Nothing Wasted

Reading through the Bhagavad-Gita, I looked for a quote that I felt could best be applied to almost anyone at one time or another. I came across the following quote and felt it was the most appropriate: “No effort in this world is lost or wasted; a fragment of sacred duty saves you from great fear” (2;40). Just through observation, it seems to me that a fear a large portion of the human population shares is that our work in the end is “lost or wasted.” That the effort we put into something doesn’t have the worth we intended, or even worse, it has no worth at all.

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to use my stanza in a conversation with one of my roommates. For the past few days she had been studying very hard for an upcoming exam, but the test results she received wasn’t aligned with her expectations. She told me of her disappointment considering all the work she put into studying, but she didn’t get the intended results. Here I was able to recite my quote, admittedly with some confusion on her part, but I was thankfully given the opportunity to explain. Yes, she worked hard in preparing for the exam, but just because she didn’t get quite what she wanted doesn’t mean that her work was useless. Quite the contrary, now that she is familiar with the testing format of the material, she is well prepared for the final exam, the original grade she received may not have been exemplary, but it was a definite testament to her knowledge of the topic. In no way was her effort towards studying wasted, but rather the admirable fact that she studied so diligently for the exam (fulfilling her “sacred duty” as a student), saves her from the fear that what she had done was not good enough.