The secret to succeed

Patience


Taken from Amma's Wisdom

Amma was a patient woman. The meaning of patience for Amma meant that one has to be patient till any objective is achieved. She was clear that, merely being patient during the preparation process and losing it just before the completion of the task was an enormous waste of time and energy coupled with the sad feeling of having failed in the endeavor.

Her wisdom about  patience was a simple story she narrated many times about the  preparation of  a sweet called payasa. Preparation of payasa is an art and requires time to prepare since different ingredients, such as thin noodles, the cashew nuts, keshar-  a flavour, powdered cardamom and a few  more ingredients. Milk is boiled and condensed on a low but a constant temperature for hours. Some time half way through the process these ingredients have to be added and continue to be boiled a few more hours. One has to constantly stir the contents to avoid the milk getting unevenly boiled.

Thus payassa  (a south indian sweet) requires the right ingredients and the patience to make it a delicious sweet, full of aroma.

Amma would narrate this process and would tell us that 'see , in order to make payassa, it requires the skill to  prepare the ingredients and most importantly the patience to constantly monitor it during the preparation'. Unless one is involved in making payasa with concentration that there is a possibility that the milk will be partially burnt and the sweet will be unpalatable. Then she would tell us that,' see in preparing the payasa is an example of patience with involvement' however she would continue the story and say, 'before just finishing cooking the payassa,  if  you  get upset with something or some one ... in that moment of impulse if you a put a spoon of salt in it... imagine what will happen to the  payassa??  The  delicious sweet will become inedible and all the hard work, the preparation, the involvement and the patience will all be in vain...  Then she would tell us ' see the  most delicious sweet prepared by you  with such involvement and concentration could be spoiled in a moment by a spoon of salt.....then you can only feed your effortful dish to your kitchen dustbin!  She would be silent for just a couple of seconds and turn her attention to us and say 'see... patience is not about spending hours and hours working hard on something....but it is all about being patient until you have completed the task successfully... one last momentary lapse of patience will let the whole effort run down the drain in seconds...... so patience is all about keeping your focus and determination alongside your hard work and never to lose it until you have completed the task... otherwise all the best efforts will turn into failures instead of a turning into satisfying success'. 

Isn't what Amma said is true and simple- that 'patience' is explained in a very short story.... no elaborate sermons or lengthy explanations about patience......just a simple payassa story!

So until the objective is achieved, keep your restraint intact, lest one small impulse destroys an year's work.

Amma's simplicity spoke in her short stories and anecdotes, which would leave an impression on us and never have I forgotten about this story...... Whenever  an impulse or an  upsetting thought  appears in me when I am on a project ...  this story helps me to calm down and continue on the project without being distracted by the vagaries of situations, peoples' remarks or any other thing which distracts me from my chosen objective.  What a wonderful example that she gave about patience- simple in itself yet very profound and easy to follow. 

Note:Thanks for reading this story.
It will immensely help me in improving my writing, if you share your ideas and thoughts  and suggestions about the story and my writing. You may also suggest topics  for my writing. Please feel free to contact me on my email  for all your comments and suggestions:  

vdharmraj@ramaavenkatesh.com.