It is the gap between competence and expectations that makes our lives fulfilling or frustrating. Many people have very low competence, yet they also have very low expectations. They stay happy in their limited world. On the other hand, many people with high competence and high expectations. They keep struggling all through their lives to match their competence with their expectations. They continually work on improving their competence and set new targets for themselves. Some people develop very high expectations while not working on their competence in that proportion, and they remain frustrated for the whole of their lives. The people who have high competence and low expectations are always the most contented ones.
How do we develop competence, and how do expectations grow? The world is so full of attractions. The more we look outside, the more we develop expectations. The more one observes one's internal world, and more such expectations drop. The reverse applies to the competence. The more we are focused on the outer world, the less time we have to work on ourselves and the less competent we grow. The more we are focused on our inner world, the more time we have to work on ourselves, and the more competent we grow.
In the battle of Kurukshetra, we have many soldiers who fought the battle and were killed. None of us knows even their names. They had low capacity and low expectations. Their worldview was limited, and they remained happy in that limited world. On the other hand, there were warriors like Karna, Bhishma, Drona, Duryodhana, etc, who had huge expectations but also worked hard to build their capacity and became great warriors. They fought the battle of Kurukshetra and demonstrated their courage and capacity. Warriors like Ashwathama had low capacity but huge expectations, and that's why we see them frustrated and out of frustration, he did many things that history will never forget.
Krishna is different from all of them. He has no expectations from the battlefield. He is not worried, even about the curse from Gandhari that he will lose all his family members, and Dwarka will sink. Yet, he has an immense capacity. He is so aware that he knows the deepest of the secrets of all the warriors. He helps the Pandavas kill the warriors from the side of the Kauravas one by one. In fact, his biggest weapon is the Sudarshana Chakra, which means right observation. Why is Krishna so capable and yet devoid of any expectation? Because he knows the deep secrets of nature. He is aware that all the divisions exist in time and space, and it is consciousness that exists beyond all time and space. He knows that we are consciousness and not the form. That's why He tells Arjuna to focus on the action and leave the outcomes to Him. When we focus on the action at hand and take our do not bother about the results, there are no conflicts. Precious energy is not wasted in anticipating the results and resultant conflicts. We focus on the task at hand with full energy, and that focused effort develops our competence. In that state of awareness, we also realise that the outcomes do not matter. That helps us drop expectations and focus more on the task at hand. Krishna's life is a great example for us to take guidance from.
The world is full of temptations. Something or the other will keep attracting us. It may be the first position in the class, a good degree from a reputed college, a well-paid job, a highly respected assignment, winning over the heart of a girlfriend or boyfriend, marrying someone we like, settling the kids, providing the means of comforts to the children, earning money, gathering knowledge or becoming an emperor of this world. Pandavas have to undergo Vanavas and Ajyatvasa to develop that inner competence. Vanavasa, when we do that inner contemplation and sadhana. We withdraw from the outer world and focus more on what's happening inside so that we may fight our inner battle with courage. Ajyatvasa, when we drop the identities we have created since our childhood. Dropping of the old identities paves the way for capacity building in new areas. With this, we work on our inner strengths and get ready to fight our own battle of Kurukshetra.
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