Instant answers, streamlined work and immediate gratification - we have all been there and we have all wanted it.
The corollary is also happening to us - if the task exhausts us or if the daily grind just feels unnecessarily hard, we naturally assume that we are on the wrong path.
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A little ant carried a leaf that felt far too heavy, dropping it over and over on the dusty trail.
When a sudden rain shower flooded the dirt path, that same wide leaf became a tiny boat that kept the ant safe and dry.
In Sanskrit there is a Subhashita (a well-known saying):
यत्तदग्रे विषमिव परिणामेऽमृतोपमम्।
Yat tad agre viṣam iva pariṇāme ’mṛtopamam |
This means that "That which feels like poison in the beginning, turns to nectar in the end."
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When we sit down for a difficult task, or undertake rigorous work, or say no to compromises that feel ‘comfortable’, our mind usually resists it and our body rebels against the strain. Invariably our mind will try to convince us that dropping the ‘heavy load’ is for the good.
However discipline and hardship are fundamentally inverted in nature - the short term is like ‘poison’ as mentioned in the above Subhashita, but will always mature into ‘amruta’ - nectar.
So next time remember this:
Just as the heavy leaf carried by the ant became the very thing that saved it, the weight of discipline and hardship feels suffocating in the present, but in reality is preparing the ground to carry you tomorrow.
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