Unfit for comfort

In a recent podcast, our Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi with entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath shared interesting things and learnings that he has had through years of experience of travelling around the world because of the nature of his work. The essence of life is how we shape our thinking based on different experiences that we have which enable us to perceive the world the way we do. One fascinating thing that caught attention from the dialogue was when the honourable PM shared that he goes by the motto – unfit for comfort. Now, as easy it may be to say these words, these have a deep profound meaning. This led me to think how someone at his age is so energetic, and relentless, to continue to move towards his mission and goals without taking long/prolonged rest.

It was inspiring to hear him, irrespective of his profession/beliefs, the factual thing is that he walks the talk. Personally, one gets in awe and inspired by people who are very driven, and work hard towards their goals with a good intent. Generating high level of energy can only be possible if one is passionate towards what they are doing. Doing something forcefully can take a toll on the body and mind and result in burnt out. It therefore becomes important to identify and figure out what can drive us and then get full fledge into it.

In our spiritual text Gita, Karma Yoga is an important section. It is a spiritual path of action that involves performing one’s duty without attachment to the outcome. There are many examples of people who are consistently at their peak of what they do daily. A lot of them deep down have somewhat perfected the art of staying detached with end outcome and hence can fully immerse themselves in the action.

There is energy that flows in the universe. Now the way we come to terms with this is that there is so much around us that we cannot comprehend. The force of energy is what differentiates a dead body from one that is alive. People who perform action in Karma Yoga which is all in with good intent, without thinking of fruits, in some way or the other gets aligned with the energies that are out there in larger cosmos, and these energies also take care of them.

Being mindful about things that give us pleasure – comfort, taste etc. is important. These can be taken occasionally, but we should not fall into these. Another example of a higher order disciplined person is Novak Djokovic, a professional tennis player. Novak is turning 38 this year, and he continues to train and compete with the youngest. With so many grand slams in his bag, he can easily take it easy, but he is in the pursuit of becoming a better version of himself everyday for as long as he can do professionally.

Novak has also shared that spirituality is a big component of his life and has helped him come this far. It is only when the mind is detached from the superficial layers of comfort and discomfort, when we can truly dig deep into our reserves that we have which help us to become better. It is sad that unlimited potential that we have as a human is a lot of times killed by us just because we want things the easy way. Let’s take a step – toward becoming unfit for comfort by taking up something that we are passionate about, and then genuinely working towards it in a disciplined manner!

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