Browse Content
Life Worth Living is an initiative of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School.
Being Gentle with Oneself: A Hindu Perspective on Failure with Anantanand Rambachan
Anantanand Rambachan is Professor Emeritus of Religion at Saint Olaf College, Minnesota, USA (1985-2021).
Only by embracing our own frailty with honesty and love can we embrace others with the same grace.
Listen on
Meaning lies in the journey itself, not just in outcomes.
What should we do when we fail to live as we ought? Anantanand Rambachan reflects on failure, drawing on Hindu scripture and storytelling. Sharing the parable of an ant with a broken leg on pilgrimage, he explains that meaning lies in the journey itself, not just in outcomes. Citing the Bhagavad Gita, he emphasizes choosing right actions even when results are uncertain. For deeper failures of will, Rambachan calls for compassion: being gentle with oneself. Only by embracing our own frailty with honesty and love, he argues, can we embrace others with the same grace.
Highlights
- “It doesn’t matter. I am on the way. And that’s what is important. I am on the journey.”
- “We don’t have control over the outcomes of our actions, but we have control on the choice of the action.”
- “We should not measure success in any action only by its outcome.”
- “Being gentle with oneself. Being gentle with oneself.”
- “We often forget that, that compassion and, and love also to be extended to our own selves, as we extend to others.”
What should we do when we fail to live as we ought? Anantanand Rambachan reflects on failure, drawing on Hindu scripture and storytelling. Sharing the parable of an ant with a broken leg on pilgrimage, he explains that meaning lies in the journey itself, not just in outcomes. Citing the Bhagavad Gita, he emphasizes choosing right actions even when results are uncertain. For deeper failures of will, Rambachan calls for compassion: being gentle with oneself. Only by embracing our own frailty with honesty and love, he argues, can we embrace others with the same grace.
Highlights
- “It doesn’t matter. I am on the way. And that’s what is important. I am on the journey.”
- “We don’t have control over the outcomes of our actions, but we have control on the choice of the action.”
- “We should not measure success in any action only by its outcome.”
- “Being gentle with oneself. Being gentle with oneself.”
- “We often forget that, that compassion and, and love also to be extended to our own selves, as we extend to others.”
Failure as Part of the Journey
- Story of the ant with a broken leg on pilgrimage
- Meaning lies in being on the way, not in arriving
- “It doesn’t matter. I am on the way. And that’s what is important.”
Outcomes Versus Actions
- Bhagavad Gita teaching: we control actions, not outcomes
- “We don’t have control over the outcomes of our actions, but we have control on the choice of the action.”
- Success measured by faithfulness in action, not external results
Hope in Choosing the Good
- Even when outcomes fail, meaning remains in right choices
- “We should not measure success in any action only by its outcome.”
- True value lies in sincerity of engagement
Failures of Will
- Acknowledging wrong choices through reflection and honesty
- Learning from moments when will strays from what is right
Compassion Toward Self
- “Being gentle with oneself. Being gentle with oneself.”
- Extending love and compassion to oneself enables embracing others
- Integrity and honesty with one’s weaknesses rooted in divine love
Keep browsing
Join the LWL Community
