological and scientific growth of the Western societies, they have lost this ability to wait and therefore they have lost the capacity to be patient. So they meditate for two days, three days, five days, and say, "Chari, what the heck is going on? You know, I don't feel anything." It's like planting a seed and saying, "I don't see anything. There is no germination." We have to wait. "No, no, but how long do you expect me to wait?" Next question, you see. Well, till it appears. Isn't it? This is not the sun or the moon where you can forecast ten centuries ahead when the sunrise will be on the 7th of January 2026. Can you do it? Here there is no forecasting. They are obeying the laws of nature which gives them a certain cyclical motion which is predictable -- exactly predictable. Here you are dealing with an organic growth, an organic structure. When will it reach? Nobody knows. When will it be reaching completion? Nobody knows. But we have to keep moving towards the goal inexorably with faith, not coming to a stop at any moment of that progress. Then you will see that God Himself cannot stop your progress or your destination. Because that which moves must reach its goal.
Now the pity is that most of us get disheartened, disillusioned, have lack of faith, lose faith, and say, "OK. You know its OK. Let me try Tai Chi, or Buddhist meditation or something else." It's like putting water in the pan and putting it on the gas for two minutes. "It's not boiled." "No, no, but it takes ten minutes." "Oh, come on, how long do you think I can wait, I have a train to catch." So you take it off and put it on another gas ring. It's going to take extra time now. So those who change systems, you know, like a cat jumping from one cushion to the other, achieve no rest, achieve nothing. So this idea of failure is the thing that bothers most of us. "Am I failing? Is this a failure that I am facing?" Spirituality says, "No, my son, here there is no success, there is no failure, this is not a business venture that I can measure my progress in terms of success and failure. This is a growth-oriented process where I grow into something. It takes time. But whether it takes time or not, it is an inexorable process, an unfailing process, which once commenced, must culminate in its goal." This faith we should have.
Reprinted from Heart to Heart, Volume 1, p. 214-217
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