Is Patience Really a Virtue?
Questioner: Acharya Ji, Pranaam! Kabir Sahab says, “Are mann kahe dheeraj na dhare (O Mind! Why are you not patient).” And we are also told not to use one’s life like a waiting room.
How do I practise both these simultaneously?
Acharya Prashant: No there is no contradiction Anuranjan (the questioner). Kabir Sahab is saying, “Be patient”, I have said, “Do not use your life like a waiting room.”
You must not wait even for a second for the things that merely promise but will not deliver. See very quickly that the promise is for the future and that future is never going to arrive, therefore there is no point waiting for that future.
Just give up. Just give up on the wait.
And Kabir Sahab is saying, “Even if you now set your eyes towards the Real target, you are not going to immediately get it. A long process of Sadhana (spiritual discipline) will be required.”
You are not going to be immediately liberated. You are a thing in time, and you will require time to melt. If you become too impatient, then you will disrupt your own journey towards the Truth.
So Kabir Sahab is saying, “Be patient. Do not think too much of yourself. What do you think that you are such an advanced seeker that you will be able to attain God in a week’s time? Who are you? Just keep waiting. You deserve to wait.”
So I am saying, “When it comes to nonsense, do not wait, do not tolerate.” Kabir Sahab is saying, “When it comes to the Truth, keep waiting and keep tolerating.”
There is no real contradiction here.
I am talking of your immediate life, Kabir Sahab is talking of an advanced stage.
Kabir Sahab is talking to those who are really looking towards God. To them, he is saying, “Dheeraj dharo (Be patient).” And Kabir Sahab was only talking to those who are looking towards God – “Suno bhai sadho (Listen O seeker).”
He ensured that he was not talking to those who do not have sadhuta (Saintliness) in them. So he would always say, “Kahe Kabir suno bhai sadho (Says Kabir, listen O seeker).” He was not talking to those who had no interest in Godliness.
So he would say, “Sadho , wait. Sadho , now that you say that you want only God, do not become so quirky. Do not start stamping your feet like eager little kids wanting some sweets.”
God is such an immense reward that even if it takes you your entire life or forty lifetimes to get that reward, it is worth it. Invest those forty lifetimes. Do not deviate from the path.
So Kabir Sahab was talking to those who were already looking at the Truth, those who were already on the way. I am hardly talking to them. I am talking to the commoners.
And to them, I am saying, “Forget Truth. Truth anyway you have no concern or love for. Let’s talk about your immediate reality. Forget Truth, let’s talk about the world. Let’s talk about your practical day-to-day life. See that you are engrossed in trivia, see that you are all enmeshed in falseness, see that you have bought into false promises.”
“And having seen that what you are expecting and hoping will never materialize, now do not wait or stay a second longer. Drop what you have seen to be false. Do not be kind or liberal with it. Have no patience with falseness.”
So I am saying, “Have no patience with falseness”, Kabir Sahab is saying, “Have all patience with Truth.” We are addressing two different sets of audience.
Kabir Sahab is talking to the sadho , I am talking to you.
