By Akhandadhi Das
There's no way around it: Success in any field of endeavour requires hard work. That's the message from sociologist Malcolm Gladwell, who has been analysing the inordinate efforts of top entrepreneurs, sports stars and musicians. He cites the examples of Jonny Wilkinson, Tiger Woods and the Williams sisters. In all cases, success has not come easy.
There's the case of top violinist Maxim Vengerov, who has practised his instrument seven hours a day since he was four years old. Gladwell contends that it is this combination of natural talent and relentless training that has placed these personalities ahead of their peers.
The magic number seems to be 10,000 hours. If you want to succeed in whatever you are doing, you'll need to dedicate a minimum of three hours a day for at least ten years. Such focussed determination is encouraged in various Hindu texts - notably in the story of Arjuna, a warrior prince of the Mahabharat period. One day, Arjuna's teacher set up a stuffed bird in a tree. He asked his archery students to try to hit the bird's eye. Just as they took aim, he asked what they could see. Each one in turn replied, "I see the bird, the tree, my fellow students..." But, their teacher cut them off and ordered them to drop their bow. When Arjuna replied: "I see only the eye of the bird," his teacher said "you may shoot." And Arjuna's arrow smashed through the target.
It seems the Hindu texts agree with Gladwell that practice makes perfect. But, does this also extend to spiritual life? If spirituality is innate or the result of grace, do we need practice to develop it? Hinduism's view is that the discipline of daily meditation - attuning ourselves to the conversation with God within our hearts - helps to remove the cobwebs of fear, anxiety, longing and despair from our minds; allowing us to realise our spiritual potential.
So, will 10,000 hours of deep meditation guarantee success? The Bhagavad-gita simply says, "to those who are constantly devoted, God gives the understanding by which they can come to Him." Quality is as important as quantity. But, in the Gita, even Arjuna protested that developing such mental clarity was "more difficult than controlling the raging wind". However, Sri Krishna assured him that it was possible "by constant practice and detachment". "Those who are on this path," he said, "are single-minded in purpose. But, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched."
If Gladwell is telling us we shouldn't expect to excel at sport, music or business unless we really put our minds to it, I think we can accept that this will also be true of our spiritual life. Listen to it on BBC
Thought for the Day
