Adaptability
It’s often said that a wise man adapts himself to circumstances as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it. What does that truly mean? What does the word adaptation imply in terms of spirituality and the journey of life? Is adaptation some sort of compromise on part of the individual who decides to somehow settle for something else when in his heart, he truly desires something that is completely different? Does our capability and willingness to adapt to a particular situation showcase our cowardice or our inability to truly strive for something that we desire? Today we find the answers to these questions and many that shall arise through this discussion.
Change is the law that governs life. As a man progresses through the varied stages of evolution through his life, he somehow starts to experience that many things that he holds close to his heart wither away with time. Eventually, he realizes that there is indeed nothing that truly stays with him; something that he can truly call as his own; something that is constant through all the change. Man on his part, gradually discovers that if he is to truly survive the changes that occur in his life, he has to adapt accordingly; he has to change with time and he has to fall in line to the new demands of his reformed life.
Adaptability is the naught but the degree of comfort and ease that a man can bear through the varied transitions that take place in his life. These transitions are necessarily not something that he truly desires; but in a way the changes are the result of his own desires. Such is the irony of life that the moment a man gets something that he knows he has desired for long; he loses all desire for that particular thing. Desire in itself is such a fickle sentiment that it changes through time; and every single moment that it does so, it brings with itself a new wave of change. That in a way answers the first question; when you adapt to a situation, are you settling for something that you never desired? NO, because the change itself is a product of your own desire; and the reason that you no longer feel happy about it is that maybe deep down, you never truly desired it.
Such is the irony of life. Spirituality teaches us to be aware of this irony so that in the end, we learn that change is a result of desire and thus desire in itself is the cause of inconsistency. Adaptability, thus is naught but the attribute that represents our determination to cope with the change and to work pro-actively to ensure that we derive success from it. So in no way does our adaptability showcase a weakness or cowardice. On the contrary it shows great strength of mind that enables us to rise to the occasion and prove our virtue in an environment that is entirely fresh.
Ultimately man has to realize that no matter how hard he tries to evade the change in his life; it is ultimately going to set in. Change is law that governs life; without change, there would be no life; for there would be no desire to justify our existence. Spirituality truly leads us towards this realization so that through the turmoil of change, we finally come to a place in our life, wherein our desires completely stand still and finally all that is left to life is peace and satisfaction. In the end, such result is only achievable if we learn to mould ourselves and adapt to the situation that surrounds us. This in a way ensures success in both the spiritual and mundane realms; an enviable balance that epitomizes the perfect life.
Amen 🙂
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Tags: adaptability, life, spirituality
admin | 
November 10, 2010 12:26 pm
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By manjusha, November 11, 2010 @ 11:28 am
very nice article. it has cleared many confusions. thak you very much
By admin, November 14, 2010 @ 12:23 pm
thanks.. it indeed did clear up a lot of confusions that i had myself hehe:)
By medha, November 12, 2010 @ 11:47 am
Again a good article! I think a person looses all his interest as soon as his desire is fulfilled because he keeps changing his perceptions every now & then.He desires for something which is normally out of his reach,or in other words we can say he doesn’t have the positive force that is required to fulfill the desire.The journey continues & in due course when the person has enough positive force,his long cherished dream is fulfilled but in the meantime ,in course of the journey the person dreams of something else,i.e. he changes his perception &now has a completely new desire.Thus the person ends up in loosing interest in what he gets or what he already has.
By Merrill, July 26, 2011 @ 10:21 pm
Change in life is always met with some resistance. But try to affect a change in spirituality and the heels did in a little deeper.
Thanks for pointing out what we all should have known all along. Change can, and often does mean growth.
– M
By Peni Gardner, September 6, 2011 @ 11:40 pm
“Change is the law that governs life. As a man progresses through the varied stages of evolution through his life, he somehow starts to experience that many things that he holds close to his heart wither away with time.”
True, and the only way for us to be successful and be truly happy is that we accept the changes thats happening in our lives.
By Millie, September 21, 2011 @ 8:17 pm
Years ago, a friend of mine reminded me the only constant in life was change. Prior to his comment, I frequently resisted change and resented having to “adapt to the vessel” so to speak. When I learned how to roll with the changes rather oppose them, life went more smoothly. Excellent post.