Question: What is the difference between patience and lack of aspiration?

Sri Chinmoy: Some people do something and then they wait for the result. A farmer sows the seed; then he waits for rain. After three months, four months, or six months, he gets the result. You study something and then you wait with patience to see if you passed the examination. Some people won't do anything, but they expect a result. That is a false way of utilising patience. Patience says, "I will do my part in the spiritual life and place the result at the Feet of the Supreme. Whether He gives me success or failure, is all up to Him."

In the ordinary life, unaspiring life, there is no action. If there is no action, there is no need for patience. It is only surrender to ignorance. When we don't aspire, there is only our conscious surrender to ignorance. We hope for something or expect something from the world, but how can we expect anything if we don't aspire? It is only stupidity. But when we do aspire, then we can expect a result, and the result will come either in the form of success or failure, according to God's Will.